The Project Gutenberg EBook of Water Baptism, by James H. Moon
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Title: Water Baptism
A Pagan and Jewish Rite but not Christian, Proven By
Scripture And History Confirmed By The Lives Of Saints Who
Were Never Baptized With Water
Author: James H. Moon
Release Date: December 4, 2005 [EBook #17222]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WATER BAPTISM ***
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Transcriber's Note: A number of typographical errors found in the
original text have been corrected in this version. A list of these
errors is found at the end of this book.
WATER BAPTISM
A PAGAN AND JEWISH RITE,
BUT NOT CHRISTIAN
PROVEN BY SCRIPTURE AND HISTORY
CONFIRMED BY THE LIVES OF SAINTS WHO
WERE NEVER BAPTIZED WITH WATER
JAMES H. MOON
FALLSINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA
Copyrighted, 1902
Press of
The Leeds & Biddle Co.
1019-21 Market Street
Philadelphia
"THE COMMISSION"
Did Christ command his disciples to baptize with water?
Let us search the New Testament and see what it says.
We find the four evangelists and Peter each render Christ's command to
his apostles in very different language.
Matthew's version[1] is generally adduced to support water baptism.
We cannot assume that in Matthew, our Saviour's words are quoted
verbatim, while Mark, Luke, John and Peter are all in error or less
reliable, particularly as this part of Matthew claims for itself to have
been written a long time after, as appears by the statement that "This
saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day."[2]
Seven different accounts of the "apostolic commission" are given in the
New Testament.[3]
Did not each of these writers express in his own language what he
understood to be Christ's command to his disciples and will not these
seven different records all agree in substance if genuine?
Let us seek that interpretation which harmonizes them all and not pin
our faith to the popular conception of one version alone.
We will turn first to the one only recorded allusion which our Saviour
ever made to water baptism.[4]
We here find that he commanded his apostles not to depart from
Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father which, said he, ye
have heard of me; for John truly baptised with water, but ye shall be
baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence.
Ye shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you, and ye
shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and
Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth.[5]
These are given as the last words of our Saviour before his ascension.
He speaks of John's baptism as the water baptism of the past, and of
Holy Spirit baptism as the baptism of the future. By this Holy Spirit
baptism his apostles are to receive power to become his witnesses to
the uttermost parts of the earth. There is nothing whatever which
implies a command to baptize with water. This whole context militates
against the belief that Christ ever gave such command.[6]
This version of the "apostolic commission" stands prominent and is
worthy of double consideration because it is sustained by the testimony
of Peter, [7] who remembered these words of our Lord, and quoted from
them as being fulfilled when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the
household of Cornelius as he preached.[8]
According to John's account of the commission, Christ said to his
apostles, "As my Father hath sent Me even so send I you," and we read
that He was sent to baptize with the Holy Spirit. Again, He commanded
them to feed his lambs and feed his sheep.[9]
John never intimates that they were sent to baptize with water.
Had Christ commanded his disciples to baptize all nations with water,
John would certainly have known it, and could not have failed to report
a command of such world-wide application, John's silence is further
evidence that no such command was given.
There can be no baptism in the commission other than the baptism of the
Holy Spirit according to John's record as we have it.
According to Luke[10]: Christ commanded his apostles to preach among all
nations repentance and remission of sin in his name, after they should
be endued with power from on high.
Luke does not mention baptism, only as power from on high. Nothing which
even suggests a command to baptize with water.
If such command was given Luke surely knew it. He tells us about
Christ's own baptism of the Holy Spirit and his command to preach among
all nations;[11] why does he not tell us about this command to baptize
these nations with water? Is it not plainly because there was no such
command?
According to foot-note in our revised version,[12] and other
authorities, the two oldest known copies of Mark's record omit the
twelve last verses, and another ancient manuscript, lately found, also
omits them and states that they were by Aristion the elder. As the
authenticity of the account of the commission in Mark's record is
questioned, we omit comment, altho' we see nothing to conflict with the
other six versions.
According to Matthew Christ commanded his disciples to go, teach all
nations, baptizing them (not _in_ the name, but) _into_ the
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.[13]
No water is mentioned. He commanded them to baptize into the Divinity,
not in water.
This harmonizes all the evangelists with both Peter and Paul.
If we reject this view and assume that in Matthew[14] water baptism is
intended to be understood, then we are compelled to believe that this
interpretation of Matthew, with its formula for baptism, was conceived
after the apostles' time; was unknown to them, and is a human conception
and not a correct rendering of the teachings of Jesus. Because with
water introduced, it stands alone and is out of harmony with the whole
of Christ's teachings upon other occasions, and because it conflicts
with all our other six versions of the commission; and because (as we
read), the apostles and first Christians never did baptize with the
formula prescribed in Matthew, which is conclusive evidence that to
their understandings Christ never commanded them to do so. And again,
because the apostles and first Christians did continue to baptize with
water, sometimes without formula but mostly in the name of Jesus Lord or
Christ. This they would not have done in defiance of Christ's command to
baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Upon these and
many other grounds we claim that Christ never did command his disciples
to baptize with water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
nor in any way whatever.[15]
According to Peter's account of the commission, Christ commanded his
apostles to preach to the people. He mentions no command to baptize.[16]
Peter did preach to the people and the Holy Spirit fell upon them as it
had fallen upon others of them in the beginning, at Pentecost.[17] Then
Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he said "John indeed baptized
with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
Here Peter [18] was made instrumental in baptizing with the Holy Spirit
through Gospel preaching, and he recognized this to be the same baptism
which his Lord [19] had promised should supercede John's water baptism
[20] and the same as that with which they were filled eight years
before, in the beginning at Pentecost, and the Pentecost baptism[21] he
said was that which the prophet Joel foretold should be poured out upon
all flesh; upon sons and daughters,[22] servants and handmaidens, and
that they should prophecy.
Can anything be plainer than that this Pentecost baptism[23] and that
the baptism which was poured out upon the household of Cornelius as
Peter preached[24], and the baptism which our Lord promised in the place
of John's water baptism and the baptism which Joel foretold should be
poured out upon all flesh are all one and the same baptism, and does it
not follow that this is the baptism of the commission, the one baptism
of the Gospel, and that this is Christian baptism and that there is no
water in it?[25]
Because Peter and others continued to baptize with water is no evidence
to the contrary. They continued their old Jewish customs generally. They
pronounced it necessary to abstain from certain meats. They insisted
that Paul should adhere to circumcision. They refused to eat with
Gentiles. With such Jewish proclivities how could they at once abandon
water baptism?[26]
Some evidently realized that John's water baptism had ended at
Pentecost, but they were not prepared to drop it entirely, so sought to
perpetuate it by repeating the words, "In the name of Jesus, Lord or
Christ." They claimed no divine authority for using this formula and the
disciples of water baptism in our day mostly discard it.[27]
Baptism with the formula, "In the name of the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit"[28] is not to be considered in connection with the apostles and
first Christians, as they never mention it and evidently never practised
it. Such formula was unknown at that time. It came in as an
afterthought; a human invention of later date.
The great diversity in the form of expression used by each of the
evangelists and Peter in defining Christ's commission to his apostles is
positive evidence that they understood him to prescribe no formula for
baptism and it is confirmation that no formula was given that they and
the first Christians for ages adhered to no one set form of words when
baptizing with water.
"In His name," as Christ is quoted by Luke, and in substance by Mark,
John and Peter, always implies in, into or with his Spirit or power, and
not a common given name which mortals may utter. In this name or power
Christ commanded his apostles to preach.[29]
"Into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit," as in Matthew[30]
alone Christ's command is interpreted, has the same implication and not
a mere name or formula which human lips may sound. To repeat these words
in connection with baptism is to substitute the voice of man for the
power of God.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: Mat. 28.19]
[Footnote 2: Mat. 28.15]
[Footnote 3: Mat. 28.19; Mark 16.15; Luke 24.47; Jon. 20.21; Acts 1.8;
Acts 10.42; 1 Cor. 1.17]
[Footnote 4: Acts 1.4, 5; Acts 11.16]
[Footnote 5: Acts 1.8]
[Footnote 6: Acts 1.5; Acts 11.16; Acts 1.8]
[Footnote 7: Acts 11.15, 16]
[Footnote 8: Acts 10.42, 45]
[Footnote 9: Jon. 20.21; Jon. 1.33; Jon. 21.15, 17]
[Footnote 10: Luke 24.47, 49]
[Footnote 11: Luke 3.16; Luke 24.47, 49]
[Footnote 12: Mark 16.9, 20]
[Footnote 13: Mat. 28.19 R.v.]
[Footnote 14: Mat. 28.19]
[Footnote 15: Mat. 28.19; Acts 8.12, 13; Acts 8.38; Acts 9.18; Acts
16.15, 33; Acts 18.8, 25; Acts 2.38; Acts 8.16; Acts 10.48; Acts 19.5]
[Footnote 16: Acts 10.42]
[Footnote 17: Acts 11.15; Acts 10.44; Acts 11.16]
[Footnote 18: Acts 10.44]
[Footnote 19: Acts 11.16]
[Footnote 20: Acts 2.4]
[Footnote 21: Acts 2.16]
[Footnote 22: Joel 2.28]
[Footnote 23: Acts 2.4]
[Footnote 24: Acts 10.44, 45]
[Footnote 25: Acts 1.5; Acts 10.16; Acts 2.16, 18; Joel 2.28]
[Footnote 26: Acts 15.28, 29; Acts 21.21, 24; Acts 11.2, 3; Gal. 2.12,
14]
[Footnote 27: Acts 2.38; Acts 8.16; Acts 10.48; Acts 19.5]
[Footnote 28: Mat. 28.19]
[Footnote 29: Luke 24.47; Mark 16.17; Jon. 16.23; Acts 10.43]
[Footnote 30: Mat. 28.19 R.v.]
