A "CHRISTIAN" COLLEGE AND BAPTISM
Hugo McCord
An "official pamphlet" of a "Christian" college refuses to "take a stand" on "the purpose of baptism," saying that "it is a matter of freedom." Jesus took a stand on the purpose of baptism, saying, "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16).
Helpful in understanding the biblical purpose of the baptism that Jesus commanded "for all the nations" to "the end of the world" (Matthew 28:18-20 is a review of three previous baptisms.
I. THE BAPTISM OF THE ISRAELITES
Paul wrote that Christians need to know
that all of our fathers were under the cloud, and passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea (I Corinthians 10:1-2).
The Israelites did not think that they were saved from Pharaoh before their baptism:
When Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and they cried out to Yahweh (Exodus 14:10).
Moses relieved their fear:
Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of Yahweh, which he will accomplish for you today. The Egyptians, whom you see today, never again will you see them (Exodus 14:13).
After the Israelites had been "baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea," their deliverance was announced: "So Yahweh saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians" (Exodus 14:30).
There is no way that a modern error about baptism would fit into the experience of the Israelites: "baptism is an outward sign of an inward grace."
On the other hand, Paul’s words, would fit exactly into the experience of the Israelites:
By grace you have been saved through faith, but this is not of yourselves! It is God’s gift, not of works, so that no one might boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).
II. THE BAPTISM OF NAAMAN
The prophet Elisha told Naaman, a man afflicted with leprosy, "Go, and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored, and you will be clean" (2 Kings 5:10). But Naaman became angry, saying,
Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean? (2 Kings 5:12).
He went way "in a rage," for he knew that water itself, from any river, has no healing power.
However, as long as he stayed out of the water, he still had leprosy. But, after
he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean (2 Kings 5:14).
III. THE BAPTISM OF JOHN
As a forerunner for Jesus, God raised up John the baptizer (baptisles, not "the Baptist") to "make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (Luke 1:17). John was "filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb" (Luke 1:15), and
Jerusalem and all Judea and all the area around the Jordan were going out to him, and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins (Matthew 3:5-6).
John was "preaching a baptism of repentance that sins might be (eis) forgiven" (Mark 1:4), not because (dia) their sins had been forgiven. (The preposition dia always points backward, while eis always points forward: J. W. McGarvey, COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW AND MARK, p. 37.)
The result of John’s Spirit directed work was:
All of the people and the tax collectors justified God, being baptized in the baptism of John, but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, not being baptized by him (Luke 7:29-30).
IV. THE BAPTISM OF THE GREAT COMMISSION
The baptism of the great commission (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-18; Luke 24:46-49) began on the day of Pentecost, AD 30, in Jerusalem, with "about three thousand" being baptized (Acts 2:41). The people present that day in Jerusalem who had been baptized by John (including the apostles) were not rebaptized. But some 24 years later, about 12 men, taught by a mistaken preacher, were baptized "into John’s baptism" (Acts 19:3). Those mistaken people were rebaptized, this time "in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 19:5).
Like the baptism of John, the baptism of the great commission was in order that sins might be remitted (Acts 2:38). Sadly, many today say that the 3000 converts on the day of Pentecost were baptized because their sins had already been forgiven.
Aside from the fact that the preposition eis always points forward ("in order to"), never backward ("because of"), the context shows why the 3000 were baptized. They had learned from Peter’s sermon that Jesus, whom they had "crucified" (Acts 2:23), was truly "both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36). That startling conviction caused them to interrupt Peter’s sermon, crying out, "What should we do?" (Acts 2:37).
Peter did not say, "Just believe in Jesus, that is all I" No, their question showed that they already believed. So Peter told them what they lacked:
Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins may be forgiven. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38, NIV, 1973 edition).
But many who believe that sins are forgiven by faith only, before and without baptism, protested the NIV’s rendition of Acts 2:38 in the 1973 edition, the first edition. Though Acts 2:38 remains the same as Luke wrote it in the first century, the editors of the NIV, to please their objectors, changed in their 1984 edition from saying, "that your sins may be forgiven" to the old KJV rendition with the ambiguous words; "for the forgiveness of your sins."
The word "for" is ambiguous (sometimes meaning "because of," as in Matthew 25:8, "Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out;" or sometimes meaning "in order to," as in Acts 27:34, "I urge you to take some food, for it will help you survive." But, as shown above, the "for" in Acts 2:38 in the KJV and in the revised NIV, cannot mean that the 3000 shocked and disturbed converts on the day of Pentecost thought that their sins had already been forgiven. They were much worried.
Then there are gospel preachers who forcefully condemn the faith only doctrine, and then unthinkingly speak of "Christian baptism." There is no such thing as "Christian baptism," only "sinners’ baptism." After baptism, sinners become Christians.
Baptism was the dividing line between:
1. slavery and freedom with the Israelites (Exodus 14:30);
2. leprosy and good health with Naaman (2 Kings 5:14);
3. sin-guilt and remission of sins under John (Mark 1:4).
Baptism is the dividing line between:
1. sin-guilt and remission of sins under the great commission (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-18; Luke 24:46-49);
2. the unsaved and the saved (Mark 16:16; I Peter 3:21);
3. those whose sins have not been washed away and those whose sins have been washed away (Acts 22:16);
4. those without (John 14:17) the gift of the Holy Spirit (the guarantor of heaven, Ephesians 1:14) and those with the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38; 5:32; Galatians 4:6);
5. those whose father is the devil (John 8:44) and those whose Father is the God of heaven (2 Corinthians 6:18);
6. those who are not in Christ and those who are in Christ (Romans 6:3; Galatians 3:27);
7. those who are not in the kingdom of God and those who are in the kingdom of God (John 3:5; Colossians 1:13);
8. those who are not in the "one body" ("the church," Ephesians 1:22-23) and those who have been "baptized into the one body" (I Corinthians 12:13);
9. those for whom God does not work all things together for good and those for whom God does work all things together for good (Romans 8:28);
10. those who do not have "all spiritual blessings" and those who do have "all spiritual blessings" (Ephesians 1:3);
11. those who do not have "life more abundantly" and those who do have "life more abundantly" (John 10:10);
12. those who do not have a "never-fading inheritance reserved in heaven" and those who do have a "never fading inheritance reserved in heaven" (I Peter 1:4).
"Be not foolish, but understanding what is the Lord’s will" (Ephesians 5:17).
3-2-99