Baptism
Peter Said “Repent and Be Baptized.” Why Do So Many Explanations Remove the Baptism?
Examine Acts 2:38, forgiveness of sins, the word eis, and the response Peter gave on Pentecost.
The Crowd Asked a Question
Peter’s answer comes after his hearers ask what they must do.
Acts 2 presents people who have heard Peter preach Christ, are cut to the heart, and ask the apostles what they should do.
Peter does not answer with an abstract doctrinal formula. He gives a response: repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
The hearers ask what to do, and Peter answers with repentance and baptism.
For Forgiveness
The manuscript takes the phrase in its ordinary forward-looking sense.
The book focuses on the phrase translated “for the forgiveness of your sins.” It argues that the preposition eis points toward the stated result rather than backward to forgiveness already completed.
Don compares the construction with Matthew 26:28, where Jesus speaks of His blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins. The manuscript argues that the same wording cannot plausibly mean Christ shed His blood because sins had already been forgiven.
The manuscript compares the phrase “for forgiveness of sins” with Peter’s wording in Acts 2:38.
The Gospel Response
Acts 2:38 does not stand alone.
The manuscript connects Pentecost with other conversion accounts rather than building the argument on one preposition alone.
Saul is told to rise, be baptized, and wash away his sins while calling on the Lord’s name. The Ethiopian asks for baptism after hearing Christ. The jailer hears the word and is baptized. The Ephesians are baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Saul is told not to delay but to rise, be baptized, and wash away his sins while calling on the Lord.
After hearing the gospel, the Ethiopian asks what prevents him from being baptized.
Faith Is Still Central
The book does not treat baptism as a work that earns salvation.
A major concern in the manuscript is avoiding a false choice between grace and obedience. Don explicitly says that no meritorious work earns salvation.
Baptism is presented instead as faith responding to God’s command. Colossians describes baptism as burial and resurrection with Christ through faith in the working of God.
The baptized person is raised through faith in the working of God.
What Happened Next?
The people who received Peter’s word were baptized that day.
Acts does not leave Peter’s answer theoretical. Those who accepted the message were baptized, and the new community immediately began its life together.
The manuscript therefore reads the narrative and the command as one continuous event: preaching, conviction, repentance, baptism, forgiveness, and incorporation into the apostolic community.
Why the Verse Became Controversial
Later systems often begin with a doctrine and then reinterpret Peter’s answer.
Who Changed the Church? argues that disputes over Acts 2:38 frequently arise because interpreters approach the verse with a preexisting definition of salvation by faith alone.
Don’s method reverses that order. First determine what Peter told the original hearers. Then allow that apostolic proclamation to define what obedient faith looked like.
For the manuscript, the text comes first and the theological slogan comes afterward.
Why It Matters
The book reads Acts 2:38 straightforwardly: repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, with the promised gift of the Holy Spirit. It does not present baptism as a human achievement that earns grace. It presents baptism as part of the faith-response preached by the apostles. The wider question—whether Scripture can therefore say that baptism saves—is the subject of the next study.