PAUL'S "COMMISSION."
Paul said of his own commission: "Christ send me not to baptize but to
preach the gospel" and that "the gospel is the power of God unto
salvation to all who believe."[31]
Paul's commission was essentially the same as that given to other
apostles to preach among all nations repentance and remission of sin in
his name with power from on high; for there can be no salvation without
repentance and remission of sin.[32]
Had our Saviour ordained water baptism to the end of the world the four
evangelists would certainly have all known it and would have testified
to it as they and Peter all bear testimony to Christ's own baptism of
the Holy Spirit. Paul would have known it and would not have denied it.
Peter would not have said "Christ commanded us to preach to the people"
without making any allusion to water baptism.[33]
That Peter should say Christ commanded his apostles to preach to the
people and never at any time intimated that he commanded them to baptize
with water, certainly suggests that no such command was given and that
the present popular conception of the apostolic commission has
originated since Peter's time and is a human invention and has no divine
authority.
Neither the apostles nor first Christians could have understood that
Christ commanded them to baptize with water nor that he prescribed any
formula therefor, otherwise they would have used this formula and have
referred to this command as authority for their subsequent water
baptism. But so far as Scripture informs, no one in those early days
ever did baptize with water in the name of "The Father, Son and Holy
Spirit," nor ever heard of such formula.
Sometimes they baptized in the name Jesus, Lord or Christ, but never one
word about the Father nor the Holy Spirit.[34]
Some baptized without formula, or if they did use formula it was not
considered of sufficient importance to mention.[35]
They baptized with water before Christ gave them their commission, and
continued to baptize in the same way after, which is another proof that
their authority for water baptism did not originate in Christ's
command.[36] Nearly thirty years after Christ, some believers who were
fervent in Spirit and instructed in the ways of the Lord, continued to
baptize with John's baptism and we don't know how much longer it
continued.[37]
When was Christ's command first quoted as authority for water baptism?
Not in apostolic times, not until long after.
When did man first presume to baptize with water, in the name of the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
Some of our oldest writings[38] indicate the use of this formula in some
places, probably in the early part or middle of the second century. Yet,
Schaff, who was familiar with all these old records, says this formula
is not traceable in its present shape earlier than the fourth century.
Evidently the apostles and first Christians continued to baptize with
water, because it was a conspicuous feature in the special mission of
John the Baptist as well as a Jewish rite in which they and their
fathers were educated. They had no thought of Christ's command as
authority for water baptism.
Paul said plainly that he had no such authority. Christ sent him not to
baptize but to preach the Gospel.[39]
Paul thanked God that he had baptized so few.[40] He could not have
spoken thus slightly of Christian baptism. It must have dawned upon him
that in the fulness of the Christian dispensation there was no place for
water baptism; otherwise how could he thank God that he had baptized so
few? What dispenser of water baptism could give such thanks in this day?
Paul circumcised Timothy, and perhaps Titus, because of the Jews. Did he
not baptize those few with water for the same pacific purpose, or did he
not at first receive full light upon this subject?[41]
Some assume that Christ gave others authority to baptize which did not
extend to Paul.
We cannot believe that all Christ's ministers to the end of the world
were commissioned to baptize with water, Paul only rejected.[42] This
reflects unjustly upon Paul, the great apostle to us Gentiles.[43] Is it
not a mere evasion of the gospel truth here and elsewhere inculcated,
that Christ gave no commission to baptize with water?[44]
John the Baptist was sent or commissioned to baptize with water and the
Holy Spirit once descended as John baptized with water.[45]
The apostles were commissioned to go preach the Gospel after they should
be endued with power from on high.[46]
We read that the Holy Spirit descended as the apostles preached the
Gospel. [47] Neither the apostles nor disciples were ever commissioned
to baptize with water; and so far as we read, the Holy Spirit never
descended as they did baptize with water.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 31: 1 Cor. 1.17; Acts 13.47; Rom. 1.16]
[Footnote 32: Luke 24.47; Luke 24.49]
[Footnote 33: Mat. 28.19; Mat. 3.11; Mark 1.8; Luke 3.16; Jon. 1.26, 33;
Acts 11.16; 1 Cor. 1.17; Acts 10.42]
[Footnote 34: Acts 2.38; Acts 8.16; Acts 10.48; Acts 19.5; Acts 8.12,
13]
[Footnote 35: Acts 8.38; Acts 9.18; Acts 18.8, 25; Acts 16.15, 33]
[Footnote 36: Jon. 4.2]
[Footnote 37: Acts 18.25; Acts 19.3, 5]
[Footnote 38: "The Ante-Nicene Fathers"; "The teachings of the twelve
Apostles"; Ecclesiastical History Vol. 1, P. 164]
[Footnote 39: 1 Cor. 1.17]
[Footnote 40: 1 Cor. 1.14]
[Footnote 41: Acts 16.3; Gal. 2.3, 5; 1 Cor. 1.14]
[Footnote 42: 1 Tim. 2.7]
[Footnote 43: 2 Tim. 1.11]
[Footnote 44: 1 Cor. 1.17]
[Footnote 45: Jon. 1.33; Mark 1.10; Luke 3.22]
[Footnote 46: Luke 24.47, 49; Acts 1.4, 8; Acts 10.42, 45; Acts 11.15,
16]
[Footnote 47: 1 Cor. 2.4; 1 Thes. 1.5; 1 Peter 1.12]
WATER BAPTISM IN HISTORY AS A PAGAN AND JEWISH RITE.
From the writings of Grotius we gather that some ancients baptized with
water in memory of the world being saved from the waters of the deluge.
Bancroft says: It is related by all the old Spanish historians that when
the Spaniards first visited Yucatan they found baptism administered to
both sexes between the ages of three and twelve: It was the duty of all
to have their children baptized, for by this ablution they believed they
received a purer nature and were protected against evil spirits and
misfortune. None could marry without it.[48]
Some baptised their children with ceremonies, which in many points
resembled those in use among Christians.[49]
Smith in his Bible dictionary[50] says: It is well known that ablution
or bathing was common in most ancient nations as a preparation for
prayers and sacrifice or as expiatory of sin.
There is a natural connection in the mind between the thought of
physical and spiritual pollution. In warm countries this connection is
probably closer than in colder climates; hence the frequency of ablution
in the religious rites of the East.
The history of Israel and the law of Moses abound with such lustrations.
The consecration of the high priest deserves special notice. It was
first by baptism then by unction and lastly by sacrifice.
From the gospel history[51] we learn that at that time ceremonial
washings had been greatly multiplied by traditions of the doctors and
elders. The most important and probably one of the oldest of these
traditional customs was the baptism of proselytes.
These usages of the Jews will account for the readiness with which all
men flocked to the baptism of John the Baptist.[52]
Schürer in his history of the Jewish people[53] devotes several pages to
giving reasons for believing that the Jews baptized proselytes long
before the coming of Christ.
Dean Stanley says baptism is inherited from Judaism.[54]
Many other good authorities might be quoted to support the belief that
water baptism and other ordinances were greatly multiplied among many
Jews during the last few hundred years before Christ. There are no
Scripture writings which cover this period.
Tylor says: The rites of lustration which hold their places within the
pale of Christianity are in well marked connection with Jewish and
Gentile ritual.[55]
Baptism by water, the symbol of the initiation of the convert, history
traces from the Jewish rite to that of John the Baptist and thence to
the Christian ordinance.
As we understand, the Christian ordinance here referred to by Tylor, is
traceable through many modifications back to those carnal ordinances,
those weak and beggarly elements, which Paul says were imposed until the
time of reformation.[56] It has no authority from Christ and is
therefore not Christian baptism.
As we read: Pagans of old baptized the face. Under the law of Moses the
hands were baptized. John the Baptist baptized the whole body. Our
Saviour baptized the feet.[57] Now Christians complete the cycle and
again as of old baptize the face.
Some early Christians deferred water baptism to middle life or old age
and many were never so baptized. Now Christians insist upon infant
baptism.
Some early Christian said: If only one finger remains above water the
baptism is not valid. Now Christians say: "A few drops of water are as
good as a river."
What shall we say? Wisdom answers. Let us hold to what Christ says:
"John indeed baptized with water but ye shall be baptized with the Holy
Spirit."[58]
We learn from the Brahmins on the Ganges, and the dwellers by the Nile
and from explorers all around the world that water baptism was
administered as an ancient religious rite among many so called heathen
nations when first discovered.
Some we read baptized to appease the wrath of the Gods and to expiate
sin.
Some Christians now claim that by water baptism a child of wrath becomes
a child of Grace and sins are washed away.
The similarity of these two ideas, one Pagan and the other Christian,
suggests a common origin far back in the ages before man learned that
God is love and that Jesus likened the Kingdom of Heaven to little
children without baptism.[59]
Augustine who, in the fifth century, formulated from previously
conceived theories the dogma of original sin and baptismal regeneration,
was himself educated a Pagan and was well versed in that culture, and it
impressed itself upon his writings and the church which adopted
them.[60]
The little children which Jesus took in his arms and blessed and to whom
he compared the heavenly kingdom were Jews, and Jews did not baptize
their children.[61]
That, same loving Jesus, who blessed those children in Judea, we do
believe now blesses our little ones and is watching over them for good
and that to these also the heavenly kingdom is compared. To His tender
care and keeping we reverently commit ourselves and them, and we do feel
that for us it would be sinful to distrust this loving Saviour and turn
to man for carnal baptism.
Justin Martyr, a prominent Christian writer of the second century said
to Typho (a Jew)[62]: "John was a prophet among your nation after which
no other appeared among you. He cried as he sat by the River Jordan: I
baptize you with water to repentance but he that is stronger than I
shall come whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you
with the Holy Spirit and with fire."
