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As to the majority view, BOTH baptism of us by the Holy Spirit into Christ's death and resurrection AND baptism of us by Christ in the Holy Spirit are the norm.

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And it would be way too long to engage you in all those assumptive overstatements, like where you say that Paul shunned ceremony. Rediculous.

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1) PAUL certainly was THE APOSTLE of the Gospel, as the others abandoned the Gospel that was delivered to Paul.

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1) PAUL certainly was THE APOSTLE of the Gospel, as the others abandoned the Gospel that was delivered to Paul. Further, the Gospel which Paul preached, in the lands of the Gentiles, and brought to Jerusalem twice, was finally rejected by those in Jerusalem -- some of them even inciting the Zealots to persecute some Jewish believers who shared table with Gentiles.

While the Church did not begin with Paul. Again, it must be clearly and forcefully said, that he was THE APOSTLE of the Gospel. He was the Jeremiah who carried the Word after the "temple" was no longer authorative.

2) Mark and Luke were written by the Pauline camp. Luke traveled with Paul, and "signed" his "name" in a verse in Acts. Mark was designed to attempt to persuade key leaders in Jerusalem to recognize that Gospel preached by Paul as THE Gospel. Luke, after the fall of Jerusalem, was intended for Gentiles, and for Jewish believers--but no longer the leadership. Luke's Gospel was also in direct conflict with Josephus historical writings, each community could endanger the safety of the other as being recognized as THE inheritor of traditional Jewish religion -- and with it sole Roman protection.

3) Even Peter, once he came around, used Pauline terms and concepts to write about the Gospel in his Epistles.

4) Luke used The Epistle of Romans as his outline to write Acts. He drew prolifically from Paul's letters while writing both Luke and Acts.

5) If one had a time machine, the last thing one would do would be to go back to the Church in Jerusalem and argue that they should follow anything except the Gospel preached by Paul!

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Easy: Luke 6 -- the whole chapter.

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As we know from Galatians 2, it was only due to Paul's' vigorous intervention that the principle of one gospel for Jews and Gentiles alike (i.e., one that would not require Gentiles to become Jews) was accepted by the leadership of the early Christian church headquartered in Jerusalem. Acts recognizes this historical reality implicitly by first introducing Paul (ch. 9) and then presenting Peter as endorsing Paul's position. Subsequently, Peter finds himself preaching this very message to the Gentiles (chs. 10-12)

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As we know from Galatians 2, it was only due to Paul's' vigorous intervention that the principle of one gospel for Jews and Gentiles alike (i.e., one that would not require Gentiles to become Jews) was accepted by the leadership of the early Christian church headquartered in Jerusalem.

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Luk 6:43-46For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

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... if you reduce Acts 15 down to "observe food ordinances" then you have some cleaning up to do before you are even at square one.

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(p.242-243, on Acts 15:1-21)

Faced with the clear verdict of scripture, James in this story endorses Pauls gospel. The restrictions imposed on a believing Gentile—pollutions with idols, harlotry (unchastity), that which is strangled, blood (Acts 15:19-20, 29)—do not represent grudging or partial acceptance; they are all found in Paul's own letters. The first item mentioned in both lists concerns idols, and the noun eidolothyton (sacrifices to idols, v.29) is one used by Paul himself. 7 Actually, if one understands porneia (harlotry, unchastity) as referring to harlotry with other deities, as it does frequently in scripture, then all four restrictions are bound to this sin. This seems to be the intention since, in the first list, harlotry appears between references to idol worship. In that case, all restrictions are bound to the basic teaching of the Torah about the oneness of God. Such an interpretation is borne out by Luke's heading of "the conversion (epistrophen) of the Gentiles55 (v.3), for that is how Paul himself describes the conversion of the Gentiles: 'For they themselves report concerning us what a welcome we had among you, and how you turned (epestrepsate) to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come5 (IThess 1:9-10).

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The "clean up" I mean is the temporary laying aside of your personal tradition of looking at passages from the framework of a mid-Acts and Dispensational framework. You can pick it up again, later. But perhaps you will indulge by looking twice: once with and once without. ...

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Look at it from my side for a second: I hold to a view of scripture that is contrary to that of the vast majority of believers. I take very seriously the question, "What if I'm wrong?" So I frequently ask myself, "OK, let's say he/she is right, and that my whole framework is a human construct, let's see if this is better explained by his/her view." The question that I find equally poignant is this: "What if I'm right?"

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Acts 15
7And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: "Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, 9and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. 10Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? 11But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they."
12Then all the multitude kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul declaring how many miracles and wonders God had worked through them among the Gentiles.

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The restrictions imposed on a believing Gentile—pollutions with idols, harlotry (unchastity), that which is strangled, blood (Acts 15:19-20, 29)—do not represent grudging or partial acceptance; they are all found in Paul's own letters.
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Of course, but not because the message taught in Acts 15 is the same as what Paul taught in his letter. The discussion of similar topics, in this case, idolatry/harlotry, is to be expected in the writings of any contemporary of Paul concerned about the immoral climate in which they found themselves. That is to say, idolatry and religious harlotry were pervasive among the pagan cultures in which they wrote. This similarity does not suffice to equate James's teachings with Paul's.

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