1. Should we interpret the Scriptures in the light of our personal experiences?OR
Many interpret Mark 16:16 to mean that one is saved prior to being baptized because they feel that they were saved before they were baptized.
They feel this way because of their personal experience of being told they were saved before they were baptized.
They were told they would be saved in answer to prayer.
They prayed.
They were then told that they had been saved in answer to their prayer.
Should we interpret our personal experiences in the light of the Scriptures?

2. There Are Five Categories of Personal Experience
What we think
What we say
What we do
What is said to us
What is done to us
Every time I think, say or do something I have a personal experience.
Also, every time I have something said or done to me I have a personal experience.

3. There Are Five Categories of Personal Experience
What you say is known to everyone who hears you say it.
What you do is known to everyone who observes you doing it.
What you think is known only to you and God.
What you think is not as important as what God says.

4. Jeremiah 10:23
O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.

5. Isaiah 55:8-9
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts."

6. Matthew 21:23-27
Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, "By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?"
But Jesus answered and said to them, "I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things:
These are good questions but they were not asked with the proper attitude.

7. Matthew 21:23-27
"The baptism of John--where was it from? From heaven or from men?" And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe him?' But if we say, 'From men,' we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet." So they answered Jesus and said, "We do not know." And He said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
Either John’s baptism originated in God’s mind or it originated in John’s mind.

8. Acts 26:8-11
"Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead? Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities."
Paul was persecuting Christians because he interpreted OT scripture in the light of his personal experiences.

9. There Are Five Categories of Personal Experience
The only thing said to us that matters is what God says to us.

10. Titus 1:1-2
Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began,

11. Matthew 7:15
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves."

12. 2 Peter 2:1-3
But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.

13. There Are Five Categories of Personal Experience
The only thing said to us that matters is what God says to us.
The only thing done to us that matters is what God does to us.

14. 2 Timothy 3:8-12
Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.

15. 2 Timothy 3:8-12
But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra--what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

16. Matthew 16:13-14
When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

17. Matthew 16:15-17
He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

18. Matthew 16:18-19
And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."