In all the scriptures from Genesis to Revelations we find no intimation
of any other Christian baptism, only this one baptism of the Holy
Spirit.
Feet washing was administered by Christ [63] and impressively commended
to his disciples but it is plainly not the one baptism of the gospel.
From time immemorial some Pagans all around the world baptized with
water.
By the law given through Moses the Jews baptized with water.[64]
John the Baptist was sent to baptize Jews with water.[65] But no one was
sent to Baptize us Gentiles with water. God sent his son to baptize us
with the Holy Spirit. All flesh, Jews and Gentiles, are objects of this
one baptism.[66]
This is the one baptism of the Gospel and we know of no other.[67]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 48: Bancroft's Native Races; Vol. 2, P. 260; Vol. 2, P. 269;
Vol. 2, P. 282]
[Footnote 49: Vol. 3, P. 370]
[Footnote 50: Under Baptism]
[Footnote 51: Mat. 15.2, 3; Mark 7.5, 9]
[Footnote 52: Mat. 3.5, 6]
[Footnote 53: The Jewish People in the time of Christ Vol. 2, P. 320]
[Footnote 54: Christian Institutions P. 6]
[Footnote 55: Primitive Culture by Tylor Vol. 2, P. 440; Vol. 2, P. 441]
[Footnote 56: Heb. 9.10; Gal. 4.9]
[Footnote 57: Jon. 13.4, 17]
[Footnote 58: Acts 1.5; Acts 11.16]
[Footnote 59: Epistle of Jon. 4.8, 16; Mat. 18.2, 4; Mark 10.13, 16;
Luke 18.16]
[Footnote 60: Britanica]
[Footnote 61: Mark 10.13, 16; Luke 18.16]
[Footnote 62: Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 1, P. 219]
[Footnote 63: Jon. 13.1, 15]
[Footnote 64: Exodus 29.4, 40.12]
[Footnote 65: Leviticus 8.4, 6; Jon. 1.31, 33]
[Footnote 66: Jon. 1.33, 34; Acts 2.17, 18; Acts 10.45; Acts 11.15, 16]
[Footnote 67: Joel 2.28]
JOHN'S BAPTISM.
John the Baptist was sent before Christ to prepare the way before
him.[68]
John was a prophet of dispensation previous to Christ.[69] He was in the
desert until the time of his showing unto Israel.[70] In the vision he
was with Moses on the Mount and they talked with Jesus.[71] He with
Moses vanished and left Jesus alone.[72]
John said: That he (Jesus) should be manifest unto Israel, therefore am
I come baptizing with water.[73] John defines his commission as only to
Israel (the Jews). His baptism was adapted to Jews only and not to us,
who according to Jewish classification are Gentiles. Evidently John
baptised Jews only and no Gentiles.
It was unlawful for Jews to keep company or come unto Gentiles and there
is no intimation that John ignored this Jewish law.[74]
The woman of Samaria wondered that Jesus (a Jew) asked water of her, a
Samaritan, for Jews had no dealings with Samaritans.[75]
Even in apostolic times we have no record that any full Gentile was
baptized with water; nor that any one born of Christian parents was so
baptized.
Cruden says: Naaman, Cornelius and the Eunuch were all proselytes of the
gate and not full Gentiles.[76]
The Samaritans were a mixed race who observed the law of Moses. They
also were Jewish proselytes and not full Gentiles.[77] When the Jews
numbered the people they did not count the Gentiles. So all Jerusalem
and Judea whom John baptized would not include the few Gentiles who
lived among the Jews.[78]
The freedom with which the Jews followed John to the Jordan indicates
that they were previously familiar with water baptism.[79]
But few of that great multitude whom John baptized appear to have become
the disciples of Christ.
John said: "There cometh one after me mightier than I, whose shoe
latchets I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have
baptized you with water but he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
And again: "He must increase but I must decrease."[80]
Christ said: "John truly baptized with water but ye shall be baptized
with the Holy Spirit." Peter quoted this saying of our Lord and
recognized this Holy Spirit baptism to be the same as that which the
prophet Joel foretold should be poured out upon all flesh, upon sons and
daughters, servants and handmaidens.[81]
Two baptisms are here contrasted by John, Christ and Peter. Baptism of
water must decrease with John and Judaism. Baptism of Spirit must
increase with Christ and Christianity.
To whom can we turn with more confidence for knowledge about all
baptisms ordained or intended for us than unto John the Baptist whom we
are told was sent to administer one baptism, and unto Christ who was the
author of another baptism?[82]
Three times in eight verses John says his baptism is of water, thus
distinguishing it from Christ's baptism without water.[83]
They are both quoted as testifying to two dissimilar and distinct
baptisms administered at different times, one with water and the other
without.
Neither of them intimates that these two baptisms shall ever be united,
but they do both plainly intimate that they shall not be united, and
that the first shall pass away and the second remain, and no other be
introduced.[84]
John says: He (Christ) shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit; but John
never says that he nor anyone else shall ever baptize you with
water.[85]
Christ says: Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit,[86] but he
nowhere even intimates that we shall ever be baptized with water, nor
does he ever mention water baptism but once, and this was with his last
words when he introduced his own baptism of the Holy Spirit as its
immediate successor.[87]
As Peter interprets the Prophet Joel: All flesh, sons and daughters
shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit; but Joel never prophesied that
they should be baptized with water.[88]
If in these gospel days we were to have been baptized with water, would
not Joel have prophesied of water as well as of Spirit? [89] Would not
our Saviour at some time have intimated that water baptism should be
continued and have given some instructions about it? And would he not
have baptized his apostles in this way? Would John when teaching that
great multitude of Jews on the banks of the Jordan have impressed upon
them that water baptism was only transient and that they would all need
to be baptized again with the Holy Spirit?[90]
John baptized his disciples with water.[91] Christ called to his
disciples, "Follow Me."[92] Christ did not baptize with water.[93] He is
calling to-day, "Follow Me."[94] The apostle John says: Jesus tarried
with his disciples in Judea and baptized; tho' Jesus baptized not but
his disciples.[95]
Jesus here sanctioned water baptism by his presence for a short time and
then departed,[96] but he never baptized with water himself, nor
directed others to do so, nor gave any instructions about it.
He likewise sanctioned circumcision, and the law of Moses generally.[97]
It was observed all around him and he did not object. He sent the
cleansed leper to the Jewish priest to offer for his cleansing as Moses
commanded.[98]
This offering which Moses commanded was two birds and cedar wood and
three lambs without blemish, &c.[99]
Shall all cleansed lepers of our day do as this one was commanded? Shall
we keep the law of Moses, circumcise our children and baptize with
water, because Jesus sanctioned it in Judea?
Jesus, his disciples and the Judeans were all Jews and this was under
the law before Christian baptism had superceded water baptism at
Pentecost. Of course they baptized with water, circumcised the flesh and
kept the law of Moses; but this is no precedent for us whether Jews or
Gentiles in these gospel days; since the Holy Spirit is poured out upon
all flesh in all the fulness we are able to bear.
Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, saying "_Suffer it to be so now_,"
[100] thus indicating that it should not be so always.[101] He was also
circumcised, and in after life confirmed his early circumcision by
fulfilling and not destroying the law and the prophets,[102] and by
sending the cleansed leper to offer as Moses commanded, and by sending
his apostles before Pentecost to preach to Israel (the circumcised) but
not to Gentiles (the uncircumcised) until the son of man be come.[103]
He here recognized the covenant of circumcision[104] which God gave to
Abraham and that it was not yet fulfilled.[105] He virtually said of
circumcision the same that he had previously said of water baptism,
"Suffer it to be so now." But we find no manifestation of his will that
we should continue to observe the covenants and customs of that
dispensation of which water baptism was one; and he never made any
distinction whatever in favor of it but with his last words introduced
his own baptism of the Holy Spirit as its immediate successor.[106]
Jesus exclaimed upon the cross: "It is finished," and the law and the
prophets were fulfilled.[107]
He opened to us a more excellent way under his own glorious gospel
dispensation of which that of Moses was a shadow.[108] He took away the
first covenant that he might establish the second.[109] He purchased our
redemption by his blood shed on Calvary. He died and was buried, he
arose and ascended. Angels said to his disciples: Why stand ye gazing
up into Heaven?[110] This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye
have seen him go into Heaven.
The disciples returned to Jerusalem and tarried there as Jesus had
previously commanded them. Upon the day of Pentecost he came again as
the angels had said and as he had often promised his apostles and
disciples.[111]
He came as the comforter, the Holy Spirit to teach us all things and to
abide with us forever.[112]
By this one spirit are we now all baptized into one body, Jews and
Gentiles, Bond and Free, male and female, all one in Christ Jesus.[113]
All flesh, sons and daughters, servants and handmaidens, old and young.
By no other baptism can we all be baptized into one body. Water baptism
diverts from this, one baptism into one body.
Farrar says: "That this first Pentecost marked an eternal moment in the
history of mankind no reader of history will surely deny. Undoubtedly in
every age since then the sons of God have to an extent, unknown before,
been taught by the Spirit of God; undoubtedly since then to an extent
unrealized before we may know that the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in us.
