Hi

This is my first thread. Hope everyone is good! I just wanted to ask about Mark 1 and see what you think.

In mark 1 it says

1The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
"BEHOLD, I SEND MY MESSENGER AHEAD OF YOU,
WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY;
3THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS,
'MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE LORD,
MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT.'"

4John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

My understanding of repentance in the greek is a change of ones mind and a hate of past evil. My understanding of forgivness in the greek is a pardoning of sin.

How could sins be forrgiven and sins be repented of when there had been no suffering, death and resurection of jesus yet?
The holy spirit had not yet been given yet either for a person to be born again and transformed?
How is it possible for John to preach this baptism of repentance when the only way of repenting was repenting by works, by following the law. There was no change of heart yet because there was no spirit to transform it?

Thank you for your time. I hope you will be able to answer some of my questions!

God bless

You will see that John the baptist was born with the holy spirit from his mother’s womb.

Luk 1:12 And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.
Luk 1:13 But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.
Luk 1:14 And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.
Luk 1:15 For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.

But Jesus was not born with the holy spirit from birth. John was selected by God to make and prepare the way before the arrival of Jesus. Jesus received the holy spirit from God at his baptism, which was done by John.

Mat 3:16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

Mar 1:10 And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him:

Luk 3:22 And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.

Joh 1:32 And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.

John is telling us here, that someone after him, will be coming soon, which will be a far and better way, which John could not bear. He was talking about Jesus.

Mat 3:11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

The Spirit of God (holy spirit) has been around right from the beginning of time. As you will see from Genesis.

Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

But, in the old testament the spirit of God (holy spirit) rested upon them, and was only given to certain people.

Num 11:25 And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease.

In the new testament, God sent Jesus to show us a better way, because the old way, was not working too well and people were still falling into sin and worshipping other gods and idols.

But today, when we receive the holy spirit from God, God's law is written into our hearts and minds and we are slowly guided into the truth.

So today, everyone can receive the spirit of God (holy spirit), not just certain people.

1Jn 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

Heb 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

1Jn 3:8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Rom 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

2 Timothy 2:15
"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." KJV

If you believe in dividing the word of God, you can look at in a dispensational way. In the Old Testament they got forgiveness of sins by animal sacrifices, then it seems to me that before Jesus presented forgiveness of sins by the Holy Spirit that John the Baptist was preaching about water baptism forgiveness.

Mark 1:7-8
7 "And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.
8 I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost." KJV

Know that all the Bible is "for" us, but not all of it is "to" us. Are we suppose to build an ark? Are we suppose to sacrifice animals? Do we get forgiveness of sins by water baptism? No. We are forgiven by believing in Jesus Christ and what He done for us.

God Bless

hi there these are interesting thoughts. What we have to remember in looking in the whole of the word of God is that salvation was always always always by faith not works. the NT makes it clear that no one could be saved by the law and that all have been saved by faith. we are also told in hebrews that the gospel was also preached in the wilderness to the israelites but it did not profit them because they did not mix it with belief.

we see very faithful people in the OT who were saved by faith and not at all by the law and those people believed and walked by daily faith in God and in the promises of the comming Messiah redeemer. abraham our father was saved and made rightous by faith not law, noah as well, and david is a good example because we can see david in a few cases even breaking the law because faith is higher than the law and he was walking by faith and dealing with God by faith not by the law. For instance David ate of the shew bread that was illegal in the law for him to eat of however he did it by faith and so it was not sin. Just because there was the law does not mean that is how anyone was to be saved then or now. the purpose of the law was that it had to be added because of wickedness and to show men there sin, showing them their bondage to sin so that they would seek and believe in the comming- and now here messiah. repentance is something that was preached by people in every book of the bible in one form or another. It is true that under the law, sins were only covered by animal sacrifices and now they are totally cleansed away in Jesus but the people could see what sin was, and repent of it in faith of God.

However when talking about the perfect timing of the comming of john, we know that he was only six months older than jesus and ministries didnt begin until thirty years old so he did not preach in the wilderness for toooo long before jesus began his ministry so john was preaching such a message to people who were very very shortly about to see the real messiah and begin to follow him. john and his message was also an example of end time prophesy. he was a sign, and example just as all in the bible are including jesus and the apostles. amen!