FOR THE
CHILDREN:
Part Two
THE BAPTISM
One Baptism In Water
DISOBEDIENCE TO DIVINE COMMANDS IS NOT
A WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
"There is . . one baptism." (Eph. 4:4, 5)
"Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into (with reference
to) Jesus Christ were baptized into (with reference to) his death?"
(Rom. 6:3.)
"Our fathers . . were all baptized into (with reference to) Moses in
the cloud and in the sea." (I Cor. 10:1, 2.)
Use of scriptural terms in an unscriptural sense is a favorite trick of
modernists that has been adopted by some so-called inter-denominationalists who
pride themselves on their supposed orthodoxy or fundamentalism. So it has become
fashionable in certain circles to speak of a "spiritual baptism" of
which the Bible tells us exactly nothing. Satan has never introduced among God s
people a heresy so ridiculous but that he has been able to find men willing to
prostitute some degree of scholarship in its defense. So it has been with the
practice of baby baptism, pouring, and sprinkling as substitutes for believer s
baptism. There have been a few scholars of limited ability or honesty, or both,
who have tried to justify these unscriptural practices by perverted
interpretations of scripture.
A Lost Battle
But among competent scholars the scriptural meaning of "baptize"
and "baptism" is no longer a matter of debate. Everyone knows that the
ordinary literal meaning of baptize in the New Testament is to dip, plunge, or
immerse in water and whatever figurative meaning the word may occasionally have
must be derived from and based upon this literal sense. Martin Luther, John
Calvin, and John Wesley, whatever their doctrinal errors, were at least, unlike
some of their followers, scholarly enough to admit that scriptural baptism was
immersion, and that sprinkling in its place was an innovation for the sake of
convenience rather than obedience.
Figurative Baptisms
An elementary principle of honest translation and interpretation is that the
literal or ordinary meaning of a word is always to be preferred if it makes good
sense in the context; figurative or unusual meanings are to be adopted only when
demanded by context. Undoubtedly in Matt. 20:22, Mk. 10:38, and Lu. 12:50 Jesus
was speaking of a figurative baptism or immersion in the sufferings of the
cross. So the baptism in fire mentioned in Matt. 3:11 and Lu. 3:16 is evidently
not a dipping in water. Some interpreters think the reference is to the
"fiery trial" of I Pet. 4:12; others refer the language to the lost in
the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15), in which case the baptism is quite literal,
except that it is in fire instead of water.
In The Holy Spirit
The Bible also speaks of a baptism in (NOT "with") the Holy Spirit.
Matt. 3:11; Mk. 1:8; Lu. 3:16; Jn. 1:33; Acts 1:5,11:16 these six times and
nowhere else do we read that Jesus was to baptize in the Holy Spirit. This
baptism in the Holy Spirit took place on the day of Pentecost, symbolizing the
dedication and accreditation of the church as an institution, even as baptism in
water symbolizes the dedication and accreditation of the individual believer.
Just as an individual believer is scripturally baptized in water only once, so
the church as an institution was baptized in the Holy Spirit only once, that is,
on the day of Pentecost. The additional manifestation in the house of Cornelius
was simply to convince Peter and other Jewish church members that Gentile
believers rightfully belonged in the same church.
Not An Individual
Never in all the New Testament is a single individual said to be baptized in
the Holy Spirit. This was a baptism of the church as such, not of single
believers as such. Let us not confuse fillings with the Spirit or gifts of the
Spirit with baptism in the Spirit. If we are members of a scriptural church, in
scriptural succession from that first (Baptist) church in Jerusalem, then our
church was baptized in the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, once for all. If we have
not such a church, no fake "Pentecost" will change the fact.
Baptized "Into" Moses
A preposition is a weak peg to hang a doctrine on, but the phrase
"baptized into Jesus Christ" in the King James version of Rom. 6:3 has
long been a favorite with baptismal regenerationists. They are conveniently or
willfully ignorant of the fact that identical translation of the same Greek
preposition eis in I Cor. 10:2 makes "our fathers.. . all baptized into
Moses." Of course, nobody is ever dipped into Christ, any more than anybody
was ever dipped into Moses. The Greek preposition in both these passages should
be rendered "with reference to" or "because of," either of
which translations will give good sense, while "into" gives nonsense.
