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Whereas supposing, as it has happened to me, a Jew or a heathen is really convinced that Jesus is the Christ, and feels his own sins even, but says, ' My mother is a pious Jewess; it would kill her if I were baptised,' I say to him, I cannot recognise you as saved. It is not a poor obedience to an ordinance when already a Christian which is in question here, but a shrinking from being one. |
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The mischief I see, is occupying people with that which is only an ordinance. If a person has not been baptised, of course he ought to be. But it is not what the Lord is occupying souls with, but separating His saints from the evil that is around them in a vast professing mass and to wait for His Son from heaven... No one will begin the church over again. I should not rebaptise a person sprinkled in infancy; though I do not like the form, because the intended signification in the form is lost. There is an analogy between baptism and circumcision, but such analogies must be used with intelligence, as the dispensations are different. |
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Even Baptists, if they found a person, baptised by them, unconverted, who afterwards believed, they would not baptise them again; and they are right in my judgement. If a person breaking bread was found never to have been baptised at all, I should merely rectify an irregularity as quietly as possible. It is as men speak, the cart before the horse. We have a case here of a young person just brought to the Lord, and it is quite understood she was to be baptised first. |
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The great and mischievous mistake which Baptists make is not seeing that there is a place of blessing set up by God, besides the fact of individual conversion. |
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Paul's statements in 1 Corinthians 1:14-17 help as to how we should view baptism. The wording is: "Have ye been baptised unto the name of Paul? I thank God that I have baptised none of you, unless Crispus and Gaius, that no one may say that I have baptised unto mine own name. Yes, I baptised also the house of Stephanas; for the rest I know not if I have baptised any other. For Christ has not sent me to baptise, but to preach glad tidings;" It is clear that Paul did not attach any particular importance to the fact that he had baptised persons, else he would have kept an account of those who he had baptised. His main concern was that there should be no idea that persons were being baptised to the name of Paul. Though Paul had in fact baptised certain persons, showing that baptism was still something that should be practised, he makes it clear that it was not a work he had been specially commissioned to do. The apostles were told to disciple the nations, which they did not actually do, for it was Paul that went specifically to the nations (Acts 22:21; 26:17; Galatians 2:9), though Peter opened the door to them (Acts 10).
In Christianity there is only "one baptism" (Ephesians 4:5), that is, Christian baptism. John's baptism was a different baptism and was really a baptism that applied to Jews with a view to their being in a state to receive Christ. Christian baptism takes those who submit to it out of Judaism or Heathendom and puts them in the sphere of Christian profession. Because of the present confused state of Christendom it is not surprising that God should leave baptism in the shade. Its force, because of the state referred to, is largely lost and this may be partly why Baptists seek other reasons for baptism. |
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February 2000 |
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