Water Baptism
Zion's Advocate, Vol. 39, No. 11, November 1900.
2. Who are to be baptized? We can determine by the Bible who the proper subjects of baptism are. If we could not, no one could know whose duty it is to obey. The fact that baptism is a special act required to be performed, proves it to be necessary for the obedience to be voluntarily and intelligently rendered. No act of obedience can be voluntarily and intelligently performed without the free exercise of the will and judgment in obeying. The obedient one must be of sufficient age and development to be able to obey in a voluntary and intelligent manner. It follows, therefore, that the baptized infant does not obey, because it does not act voluntarily and intelligently. In fact it really performs no act, and therefore renders no obedience. The act is performed entirely by the one who administers the rite of baptism.
The commission that the Saviour gave to preach the gospel and baptize, shows that only such are required to be baptized as are capable of hearing, believing, and obeying it. Since infants and idiots are not capable of hearing, believing, and obeying the gospel, they are not included in the commission. This view is fully sustained by the account given in the New Testament of the labors of the Apostles in carrying out the object and scope of the commission. In the entire record there is not a single intimation that they ever baptized an infant or an idiot. In all the controversies held by able disputants over this question, none have ever been able to find in the New Testament a single precept or example for such a practice.
It is now conceded by many of the ablest pedobaptist writers that the Apostles and primitive preachers did not practice infant baptism. Neander says, "Baptism was administered at first only to adults, as men were accustomed to conceive baptism and faith as strictly connected. We have all reason for not deriving infant baptism from apostolic institutions, and the recognition of it which followed somewhat later as an apostolic tradition serves to confirm this hypothesis." - History of the Christian Religion and Church, Vol. I, page 311. Mosheim, in his account of the Second Century, says, "The sacrament of baptism was administered publicly twice a year, at the festivals of Easter and Pentecost, or Whitsuntide, either by the bishops or the presbyters, in consequence of his authorization and appointment. The persons that were to be baptized, after that they had repeated the creed, confessed and renounced their sins, and particularly the devil and his pompous allurements, were immersed under water, and received into Christ's kingdom by a solemn invocation of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, according to the express command of our blessed Lord."
All the arguments offered in support of the baptism of infants are based upon inference, or drawn from the silence of Scripture. It is inferred that baptism is intended to take the place of circumcision, and as it is said that households were baptized it is assumed that they contained infants. The former is an unwarrantable inference, and the latter is an assumption from what the Bible says nothing about. This weakness of these attempts to prove infant baptism, betray the weakness of the cause they are intended to sustain. The plain truth is that only those are proper subjects of baptism who are true believers in Christ. Thus in the commission Christ required the baptism of believers. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." "Go teach all nations, baptizing them," &c. Those who were taught, and who believed, were to be baptized. The Apostles, in executing this commission, required repentance and faith as necessary qualifications for baptism. "Many of the Corinthians hearing, believed and were baptized." Acts xviii. 8 "Then they that gladly received the word were baptized." Acts ii. 41. "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ." Acts ii. 38. The believer is one who has been born of God, for John says, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." The Spirit of God dwells in the believer, for it is said, "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself;" and "the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." The believer has everlasting life and can never come into condemnation again, for Jesus says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." Those who are commanded to be baptized, then, are born of God, have the Spirit of God within them as a witness, have everlasting life, and shall never come into a state of condemnation. Baptism without these qualifications is a mere nullity.
Many of the Lord's children hesitate to take this important step, being detained by fears of not being prepared to take it. They love the way, and would rejoice to walk in it, but feel themselves unworthy of the sweet privilege. They love the church, and would be glad to have a home therein, but cannot feel worthy to ask for such a home. These are the very ones whose duty and privilege it is to walk in the pathway of duty, and to have a home in the church of Christ. But in the world they are wandering in a solitary way, for they find no city there to dwell in. We long to hunt them up and gather them in. We fain would feed them on the sincere milk of the world, and thus strengthen and encourage them for the race required of them. Poor, doubting, halting ones, hesitate no longer. Go forward in duty, and show your love for the dear Saviour who has done so much for you, and find the sweet rest he has promised.
Plainly here his footsteps tracing,
Follow him without delay,
Gladly his command embracing,
Lo! your Captain leads the way.
View the rite with understanding,
Jesus' grave before you lies,
Be interred at his commanding,
After his example rise.