Undoubtedly we may enjoy a nearer sense of union with God in Christ than
was accorded to the saints of the old dispensation and a thankful
certainty that we see the days which kings and prophets desired to see
and did not see them, and hear the truths which they desired to hear and
did not hear them, and that this new dispensation began henceforth in
all its fulness."[114]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 68: Mark 1.2; Luke 3.4]
[Footnote 69: Luke 7.27; Jon. 3.28; Mat. 17.1, 8]
[Footnote 70: Mark 9.4, 8; Jon. 1.31]
[Footnote 71: Luke 1.80; Mat. 17.1, 8]
[Footnote 72: Mark 9.2, 8; Luke 9.28, 36]
[Footnote 73: Jon. 1.31]
[Footnote 74: Acts 10.28]
[Footnote 75: Jon. 4.9]
[Footnote 76: Concordance under Proselyte]
[Footnote 77: Britanica]
[Footnote 78: Mat. 3.5]
[Footnote 79: Mat. 3.5, 6]
[Footnote 80: Mark 1.7; Mark 1.8; Jon. 1.26, 33; Jon. 3.30]
[Footnote 81: Acts 1.5; Acts 11.16; Acts 11.16; Acts 2.16, 18; Joel 2.8]
[Footnote 82: Jon. 1.6, 34; Mark 1.8; Acts 1.4, 5; Acts 11.16]
[Footnote 83: Jon. 1.26, 33]
[Footnote 84: Acts 1.4, 5; Acts 11.16; Jon. 3.30]
[Footnote 85: Jon. 1.33]
[Footnote 86: Acts 1.5; Acts 11.16]
[Footnote 87: Acts 1.5; Acts 11.16]
[Footnote 88: Acts 2.16, 18; Joel 2.28, 29]
[Footnote 89: Acts 2.16, 18; Joel 2.28, 29]
[Footnote 90: Mat. 3.11; Mark 1.8; Luke 3.16; Jon. 1.26, 33]
[Footnote 91: Mark 1.4, 5]
[Footnote 92: Mat. 4.19; Mat. 9.9]
[Footnote 93: Jon 4.2]
[Footnote 94: Mark 2.14; Luke 5.27]
[Footnote 95: Jon. 3.22; Jon. 4.2]
[Footnote 96: Jon. 3.22; Jon. 4.2, 3]
[Footnote 97: Jon. 7.22, 23; Luke 2.21, 24]
[Footnote 98: Luke 5.14]
[Footnote 99: Leviticus 14]
[Footnote 100: Mat. 3.15]
[Footnote 101: Luke 2.21]
[Footnote 102: Mat. 5.17; Luke 5.14]
[Footnote 103: Mat. 10.5; Mat. 10.23]
[Footnote 104: Acts 7.8]
[Footnote 105: Mat. 3.15]
[Footnote 106: Acts 1.5; Acts 11.16]
[Footnote 107: Jon. 19.30]
[Footnote 108: 1 Cor. 12.31; Col. 2.14, 17]
[Footnote 109: Heb. 10.1, 9; Heb. 9.13, 28; Heb. 9.12]
[Footnote 110: Acts 1.11]
[Footnote 111: Acts 1.12; Acts 1.4; Acts 24.49; Acts 2.1, 18; Jon.
16.16, 22]
[Footnote 112: Jon. 14.16, 21]
[Footnote 113: 1 Cor. 12.13; Gal. 3.28; Acts 2.16, 18]
[Footnote 114: Life of St. Paul P. 52]
WATER BAPTISM AND CHRISTIAN BAPTISM
Water is not to be understood whenever baptism is named; neither is
baptism to be understood whenever water is named. There are many
baptisms without water mentioned in Scripture and elsewhere.
The four evangelists and Peter each define two different and distinct
baptisms following closely after each other. First John's baptism of
water, then Christ's baptism of the Holy Spirit. Our Saviour also
testified to these two independent baptisms but to no other baptism as
the result or successor of these two. He speaks of one as past and of
the other as yet to come.[115]
Many years later, Paul said there was only one baptism; one Lord, one
faith, one baptism.[116]
One of these two baptisms which Christ and all the evangelists tell us
about must have ended before Paul wrote. Which baptism had ended? Which
remains? Can any Christian doubt which baptism remains to us? Christ's
death, resurrection, ascension and return at Pentecost had all
intervened between the time when John told the Jews of two baptisms and
the time when Paul claimed there was but one. During this time Christ
had blotted out ordinances and nailed them to his cross. He made no
reservation 3 of water baptism. It went with the rest.[117]
Christian baptism came in fullness; water baptism ended.
Near the close of Peter's ministry he said: The baptism which now saves
is not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good
conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.[118]
Putting away the filth of the flesh evidently here refers to Jewish
purification by water baptism. Peter says this is not the baptism which
now saves. The baptism which now saves is the answer of a good
conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.[119]
This answer of a good conscience toward God can refer to no other
baptism than that of the Holy Spirit which Jesus said was the promise of
the Father to follow or supercede John's water baptism.[120] It is also
called the gift of the Holy Spirit, and being filled with the Holy
Spirit. And again it is called the earnest of the Spirit. This is the
baptism which Peter recognized as that which was foretold by the prophet
Joel: In the last days saith God I will pour out my Spirit upon all
flesh, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. On my servants and
on my handmaidens will I pour out of my Spirit and they shall
prophecy.[121]
These are the Gospel days in which we now live. This is the one baptism
ordained to remain.
Churchmen say: Burial with Christ in baptism (Rom. 6-2) is figurative,
a mortification of our lusts; not a literal burial in water.[122]
We heartily accept this church teaching and suggest that baptism into
Christ and crucifixion with Christ are no more literal.[123]
We see no more water about baptism into Christ than we see wood in the
cross upon which all Christ's children must be crucified.[124]
Church catechism teaches that "baptism is generally necessary to
salvation." As an apology for introducing this extrinsic word
"generally," they say the thief upon the cross was evidently saved
without baptism.[125]
As we understand this is all contrary to Scripture teaching, one error
calls for another and the catechism leads astray. There is no
"generally" about Christ's teaching. He said positively, Ye shall be
baptized with the Holy Spirit; and again he said, Ye must be born again.
Without this new birth and baptism we see no hope of salvation.[126]
The thief was evidently baptized upon the cross with this saving baptism
and was born again without water, and was thus prepared for the paradise
which Jesus promised him. He experienced repentance, forgiveness and
remission of sin.[127]
Simon the Sorcerer was baptized presumably with water; was he born
again? We are told that he remained in the gall of bitterness and bond
of iniquity and that his heart was not right in the sight of God.[128]
Altho' apostles baptized Simon with water he was evidently not born
again. Altho' admittedly not baptized with water the repentant thief was
born again.[129]
Paul said, as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on
Christ.[130]
Had Simon put on Christ, his heart would have been right in the sight of
God, not in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity.
According to Paul's teaching, Simon was not baptized into Christ; but
the repentant thief was baptized into Christ and put on Christ.
The bond of iniquity in which water baptism left Simon bound is a poor
recommendation to the rite. Has it improved since that early day, or is
the gall of bitterness less pungent, or has the sight of God become
dimmed?[131]
The New Testament makes no connection between new birth and water
baptism.
Baptism, not of water, but of the Holy Spirit, makes the heart right. By
resisting this baptism we fail to be baptized into Christ.[132] By
yielding to this baptism we become our Saviour's new born children,
baptized into Christ and buried with him in baptism.[133] This baptism
is freely offered to every son and daughter of Adam.
Those of every land who never saw the Scriptures nor ever heard of Jesus
with outward ear may be baptized with this saving baptism and be born
again without instrumentality.[134]
There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God.[135] Our
Saviour left us not dependent on book, man or water for salvation. His
love is universal and unbounded; he tasted death for every man.[136]
This is the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after
those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws in their minds, and in
their hearts will I write them.[137]
Paul says, "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to
all men." This does not imply that this grace has appeared to all men in
the same way and fulness, but it does imply that it appears to every
conscience with sufficient fulness to bring salvation if listened to and
obeyed.[138]
He now stands at every door and knocks; if we open the door he will come
in and sup with us.[139] If we love him he will abide with us; but we
must heed his gentle knocks, his still, small voice, and open the
door.[140]
Churchmen say: The visible church, comprising persons good and bad,
saints and sinners, is the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of Heaven, and
that the door of entrance is water baptism duly administered.[141]
Paul tells the Corinthians, the Gallatians and the Ephesians, each in
nearly the same language, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the
kingdom of God. Of fornication, wrath, strife, drunkenness, revellings,
and such like, Paul says: I tell you plainly, they who do such things
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, goodness, temperance, etc. Again, he says the kingdom
of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.[142]
By Paul's whole teaching those who yield the fruit of the spirit--love,
joy, peace, &c., are the inheritors of this heavenly kingdom and the
unrighteous are rejected.
Again Paul says: Some of those Corinthians who were once unrighteous
were washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and
in the Spirit of our God. He said they were not inheritors of this
kingdom while they were unrighteous.[143]
Membership in the visible church at Corinth did convey this
inheritance.[144] They had to be washed, sanctified and justified (not
in water, but) in the name or power of the Lord Jesus and in the spirit
of our God. They had to be washed in the Spirit of our God before they
could enter his kingdom.[145]
In four of Paul's epistles he recognizes the Spirit at the door of
entrance to this kingdom. He mentions it seven times in ten verses in
this connection, but nothing whatever about water baptism.[146]
Paul knew of no door to this kingdom by way of water baptism or he would
have told us of it, for this door and how we may enter is just what Paul
was emphasizing.
Our Lord's memorable Sermon on the Mount, which occupies the fifth,
sixth and seventh chapters of Matthew is mostly about this heavenly
kingdom, the blessed who possess it, the unrighteous who cannot enter
and how we may all attain it, but not one word about water baptism.
This ancient ordinance was far away from the mind of our Lord amid the
dim and receding shadows of Judaism[147] when he taught that multitude
on the Mount and gave his kingdom to his saints, the poor in spirit, the
pure in heart, the meek and the merciful, and encouraged us all to seek
first this kingdom, which he said those only can enter who do the will
of our Father in Heaven.[148] The kingdom of God is mentioned more than
sixty times and the kingdom of Heaven twenty times in the New Testament
but water baptism is never once named nor alluded to in any of those
eighty texts.
