Naked Bible Podcast Episode 009 Uploaded

This episode discusses another problem passage related to baptism: Acts 22:16.

In this episode, Dr. Michael Heiser analyzes Acts 22:16, where Paul recounts his conversion and is told by Ananias to “get up, be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name.” Heiser explains how Greek verb forms—particularly the middle voice and aorist participles—clarify that the passage does not teach baptism as the cause of forgiveness. Instead, all the actions—rising, being baptized, calling on the Lord, and sins being washed away—are grammatically linked and reflect a concurrent decision of faith. The key is the middle voice, which emphasizes the subject’s voluntary action—Paul himself calls on the Lord, and the resulting cleansing is tied to that personal faith, not the water. Baptism is thus portrayed as a faith-driven, volitional, and symbolic act, not a salvific ritual.