3. What its design is. Water baptism is not intended to remove guilt. The blood of Christ does that. Mr. Alexander Campbell, the father of Campbellism, gives us his opinion on this point in the following quotation taken from the Millenial Harbinger: "If blood can whiten or cleanse garments, certainly water can wash away sins. There is, then, a transition of the efficacy of blood to water, and a transferring of the efficacy of water to blood. This is a solution of the whole matter. God has transferred, in some way, the whitening efficacy, or cleansing power, of water to blood, and the absolving or pardoning power of blood to water. This is done upon the same principle as that of accounting faith for righteousness. What a gracious institution! God has opened a fountain for sin - for moral pollution. He has given it an extension far and wide as sin has spread - far and wide as water flows. Wherever water, faith, and the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are, there will be found the efficacy of the blood of Jesus. Yes, as God first gave the efficacy of water to blood, he has now given efficacy of blood to water. . . . Thus immersion, says Peter, saves us, not by cleansing the body from its filth, but the conscience from its guilt. Yes, immersion saves us by burying us with Christ, raising us with him; and so our consciences are purged from dead works to serve the living God."
Thus the father of Campbellism plunged into the same error in regard to baptism that the fathers of Romanism held, which gave rise to the practice of infant baptism. He has undertaken to support his position by arguments founded on Peter's sermon to the Pentecostians Ananias' command to Paul, and Peter's language to the scattered elect. According to his theory it requires the presence of water and faith, as well as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to give efficacy to the blood of Christ. He connects with these, of course, someone to administer the ordinance. A sinner, lost upon the sandy desert, though he might have a strong faith, and have the presence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, yet he could not be cleansed, for the blood of Christ would have no efficacy in the absence of water! Also the blood would have no efficacy in the case of a ship-wrecked sailor who is surrounded by an ocean of water but has no one to baptize him! The followers of Campbell still adhere to his doctrine, and maintain that baptism is for the remission of sins in a literal sense, and that the Holy Ghost is never given till that duty is complied with, because Peter said, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."
We deny that this is a correct interpretation of Peter's language. We argue that baptism is for the remission of sins in the same sense in which we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus in the Lord's Supper. Christ said of the bread, "This is my body," and of the wine, "This is my blood." Roman Catholics take these expressions literally, and contend that the actual flesh and blood of Jesus are present in the bread and wine. So Campbellites, with equal confidence, contend that baptism is literally for, or in order to, the remission of sins. In observing the Lord's Supper we eat the flesh of Jesus, and drink his blood, in a figurative sense; so in baptism sins are washed away figuratively. The Saviour told the cleansed leper to offer for his "cleansing those things which Moses commanded (Mark i. 44)." The man had been entirely healed or cleansed of his leprosy by Christ, so the offering was for his ceremonial or figurative cleansing. Thus the leprosy of sin must be cleansed by Christ in regeneration before there can be a figurative or ceremonial cleansing in water baptism.
It was in this sense that Ananias commanded Saul to wash away his sins in baptism (Acts xxii. 16). The ninth chapter of Acts shows that Saul was a "chosen vessel," that Ananias called him "brother," and that he was "filled with the Holy Ghost," before he was baptized. That the washing away of his sins in baptism was merely figurative and ceremonial is evident from what is taught in I. Peter iii. 21. It is here taught that baptism is a figure like the ark, that is, that they are figures of the same thing. The saving of Noah and his family, and all that were in the ark, is a figure of salvation in Christ, and as baptism is a like figure, it is a figure of the same thing. The real salvation is through Christ, and the literal cleansing from sin is by his blood, of which the ceremonial cleansing in baptism is a figure.
Baptism is the answer of a good conscience toward God. It is not to answer the conscience, but the answer the conscience gives. The conscience, then, is made good before baptism. How is it made good? "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" Heb. ix. 14. This shows that it is the blood of Christ that purges the conscience, and that this is done before we serve God.
It shows forth the burial and resurrection of Christ. The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, form the main pillars of the gospel, and to keep these before the church and the world, two monumental ordinances were established; viz., the Lord's Supper and baptism. The Lord's Supper is a perpetual monument of the death and suffering of Jesus, while baptism stands as a memorial of his burial and resurrection. "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Rom. vi. 3. Through this avenue is the Lord's table approached which he placed in his church. See Luke xxii. 29, 30. Reader, have you obeyed your precious Saviour in baptism?
Come, ye that love the Lord, and say,
We will no longer disobey,
If love divine your souls inflame,
Come, be baptized in Jesus' name.
J. R. D.
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