This silence impressively suggests that water baptism is entirely
foreign to this kingdom and must belong to another dispensation.
Plainly no door of entrance to this kingdom by way of water baptism had
been discovered at the time the New Testament was written. Jesus said
that he himself was the door to this sheepfold and that he is a thief
and a robber who climbs up some other way.[149]
We read that John baptized with water but Jesus should baptize with the
Holy Spirit, and with fire;[150] and again: Except a man be born of
water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God; and again:
Except a man be born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God.[151]
This birth from above; this birth by water and the Spirit; and this
baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire are all three plainly one and
the same divine operation and there is no water baptism either
mentioned or implied: Yet man who is prone to substitute the letter
which killeth for the spirit which giveth life, long ago perverted this
testimony of Christ to Nicodemus by construing "born" to mean "baptized"
and thus by changing one Scripture word he would close the kingdom of
God against his fellow man who would not come to him and be baptized
with water.[152]
But we trace through history from the beginning a seed or remnant who
constantly protested against such sacramentalism and by legions sealed
their testimonies with martyr's blood.[153]
With the Bible, which was long forbidden, now open to all, how can we of
this enlightened day still adhere to such idle dogma or ever quote these
words of Christ to Nicodemus as authority for any water baptism?[154] By
this whole context and by all of Christ's relevant sayings upon the
Mount and elsewhere he had no allusion to water baptism. Had he meant
baptized he would have said baptized and not born.
Just as Christ said: We must surely be born of water and the Spirit and
we must just as surely be baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire,
but we shall no more be born of material water than we shall be baptized
with material fire.[155]
Neither is Christ's fan material nor his axe at the root of the tree,
nor are the waters which he said should flow from the bodies of
believers, nor the waters which he promised should be in them a well of
living water springing up unto everlasting life;[156] nor the living
fountains of water, where God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes.
Neither shall we be tried and refined literally as gold and silver; nor
purged literally as a fuller purges with material soap.[157]
These fires, fountains, births, baptisms, waters, &c., are all
spiritual. The purifications are symbols of our spiritual regeneration
and preparation for the kingdom of God which the unrighteous shall
neither inherit nor enter.[158]
Like those Corinthians we must be washed, sanctified and justified in
the name or power of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit of our God; be
saved by the washing of regeneration and the renewings of the Holy
Spirit shed upon us abundantly by Jesus Christ our Saviour.[159]
We must be circumcised and crucified as well as washed and baptized.
We must be crucified upon a cross which we may often carry but with
outward eyes can never see. We must be circumcised in Christ and buried
with him in baptism. We must be baptized into Christ. Put on Christ. We
must be circumcised of heart in the Spirit by the circumcision of
Christ.[160]
As instructed by Scripture we accept this circumcision without hands,
and this baptism and washing without water, and do most firmly believe
that our Saviour never commanded nor intended any other.[161]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 115: Mat. 3.11; Mark 1.8; Luke 3.16; Jon. 1.26, 33; Acts
11.15, 16; Acts 1.4, 5; Acts 11.16]
[Footnote 116: Eph. 4.5]
[Footnote 117: Col. 2.14; Acts 1.4, 5; Acts 2.1, 3; Acts 11.16]
[Footnote 118: 1 Peter 3.21]
[Footnote 119: 1 Peter 3.21]
[Footnote 120: Acts 1.4, 5; Acts 11.16]
[Footnote 121: Acts 10.45; Acts 4.31; Eph. 5.18; 2 Cor. 1.22; Acts 2.17,
18; Joel 2.28]
[Footnote 122: Nelson R. Boss on the Prayer Book P. 102]
[Footnote 123: Rom. 6.3; Rom. 6.6; Gal. 3.27]
[Footnote 124: Gal. 5.24; Gal. 6.14]
[Footnote 125: What is Christ's Church? Hammond P. 177, P. 278]
[Footnote 126: Acts 1.5; Acts 11.16; Jon. 3.3, 7]
[Footnote 127: Luke 23.39, 43]
[Footnote 128: Acts 8.13; Acts 8.23; Acts 8.21]
[Footnote 129: Acts 8.13]
[Footnote 130: Gal. 3.27]
[Footnote 131: Acts 8.21, 23]
[Footnote 132: Gal. 3.26, 27]
[Footnote 133: Rom. 6.4]
[Footnote 134: Acts 2.16, 21; Acts 10.34, 35; Joel 2.28, 29]
[Footnote 135: 1 Cor. 12.6]
[Footnote 136: Heb. 2.9]
[Footnote 137: Heb. 8.10, 13]
[Footnote 138: Titus 2.11]
[Footnote 139: Rev. 3.20]
[Footnote 140: Jon. 14.23]
[Footnote 141: What is Christ's Church? Hammond P. 31, 71, 86]
[Footnote 142: 1 Cor. 6.9, 11; Gal. 5.21; Eph. 5.5; Gal. 5.21; R.v.
Margin; Gal. 5.22; Rom. 14.17]
[Footnote 143: 1 Cor. 6.10, 11; R.v.; 1 Cor. 6.9]
[Footnote 144: 1 Cor. 6.11]
[Footnote 145: 1 Cor. 6.11; R.v.]
[Footnote 146: Rom. 14.17; 1 Cor. 6.11; Eph. 5.9, 18; Gal. 5.16, 25]
[Footnote 147: Mat. 5.3, 12; Mat. 5.20]
[Footnote 148: Mat. 7.21, 23]
[Footnote 149: Jon. 10.1, 7]
[Footnote 150: Mat. 3.11; Luke 3.16; Jon. 3.5]
[Footnote 151: Jon. 3.3; Margin R.v.]
[Footnote 152: Jon. 3.3 R.v.; Mat. 3.11; Luke 3.16]
[Footnote 153: See in this Article P. 39 to 44]
[Footnote 154: Jon. 3.3, 5]
[Footnote 155: Jon. 3.5; Luke 3.16; Mat. 3.11; Jon. 7.38, 39]
[Footnote 156: Mat. 3.10, 12; Luke 3.9, 17; Jon. 4.10, 14]
[Footnote 157: Rev. 7.17; Zech. 13.9; Mat. 3.2]
[Footnote 158: Mat. 7.21; Gal. 5.21]
[Footnote 159: 1 Cor. 6.10, 11 R.v.; Titus 3.5, 6]
[Footnote 160: Philippians 3.3; Rom. 6.6; Mat. 16.24; Gal. 2.20; Col.
2.11, 12; Gal. 3.27; Rom. 2.29; Col. 2.11]
[Footnote 161: Col. 2.11, 16; 1 Cor. 6.11 R.v.]
BAPTISMAL GRACE
Some maintain that water baptism is a means of Grace. Others define it
as an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual Grace.
We have no record that our Saviour ever taught any such doctrines.
Grace is mentioned in the New Testament more than one hundred times but
water baptism is never once alluded to in connection with Grace in any
way whatever.
We cannot believe that our Saviour ordained water baptism as a means or
sign of Grace to his children forever, when neither He nor his disciples
ever mentioned it or even remotely alluded to it--so far as Scripture
informs--in all of those one hundred texts wherein Grace is so variously
and impressively commended to us.
We are forced to believe that this whole theory of baptismal grace was
conceived by man; was modified by the reformation and now might be
entirely abandoned as adverse to the teachings of Christ and repugnant
to sound reason.
WATER BAPTISM AND CIRCUMCISION
Some assume that Christ, by his apostles and disciples, instituted water
baptism as the Christian successor of Jewish circumcision. Scripture
testimony conflicts with this assumption. "The Acts of the Apostles"
indicate that these apostles were mostly tenacious of Jewish customs and
only gradually comprehended the universal and spiritual nature of
Christ's kingdom in its noon-day brightness.
They looked for a Jewish kingdom with Christ as earthly king, and of
course to retain in some way their existing customs.[162] They called
all who were not Jews, uncircumcised Gentiles. But few of the apostles
would sit at table with Gentiles or eat in their houses.[163]
Peter required a vision before preaching the Gospel to Gentiles, and
gave as his reason for hesitation that it was unlawful for Jews to keep
company or come unto those of another nation.[164]
Other apostles censured Peter for making the freedom with Gentiles which
he sometimes did.[165] Some insisted that Gentile converts to
Christianity be circumcised.[166]
Some taught: Except ye be circumcised ye cannot be saved.[167]
Gentile converts at Antioch resisted circumcision.[168]
Paul pleaded the Gentile cause before the elders and apostles at
Jerusalem.[169]
After much questioning Gentile converts to Christianity were excused
from circumcision but no others were excused.[170] Jews were reminded
that Moses was preached and read to them in the Jewish Synagogue every
Sabbath day.[171]
This reminder in connection with the subject before them indicates that
Jews were expected to continue as heretofore to circumcise their
children according to the law of Moses which was preached and read to
them in the Jewish Synagogue every Sabbath day.[172]
These elders and apostles know nothing about water baptism, being the
Christian successor of Jewish circumcision or they would surely have
instructed the Gentiles to this effect when they excused them from
circumcision. Their silence upon this opportune occasion and at all
other times is decided evidence that there was no such succession.[173]
Eight years later, the same old controversy about circumcision brought
Paul again before the elders and apostles at Jerusalem.[174]
They re-affirmed their former decision that Gentiles be excused from
circumcision but reminded Paul that he (a Jew) was expected to walk
orderly and keep the law of Moses.[175] They prevailed upon him to take
a vow, shave his head, and enter into the Jewish temple until an
offering should be offered for him, because he taught Jews of the
dispersion, that they should not circumcise their children nor walk
after the customs of Moses. Paul was induced to suppress or conceal his
indifference to circumcision but not his pronounced indifference to
water baptism.