Wild Wuestern Whimsy
A reader wants to know what I think of the so-called "expanded translation" by Kenneth S. Wuest of Rom. 6:3 and Eph. 4:5. I quote: "Do you not know that all we who were placed in Christ Jesus, in his death were placed?" (Rom. 6:3.) "One Lord, one Faith, one placing into [the Body of Christ by the Holy Spirit]." (Eph. 4:5, brackets included.) I answer: that is not translation, expanded or otherwise: that is mere wild Wuestern whimsy.
The Greek word transliterated baptize does not mean to place or place into in
any such free and easy sense. It means to dip, plunge, or immerse in water
unless the context obviously demands another element. No reputable Greek scholar
ever dreamed of such "translation" in former years, but now, driven to
desperate expedients to promote the "invisible church" fantasy,
modernistic Bible dictionaries and commentaries of pseudo-scholarship are
chirping a chorus of "spiritual baptism" a thing as invisible and
nonexistent in the Bible as the invisible church itself.
"Shut Up To Moses"
Amusingly consistent only in its inconsistency is the same Wuestern
"translation" of I Cor. 10:2: "And all had themselves immersed,
surrounded by the cloud [on both sides], thus shut up to Moses [as their
leader]." (Brackets are part of quotation.) "Shut up to Moses,"
indeed! At least, thank God, we are not shut up to Wuest. If that is
translation, a dozen generations of formerly respected English translators
missed their calling.
Only One Baptism
According to the Bible (Eph. 4:5), there is only one (literal) baptism, and
that is the baptism in water instituted by John the Baptist by divine
commission, received by the Lord Jesus, and by Him committed to His church to be
observed as an ordinance for disciples (believers) only, as a first act of
obedience, to be followed by the observance of all his commandments. When men
speak of a fictitious "spiritual baptism" not mentioned in the Bible,
and belittle the one baptism (in water) that is taught in the Bible, we can be
sure that their strange doctrine is not the work of the Holy Spirit.
More About Baptism
Reply to Query: The Article, "One Baptism In Water," published in the Ashland Avenue Baptist, has drawn criticism from a number of readers some friendly and some hostile. Answering such criticism, Bro. Brong submits the following review with some additional facts from the scriptures: Let us simply recognize that nouns and verbs, in the very nature of language, are more nearly dependable in meaning than are prepositions. Specifically, we MUST take the Greek preposition eis in different senses in different contexts; we NEED NOT take the noun or verb for baptism or baptize in any other than the literal or nearly literal sense of dip, plunge, immerse, submerge, or overwhelm and ALWAYS in water unless the context DEMANDS otherwise. This assumption makes possible harmonious interpretation of the scriptural doctrine of baptism without difficulty.
But if we insist on "into" as the unvarying English translation of
eis, even though Webster s Third New International Dictionary gives 11 main
definitions of "into," we shall have all sorts of trouble. Did the men
of Nineveh repent "into" the preaching of Jonah? Did Jesus speak of
giving someone a drink "into" the name of a disciple? (Matt. 12:41,
10:42.) Did Peter tell repenters at Pentecost to be baptized "into"
remission of sins? (Acts 2:38.) This last reference involves the use of eis in
connection with baptism certainly parallel with Matt. 28:19, Rom. 6:3, Gal.
3:27, etc. Even more pertinent is I Cor. 10:2, where we read that the Israelites
were baptized eis Moses. The construction here is exactly parallel with baptism
eis Christ and eis the name of the Lord Jesus. There is no more reason to
imagine a "spiritual baptism" "into" Christ than a
"spiritual baptism" "into" Moses.
To Avoid Confusion
No doubt there is a real spiritual and scriptural experience FIGURED or SYMBOLIZED in scriptural (water) baptism, but we ought not to confuse the figure with the thing figured. From such confusion the Campbellites teach baptismal regeneration and ultra-dispensationalists teach that "water baptism" was a "temporary rite" no longer to be practiced. Romans 6:5 seems to me simple enough: "For if we have become planted with (Him) in the LIKENESS of his death, yet also we shall be (in the likeness) of his resurrection." The baptism which figures the burial of Jesus in His death, and His resurrection, also figures our own spiritual death and resurrection as well as the death and resurrection of our bodies. With all this wealth of meaning in Christ s ordinance of baptism, it is no wonder that Satan tries to destroy it! If we have here only a "spiritual" baptism, a "spiritual" likeness, a "spiritual" death have we also only a "spiritual" resurrection? Some would say so, but the Bible teaches otherwise. See I Cor. 15:12-19, 29.