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.