Thus closes our last recorded meeting of the elders and apostles at
Jerusalem with no apparent abatement of zeal for circumcision. To the
last they evinced much more zeal for circumcision than they had ever
shown for water baptism; and they never in any way recognized water
baptism as the successor of circumcision.
Plainly it was not by the apostles but after the apostles' time that
circumcision was discarded and water baptism exalted.[176]
Altho' Paul ostensibly yielded to the elders and apostles at Jerusalem,
yet his subsequent epistles indicate that he remained firmly indifferent
or opposed to circumcision, water baptism, and other ordinances, all of
which he called carnal, weak and beggarly elements when applied to
Gentiles. Paul said he was made all things to all men that he might win
some.[177]
To the Jews, he became a Jew, to the Gentiles a Gentile.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 162: Acts 1.6; Luke 24.21]
[Footnote 163: Acts 11.1, 3; Gal. 2.11, 12]
[Footnote 164: Acts 11.1, 16; Acts 10.28]
[Footnote 165: Acts 11.1, 3]
[Footnote 166: Acts 15.5, 6]
[Footnote 167: Acts 15.1]
[Footnote 168: Acts 15.2]
[Footnote 169: Acts 15.2, 6]
[Footnote 170: Acts 15.6, 20 R.v.]
[Footnote 171: Acts 15.21]
[Footnote 172: Acts 15.21]
[Footnote 173: Acts 15.23, 29]
[Footnote 174: Acts 21.21, 24]
[Footnote 175: Acts 21.21, 25; Acts 21.21, 26]
[Footnote 176: Acts 21.21, 26]
[Footnote 177: Acts 21.21, 26; Col. 2.10, 23; Heb. 9.1, 10; Gal. 6.12,
16; 1 Cor. 1.14, 17; Gal. 4.4, 11; 1 Cor. 9.20, 22]
WATER BAPTISM AFTER CHRIST IN APOSTOLIC TIMES
Dean Stanley[178] says: "It has been the misfortune of churches that
they have imagined a primitive condition which never existed. The
reluctance to look the facts of history in the face has favored the
growth of a vast superstructure of fable."
Let us avoid this "misfortune of the churches," this "vast
superstructure of fable," and be willing to look the facts of Scripture
and history squarely in the face.
It appears by Scripture that our Saviour did not baptize with water and
that none of his apostles were so baptized _in his time_.[179]
After Christ, Ananias directed Paul to be baptized.[180]
We read that Ananias was devout according to the law of Moses, as were
also many of the apostles.[181]
They looked for Christ to restore again the kingdom of Israel.[182]
With such hopeful prospects for Judaism we cannot wonder that Ananias
and many apostles devoutly believed it to be in order and necessary that
water baptism, circumcision, &c., be continued and that Paul and other
converts be so baptized.
That they should so believe is no more remarkable than that upon two
occasions eight years apart they should pronounce it necessary that
Gentile believers abstain from meat offered to idols and from things
strangled and from blood as Jews did.[183]
Paul was sent a special apostle to the Gentiles. Peter and others more
to the Jews. To Paul therefore we turn for light upon the duty of
Gentiles.[184]
Paul taught Gentile believers: Unless ye be told that meat is offered to
idols, eat whatever is set before you or is sold on the shambles, asking
no questions for conscience sake.[185] Let no man judge you in meat or
in drink, or in regard to an holy day, or the new moon, or the sabbath
days which are shadows of things to come.[186]
Without claiming perfection for Paul, should we not all as believing
Gentiles accept his teaching about meat, eating, water, baptism, etc.,
that Christ did not send his apostles to baptize with water, but preach
the Gospel, and that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to
all who believe.[187]
After Pentecost, believers were baptized presumably with water.[188]
They sold their possessions and gave to apostles and had all things in
common and continued daily in the Jewish temple, and in breaking bread
from house to house.
Shall we sell our lands, live in common, frequent Jewish temples and
break bread daily from house to house? We see as much authority for
doing so as for baptizing with water.
If the example of apostles and believers is Scripture authority for
water baptism, it is also Scripture authority to sell our lands, live in
common, frequent Jewish temples, etc.
We cannot believe that we are required by Scripture or otherwise to do
all things which the apostles and believers did, however good and proper
it may have been for them at that time. Much less should we gratify our
own predilections by electing to follow their example in water baptism
and to reject it in other particulars.
By Peter's preaching the household of Cornelius was baptized with the
Holy Spirit.[189] Peter then asked his Jewish brethren if any could
forbid water that these Gentiles should not be baptized as well as we
Jews. Peter hesitated about baptizing Gentiles as Jews baptized, yet he
commanded it to be done.
Peter claimed authority from Christ for the Holy Spirit baptism, but no
authority for the water baptism only the silence of the six Jewish
brethren who were with him from Jerusalem.[190]
Upon another occasion Peter, with others, pronounced it necessary that
Gentile believers abstain from certain meats as Jews did.[191]
We recognize no distinction in Peter's authority, whether he restrained
Gentile believers from the use of certain meats or had them baptized
with water. In both cases Peter's Jewish education was his impulse and
not Christ.
As the Eunuch rode in his chariot he read from Esaias the prophet.
Philip went up into the chariot and preached unto him Jesus. The Eunuch
was baptized by the wayside. The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip.
The Eunuch went on his way rejoicing.[192]
This appears to have been John's decreasing water baptism without
formula, but nevertheless to have been blessed to the Eunuch's dawning
condition of belief. Had the Eunuch been reading Christ's Sermon on the
Mount with the veil which was rent on Calvary clear lifted from his
eyes, he might not have stopped that chariot to baptize with water. But
he did not so read. The New Testament was not written at that time. He
read from the Old Testament, from Esaias the prophet.
Many years after Paul said, until that day the veil remained upon the
hearts of some when the Old Testament was read.[193]
Divine condescension to the dawning belief of this Jewish proselyte in
those transition times established no precedent which should induce us
to linger in the border land of Judaism.
We hear some wonder why many apostles and believers adhered so
tenaciously to circumcision, abstinence from certain meats, etc.
Future generations may still more wonder why many believers in our day
hold so persistently to water baptism, etc.
The day is surely dawning, the ranks are filling with those who realize
that these shadows are all foreign to the Christian dispensation.
There is less excuse for now baptizing with water than there was for
those Jewish believers continuing to observe the law of Moses generally.
The law was given to Moses amid the thunders of Sinai. When Israel
obeyed that law they triumphed over their enemies. When they disobeyed
they fell before them.[194]
How could they abandon that time-honored law of Moses and their fathers
and at once embrace Christianity in its fulness?
John the Baptist foretold that this transition would be gradual when he
said, "He must increase, but I must decrease."[195]
Our Saviour was very tender of his disciples in their transition state
and is yet equally mindful of his sincere children who are still in the
same condition.[196] He said, I have many things to say unto you but you
cannot bear them now. Some things which he did say few can bear even
yet; still, we long to know what were those suppressed and holy things
which he did not say because his disciples could not bear them.
By the teaching of the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, we have
access ever-more to this sacred knowledge.[197] But only as we are able
to bear it will he teach us all things.[198] Not to the wise and prudent
of this world, but to babes in Christ.[199]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 178: "Christian Institutions" P. 208]
[Footnote 179: Jon 4.2]
[Footnote 180: Acts 22.16]
[Footnote 181: Acts 22.12; Acts 21.18, 26]
[Footnote 182: Acts 1.6]
[Footnote 183: Acts 15.28, 29; Acts 21.25]
[Footnote 184: Acts 22.21; Gal. 2.7, 9; Acts 13.47]
[Footnote 185: 1 Cor. 10.25, 29]
[Footnote 186: Col. 2.16, 18]
[Footnote 187: 1 Cor. 1.17; Rom. 1.16]
[Footnote 188: Acts 2.38, 41; Acts 4.33, 37; Acts 2.44, 46]
[Footnote 189: Acts 10.44; Acts 11.15; Acts 10.47]
[Footnote 190: Acts 10.42, 44; Acts 11.15, 16; Acts 10.47]
[Footnote 191: Acts 15.28, 29]
[Footnote 192: Acts 8.27, 39 R.v.]
[Footnote 193: 2 Cor. 3.15]
[Footnote 194: Exodus 20.18]
[Footnote 195: Jon. 3.30]
[Footnote 196: Jon. 16.12]
[Footnote 197: Jon. 14.23, 26]
[Footnote 198: Jon. 16.12]
[Footnote 199: Mat. 11.25]
WATER BAPTISM AFTER THE APOSTLES' TIME
By collateral evidence we are led to suppose that several of the
apostles were martyred under the Roman Emperor, Nero, about A.D. 64.
The Jews rebelled against the Romans, A.D. 66. At the approach of war,
Christians of Jerusalem and Judea removed to Pela, beyond the
Jordan.[200] Eusebius says they fled in obedience to a Divine
revelation.[201] These were all Jews, and in their new homes were called
Nazarenes or Ebonites.[202]
Jerusalem and the temple were utterly destroyed and the Jews massacred
by the Romans, A.D. 70.[203]
Dean Stanley says: "The fall of Jerusalem was the fall of the Jewish
world; it was a reason for the close of the apostolic age; a death-blow
of the influence of Jewish nationality for a long time to come."[204]
After the destruction of Jewish Jerusalem, Gentile Antioch appears to
have become the seat of church authority.
John was probably the only apostle then living and he, it is thought,
was in a distant country.
At Antioch and other places Gentile Christians evidently soon gained the
ascendency and discouraged, even Jews from circumcision and other
offensive Jewish customs, while water baptism and other usages not
repulsive to Gentiles were generally continued and in time modified to
suit taste and convenience.
