I believe we make many mistakes by reading the Bible as one book written to one particular group of people. It's not as if it was written with a Western mindset, and specifically for Western culture.
The truth is, the Bible we know took centuries to complete. It was written to various peoples who faced very specific theological and personal issues.
Even in the New Testament, the four synoptic gospels were written to different groups of people, with each writer emphasizing things specific to the intended audience.
In the same way, I am not so sure we can formulate a "plan" of salvation by piecing together different scriptures, written by different apostles, in different geographical locales, in different time periods.
Understand, for any salvation formula to be for all mankind it would need to be understood by all of those cultures, in all of those locales, over all of the New Testament generations. It would need to be presented with the same emphasis to all of these peoples.
It is assumed among Apostolics that this plan is found in
Acts 2:38. I am no longer so sure. Where, in any other portion of the New Testament, is this formula found?
There are many times, even in the Book of Acts, where people received the gospel, but were never told to be baptized or receive the Holy Ghost. In fact, there is no mention of anyone ever being
commanded receive the Holy Ghost. It is always referred to as a gift, promise or endowment.
Think about it.
In
Acts 3:19, after the lame man is healed, Peter is preaching to an entirely different audience, and says, "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord."
Someone's soul is on the line, and instead of Peter repeating the "formula" of
Acts 2:38, he tells them to repent? Where's the rest of the formula? It's not as if they had ever heard the formula before. Why did Peter exclude the other two steps?
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