The early Christians were not united in making these changes; they
caused continued discord and division among them as is manifest
throughout the writings of the Ante-Nicene Fathers and Eusebius.
The Nazarenes, Ebonites and some others adhered to circumcision and the
customs of Moses as the elders at Jerusalem had insisted that Paul
should do and as in the "Hermit Church" of Abyssinia they still continue
to do.[205][206]
We find these Nazarenes and Ebonites soon classified as heretics after
the Gentiles preponderated.
Water baptism seems not to have been insisted upon at first but in the
second century greater importance appears to have been attached to
it.[207] Many, however, claimed that only baptism of the Holy Spirit and
purity of the heart were necessary because none of the apostles but Paul
were baptized with water, and Christ said: "John indeed baptized with
water but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit;"[208] and again,
"Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God."
Justin Martyr[209] said: "What is the use of that baptism which cleanses
the flesh and the body alone. Baptize the soul from wrath, envy, &c.,
and lo! the whole body is clean." And again: "What need have I of that
other baptism who have been baptized with the Holy Spirit."
While many such expressions occur in the writings of the "Fathers,"
there are many more which support sacramentalism. Their testimonies are
conflicting.
About the beginning of the third century we find water baptism first
called a sacrament by Tertulian and about the same time he complains
that many tried to destroy it. Plainly, as water baptism was exalted,
opposition increased.[210]
The sect called Ascoondrutes rejected all symbols and sacraments on the
principle that incorporeal things cannot be communicated by things
corporeal nor divine mysteries by things visible.[211]
Schaff says[212]: Many Jews and Gentiles were baptized only with water;
not with Holy Spirit and fire of the Gospel, and smuggled their old
religious notions and practices into the church.
The Roman Emperor, Constantine, professedly became a Christian, while he
virtually remained a heathen; A.D. 312.[213]
Christians were few in number before Constantine, but now pagans flocked
to the church and sat in its councils.
"Constantine married the Christian church to the heathen world." He
virtually united church and state. He convened the council of Nice and
they formed a creed A.D. 325.
Many protested against this council and its decisions but the mass
supported the Emperor and the creed.
Among obscure dissenters whom the ruling church called heretics may we
expect thereafter to find the nearest approach to Christianity as Jesus
taught it upon the Mount and elsewhere.
Mosheim says: No sooner had Constantine abolished the superstition of
his ancestors than magnificent churches were erected for the Christians,
which were richly adorned with pictures and images and bore striking
resemblances to the Pagan temples both within and without.[214]
The simplicity of the Gospel was clouded by the prodigious number of
rites and ceremonies which the bishops invented to embellish it.[215]
They imagined the Pagans would receive Christianity with more facility
when they saw the rites and ceremonies to which they were accustomed
adopted in the church. So the religion of the Christians was made to
conform very nearly to that of the Pagans in external appearance.[216]
The vice and insolent tyranny of many of the priesthood soon became
notorious.[217]
Neander says: Such individuals of the laity as were distinguished by
their piety from the great mass of nominal Christians and from the
worldly minded of the clergy often suffered persecution from the
latter.[218]
The name of Andeus stand prominent among the many dissenters who
protested against the corruptions of the ruling church at this
time.[219]
Isolated companies of devout Christians under various names rejected the
Sacraments. They were called Lampetians, Adelphians, Estatians,
Marcionites, Euchites, Massalians and Enthusiasts.[220]
Mosheim says: Enthusiasts who discarded the Sacraments and were rather
wrong headed than vicious lived among the Greeks and Assyrians for many
ages. They were known by the general and invidious name of Massalians or
Euchites. A foot-note says: This sect arose under the Emperor
Constantius about the year 361.[221]
We have numerous accounts of Christians who were prominent in the
dominant church of the fourth century who deferred water baptism to
middle life or old age and many were never so baptized altho' born of
Christian parents.[222]
About A.D. 660 another Constantine came forward as a reform preacher
under inspiration said to have been received in reading the New
Testament, particularly the writings of St. Paul.[223]
His followers were sometimes called Macedonians but were generally known
as Paulicians altho' they preferred to be called Christians.
It appears that these Paulicians existed centuries before under the
other names given them by their enemies and that the drooping sect was
revived by the powerful preaching of Constantine.
Neander says[224] the Paulicians wholy rejected the outward observance
of the Sacraments and maintained that by multiplication of external
rites and ceremonies in the dominant church the true life of religion
had declined. That it was not Christ's intention to institute water
baptism as a perpetual ordinance and that by baptism he meant only
baptism of the Holy Spirit and that he communicates himself by the
living waters for the thorough cleansing of the whole human nature; that
eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ consists in coming
into vital union with him.
In the ninth century one hundred thousand Paulicians were martyred at
once in Armenia, accused of heresy and denying the Sacraments.[225]
For the same offence untold numbers were put to death during previous
and subsequent centuries and in widely distant countries.[226]
Their enemies represent that these Paulicians were loving, spiritual and
peaceful, and diligent in reading and circulating the Scriptures, but
they were heretics and not worthy to live.
Were not these dissenting martyrs a remnant or seed of the living church
and their baptized enemies the real heretics?
The history of these inhuman persecutions reveals a sad condition of the
dominant church and its ruling clergy of the ninth century.
Some Ecclesiastics who presided over a flourishing theological
institution at Orleans, claimed to have been awakened by the writings of
St. Augustine and St. Paul, particularly the later. Many of the nobility
and others of eminent piety and benevolence became their adherents.[227]
They rejected external worship, rites and ceremonies and placed religion
in the internal contemplation of God and the elevation of the soul.
They rejected water baptism and held to a baptism of the Spirit, also to
a Spiritual Eucharist by which all who had received spiritual baptism
would be refreshed and find their spiritual needs completely satisfied.
Thirteen leaders of this sect were burned A.D. 1022. When urged to
recant they replied, "We have a higher law, one written by the Holy
Spirit in the inner man."
Mosheim says they soared above the comprehension of the age in which
they lived.
A few years later a similar sect was discovered in the districts of
Arras and Liege. They held individual holiness and practical piety to
be necessary and that outward baptism and outward Sacrament were
nothing. This they affirmed was the doctrine of Christ and his
apostles.[228]
About A.D. 1046 a sect was suppressed at Turin which was favored by the
nobility and widely diffused among the clergy and laity. They claimed to
have one priest without the tonsure. He daily visited their brethren
scattered throughout the world and when God bestowed him on them they
received from him with great devotion forgiveness of sin. They
acknowledged no other priest and no other sacrament but his
absolution.[229]
Who--we ask--is this priest without the tonsure, who daily visits the
world-wide brethern?
Is it not Jesus who was made a priest, "not after the law of a carnal
commandment, but by the power of an endless life?"[230]
A sect called Bogomiles, who rejected outward baptism and acknowledged
only spiritual communion, was discovered in Constantinople, many of them
in the families connected with the court. Their leader was burned A.D.
1119, others were imprisoned, yet they spread secretly over the Greek
empire.[231]
Mosheim says: The Eastern churches continued to be infested with such
fanatics in the twelfth century, and the Latin sects were still more
numerous than the Greeks.[232]
The Catherists were a numerous faction in Bulgaria and spread almost all
over Europe under various names who all agreed in rejecting baptism and
the Lord's Supper.
"Brethern and sisters of the free Spirit" took their denomination from
the words of St. Paul (Rom. 8, 2-14). They were called Begards,
Beghines, Turpines, etc. They rejected baptism and the Supper as no
longer useful to them and held to inward and spiritual worship. They
spread rapidly in Italy, France and Germany. They were mostly poor
people and lived upon alms while upon their missionary journeys. Great
numbers of plain, pious people, rich and poor, embraced their teaching
and forsook the dominant church.[233]
The Inquisition checked their career with its usual record of cruelty
and blood, yet they continued to feed the fires of persecution for more
than two centuries, until near the time of the reformation.
In the south of France dissenters called Albigenses became more numerous
than the dominant church. They were condemned by four councils, but
still continued to increase until about A.D. 1215, when they were
exterminated by a long and horrible war and the Inquisition.[234]
These Albigenses were distinguished generally by their strict and
blameless lives, by their abhorrence of oaths, war and punishment by
death, and for their hospitality and beneficence. They accepted baptism
spiritually and rejected the sacraments.
Can we believe that the church which led to the extermination of these
Albigenses, the Paulicians, and many others, was ever established by
that loving Saviour who spent his life in doing good to the souls and
bodies of men?
Does it not answer more nearly the description given of Mystery Babylon
who was drunk with the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus? Who
would not gladly forget a succession which claims to run back through
such a church as this?[235]
In some parts of France dissenters similar to the Albigenses were called
Bulgarians, in Italy they were called Paterens and in Germany were
called Catherists, and in derision were called "Good Men." How is it
that these dissenters, by the testimony of their enemies, appear to have
lived better and holier lives without the sacraments than their
persecutors did with them?
What is the testimony of observation in our day?[236] Are those
beatitudes which Jesus pronounced upon the Mount better observed by
those who have seven sacraments than they are by Protestants who have
only two? And, are they better observed under two sacraments than they
are by the Quakers, and some other Christians who have none? If this is
the case, it is strong support to the belief that Christ ordained the
sacraments. But if the reverse is found to be the existing condition,
then a suspicion may arise that these sacraments are not divine, but
are human impositions and that they divert from the Divine. Therefore,
may it be that some of our best Christians get along quite as well or
better without them.
Neither the word sacrament nor any synonym thereof occurs in the New
Testament, nor in the writings of the "Fathers," until the third
century. There were no sacraments then as there are now, therefore no
necessity for such a name.
Sacrament was a Pagan name for a military oath and was ruled into its
present position by apostate Christians.
The apostles and first Christians evidently continued to eat the
Passover Supper, because their fathers had done so for ages in memory of
Israel passing over the Red Sea out of Egypt, and not from any command
of Christ. Otherwise they would with still more persistence have
continued to wash each other's feet, which Jesus commanded with language
and actions far more solemn, impressive and imperative.[237]
The Ante-Nicene Fathers and Eusebius inform us that water baptism was a
prolific cause of bitter discord and division among the early
Christians. It still sorrowfully distracts the loving children of our
one Father and impedes the spread of his kingdom in the earth.
These lamentable conditions must inevitably continue until such shadows
are dissolved by divine brightness in that day which we rejoice to
believe is now dawning.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 200: Josephus Vol. 3, P. 324; Vol. 4, P. 99]
[Footnote 201: Eusebius P. 75]
[Footnote 202: Gibbon's Rome Vol. 1, P. 399]
[Footnote 203: Josephus Vol. 4, P. 337]
[Footnote 204: Christian Institutions P. 202]
[Footnote 205: Acts 21.21, 24]
[Footnote 206: Cyclopedia American and Britanica]
[Footnote 207: Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 1, P. 209; Vol. 5, P. 667;
Vol. 5, P. 678]
[Footnote 208: Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 6, P. 217]
[Footnote 209: Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 3, P. 669]
[Footnote 210: Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 3, P. 669]
[Footnote 211: Bucks Dictionary]
[Footnote 212: Ecclesiastical History Vol. 2, P. 228]
[Footnote 213: Cyclopedia American and Britanica]
[Footnote 214: Ecclesiastical History Vol. 1, P. 383]
[Footnote 215: Ecclesiastical History Vol. 1, P. 381]
[Footnote 216: Ecclesiastical History Vol. 1, P. 382]
[Footnote 217: Ecclesiastical History Vol. 3, P. 105]
[Footnote 218: Ecclesiastical History Vol. 2, P. 226; Vol. 2, P. 705]
[Footnote 219: Britanica]
[Footnote 220: Neander Vol. 2, P. 240; Vol. 2, P. 241; Vol. 2, P. 242]
[Footnote 221: Mosheim Vol. 3, P. 104; Vol. 3, P. 105; Vol. 3, P. 105;
Vol. 1, P. 419]
[Footnote 222: Mosheim Vol. 1, P. 314; Cyclopedia under Constantine
Ambrose Chrysostom Jerome etc.]
[Footnote 223: Cyclopedia American and Britanica; Mosheim Vol. 2, P. 181]
[Footnote 224: Neander Vol. 3, P. 263]
[Footnote 225: Cyclopedia American and Britanica]
[Footnote 226: Mosheim Vol. 2, P. 355; Neander Vol. 3, P. 578]
[Footnote 227: Mosheim Vol. 2, P. 565; Neander Vol. 3, P. 593]
[Footnote 228: Mosheim Vol. 2, P. 567; Neander Vol. 3, P. 597]
[Footnote 229: Neander Vol. 3, P. 600]
[Footnote 230: Heb. 7.10]
[Footnote 231: Neander Vol. 4, P. 556]
[Footnote 232: Mosheim Vol. 3, P. 104; Vol. 3, P. 107; Vol. 1, P. 108]
[Footnote 233: Mosheim Vol. 3, P. 270; Vol. 3, P. 276; Vol. 3, P. 365;
Vol. 3, P. 449; Vol. 3, P. 455]
[Footnote 234: Neander Vol. 4, P. 642; Cyclopedia American and Britanica]
[Footnote 235: Rev. 17.5, 6]
[Footnote 236: Mat. 5.3, 12]
[Footnote 237: Jon. 13.12, 17]
CONCLUSION
That water baptism, circumcision and many other ceremonies were ordained
of God for Israel is evident from Scripture. That these ordinances were
fulfilled in Christ is to us likewise evident. He took them out of the
way and nailed them to his cross; still they were permitted for a time
unto Israel and we do not presume to deny their permission to some even
until now, for "a thousand years with the Lord is as but one day."[238]
As children of the light, we ever respect and regard every manifestation
of that light to mankind in all ages of the world, whether to Jew or
Gentile or to people unknown.
We realize that there has been an increased revelation of this divine
light, and believe, as our Saviour taught,[239] that it will continue to
increase as we are able to bear it, and in proportion to this increase
will symbols and sacraments pass away.
How can we doubt that our Saviour, with his last words here upon earth,
had in view his own glorious baptism of the Holy Spirit[240] when he
commanded his apostles to preach among all nations repentance and
remission of sin, in his name with power from on high?
This power from on high was the baptism of the Holy Spirit which he
promised his apostles and disciples when he said, "John indeed baptized
with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit."[241]
They had to be baptized with this baptism themselves before they could
go teach all nations baptizing them. Power from on high was the one
requisite to administer this baptism.[242] They had baptized with water
before this power was fully given at Pentecost and continued to baptize
in the same way after Pentecost[243] but this power is never mentioned in
connection with water baptism. It is, however, frequently mentioned in
connection with preaching the Gospel.
These same conditions have continued until now. Power from on high is
not yet necessary to administer water baptism but it is indispensable to
preaching the Gospel.
Altho' this power came in fulness at Pentecost, yet Paul and legions
more have received this power since Pentecost.
Farrar says[244]: This miracle is not transient but is continuously
renewed. Not to a narrow apostilate in an upper chamber at Jerusalem. It
is a vivifying wind that breathes henceforth in all ages. It revived a
world. It is the power of an endless life. A tide of light which is
rolling and shall roll from shore to shore until the Earth is full of
the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea: in this aspect
the outward symbol _sinks into subordinate importance_.
We think: In this aspect the outward symbol _sinks entirely_.
There are many Scripture testimonies that the apostles were instrumental
in baptizing with the Holy Spirit.
To strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Asia, Cappadocea,
and Bythima the Gospel was preached "with the Holy Spirit sent down from
Heaven."[245]
Were not these scattered strangers of many lands baptized with the Holy
Spirit through Gospel preaching as Christ intended when he commissioned
his disciples to go teach all nations, baptizing?
By Paul's ministry the Thessalonians received the Gospel with power and
with the Holy Spirit.[246]
Paul preached to the Corinthians; not with the enticing words of man's
wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.[247]
As Christ commissioned his apostles so Paul preached with power from on
high.[248]
As Peter preached to the household of Cornelius the Holy Spirit fell
upon all who heard.[249]
This household of Cornelius to whom Peter preached, the Thessalonians
and Corinthians to whom Paul preached and the scattered strangers who
received the Gospel with the Holy Spirit sent down from Heaven and hosts
more not mentioned were all baptized with the Holy Spirit through
Gospel preaching as Christ intended when he commanded his apostles.
Go teach all nations, baptizing.[250]
Go preach the Gospel to every creature.[251]
Preach among all nations.[252]
As my Father hath sent me even so I send you.[253]
Ye shall be witnesses unto me to the uttermost parts of the earth.[254]
Preach unto the people.[255]
Preach the Gospel.[256]
But tarry ye at Jerusalem until endued with power from on high.[257]
Wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father which said he ye have
heard of me.[258]
How very weak it seems and how entirely foreign to even think of water
in connection with these last words of our Saviour.
He is indeed with his dependent children in this our day. While he
baptizes them with the Holy Spirit immediately he also uses many and
varied means and instruments.
Upon servants and handmaidens the Holy Spirit is now poured out as
foretold by the prophet Joel and by John the Baptist and promised by
Christ.[259]
Sons and daughters do now prophecy with power from on high.
We admire and wonder as did Peter at this baptizing power.[260]
We remember the word of the Lord how he said John indeed baptized with
water.[261]
But ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.[262]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 238: Col. 2.14; Acts 15.1, 21; Acts 21.18, 26; 1 Cor. 1.14, 17;
2 Peter 3.8]
[Footnote 239: Jon. 16.12]
[Footnote 240: Luke 24.47, 49]
[Footnote 241: Acts 1.5; Acts 11.16]
[Footnote 242: Luke 24.47, 49]
[Footnote 243: Jon. 4.2]
[Footnote 244: Life of St. Paul P. 52, 53]
[Footnote 245: 1 Peter 1.1, 12]
[Footnote 246: 1 Thes. 1.5]
[Footnote 247: 1 Cor. 2.4]
[Footnote 248: Luke 24.49]
[Footnote 249: Acts 10.44; Acts 11.15]
[Footnote 250: Mat. 28.19]
[Footnote 251: Mark 16.15]
[Footnote 252: Luke 24.47]
[Footnote 253: Jon. 20.21]
[Footnote 254: Acts 1.8]
[Footnote 255: Acts 10.42]
[Footnote 256: 1 Cor. 1.17]
[Footnote 257: Luke 24.49]
[Footnote 258: Acts 1.4]
[Footnote 259: Acts 10.45; Joel 2.28; Mark 1.8; Acts 1.5; Acts 11.16]
[Footnote 260: Acts 10.45]
[Footnote 261: Acts 1.5]
[Footnote 262: Acts 11.16]
THE END.
Transcriber's Notes
All sidenotes in the original text have been changed into footnotes.
On page 28, "Undoubedtly" was corrected to "Undoubtedly in
every age since then the sons of God ... "
On page 55, "religous" was corrected to "religious" in the text:
" ... and smuggled their old religious notions and practices into
the church."
On page 61, "brethern" was corrected to "world-wide brethern?" and on
page 62 to "Brethren and sisters of the free Spirit"
On page 65, "Anti-Nicene" was corrected to "The Ante-Nicene Fathers and
Eusebius inform us ... "
On page 69, "Cornithians" was corrected to "Corinthians" in the text
"This household of Cornelius to whom Peter preached, the Thessalonians
and Corinthians ... "
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