Water is not to be understood whenever baptism is named; neither is
baptism to be understood whenever water is named. There are many
baptisms without water mentioned in Scripture and elsewhere.
The four evangelists and Peter each define two different and distinct
baptisms following closely after each other. First John's baptism of
water, then Christ's baptism of the Holy Spirit. Our Saviour also
testified to these two independent baptisms but to no other baptism as
the result or successor of these two. He speaks of one as past and of
the other as yet to come.[115]
Many years later, Paul said there was only one baptism; one Lord, one
faith, one baptism.[116]
One of these two baptisms which Christ and all the evangelists tell us
about must have ended before Paul wrote. Which baptism had ended? Which
remains? Can any Christian doubt which baptism remains to us? Christ's
death, resurrection, ascension and return at Pentecost had all
intervened between the time when John told the Jews of two baptisms and
the time when Paul claimed there was but one. During this time Christ
had blotted out ordinances and nailed them to his cross. He made no
reservation 3 of water baptism. It went with the rest.[117]
Christian baptism came in fullness; water baptism ended.
Near the close of Peter's ministry he said: The baptism which now saves
is not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good
conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.[118]
Putting away the filth of the flesh evidently here refers to Jewish
purification by water baptism. Peter says this is not the baptism which
now saves. The baptism which now saves is the answer of a good
conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.[119]
This answer of a good conscience toward God can refer to no other
baptism than that of the Holy Spirit which Jesus said was the promise of
the Father to follow or supercede John's water baptism.[120] It is also
called the gift of the Holy Spirit, and being filled with the Holy
Spirit. And again it is called the earnest of the Spirit. This is the
baptism which Peter recognized as that which was foretold by the prophet
Joel: In the last days saith God I will pour out my Spirit upon all
flesh, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. On my servants and
on my handmaidens will I pour out of my Spirit and they shall
prophecy.[121]
These are the Gospel days in which we now live. This is the one baptism
ordained to remain.
Churchmen say: Burial with Christ in baptism (Rom. 6-2) is figurative,
a mortification of our lusts; not a literal burial in water.[122]
We heartily accept this church teaching and suggest that baptism into
Christ and crucifixion with Christ are no more literal.[123]
We see no more water about baptism into Christ than we see wood in the
cross upon which all Christ's children must be crucified.[124]
Church catechism teaches that "baptism is generally necessary to
salvation." As an apology for introducing this extrinsic word
"generally," they say the thief upon the cross was evidently saved
without baptism.[125]
As we understand this is all contrary to Scripture teaching, one error
calls for another and the catechism leads astray. There is no
"generally" about Christ's teaching. He said positively, Ye shall be
baptized with the Holy Spirit; and again he said, Ye must be born again.
Without this new birth and baptism we see no hope of salvation.[126]
The thief was evidently baptized upon the cross with this saving baptism
and was born again without water, and was thus prepared for the paradise
which Jesus promised him. He experienced repentance, forgiveness and
remission of sin.[127]
Simon the Sorcerer was baptized presumably with water; was he born
again? We are told that he remained in the gall of bitterness and bond
of iniquity and that his heart was not right in the sight of God.[128]
Altho' apostles baptized Simon with water he was evidently not born
again. Altho' admittedly not baptized with water the repentant thief was
born again.[129]
Paul said, as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on
Christ.[130]
Had Simon put on Christ, his heart would have been right in the sight of
God, not in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity.
According to Paul's teaching, Simon was not baptized into Christ; but
the repentant thief was baptized into Christ and put on Christ.
The bond of iniquity in which water baptism left Simon bound is a poor
recommendation to the rite. Has it improved since that early day, or is
the gall of bitterness less pungent, or has the sight of God become
dimmed?[131]
The New Testament makes no connection between new birth and water
baptism.
Baptism, not of water, but of the Holy Spirit, makes the heart right. By
resisting this baptism we fail to be baptized into Christ.[132] By
yielding to this baptism we become our Saviour's new born children,
baptized into Christ and buried with him in baptism.[133] This baptism
is freely offered to every son and daughter of Adam.
Those of every land who never saw the Scriptures nor ever heard of Jesus
with outward ear may be baptized with this saving baptism and be born
again without instrumentality.[134]
There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God.[135] Our
Saviour left us not dependent on book, man or water for salvation. His
love is universal and unbounded; he tasted death for every man.[136]
This is the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after
those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws in their minds, and in
their hearts will I write them.[137]
Paul says, "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to
all men." This does not imply that this grace has appeared to all men in
the same way and fulness, but it does imply that it appears to every
conscience with sufficient fulness to bring salvation if listened to and
obeyed.[138]
He now stands at every door and knocks; if we open the door he will come
in and sup with us.[139] If we love him he will abide with us; but we
must heed his gentle knocks, his still, small voice, and open the
door.[140]
Churchmen say: The visible church, comprising persons good and bad,
saints and sinners, is the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of Heaven, and
that the door of entrance is water baptism duly administered.[141]
Paul tells the Corinthians, the Gallatians and the Ephesians, each in
nearly the same language, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the
kingdom of God. Of fornication, wrath, strife, drunkenness, revellings,
and such like, Paul says: I tell you plainly, they who do such things
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, goodness, temperance, etc. Again, he says the kingdom
of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.[142]
By Paul's whole teaching those who yield the fruit of the spirit--love,
joy, peace, &c., are the inheritors of this heavenly kingdom and the
unrighteous are rejected.
Again Paul says: Some of those Corinthians who were once unrighteous
were washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and
in the Spirit of our God. He said they were not inheritors of this
kingdom while they were unrighteous.[143]
Membership in the visible church at Corinth did convey this
inheritance.[144] They had to be washed, sanctified and justified (not
in water, but) in the name or power of the Lord Jesus and in the spirit
of our God. They had to be washed in the Spirit of our God before they
could enter his kingdom.[145]
In four of Paul's epistles he recognizes the Spirit at the door of
entrance to this kingdom. He mentions it seven times in ten verses in
this connection, but nothing whatever about water baptism.[146]
Paul knew of no door to this kingdom by way of water baptism or he would
have told us of it, for this door and how we may enter is just what Paul
was emphasizing.
Our Lord's memorable Sermon on the Mount, which occupies the fifth,
sixth and seventh chapters of Matthew is mostly about this heavenly
kingdom, the blessed who possess it, the unrighteous who cannot enter
and how we may all attain it, but not one word about water baptism.
This ancient ordinance was far away from the mind of our Lord amid the
dim and receding shadows of Judaism[147] when he taught that multitude
on the Mount and gave his kingdom to his saints, the poor in spirit, the
pure in heart, the meek and the merciful, and encouraged us all to seek
first this kingdom, which he said those only can enter who do the will
of our Father in Heaven.[148] The kingdom of God is mentioned more than
sixty times and the kingdom of Heaven twenty times in the New Testament
but water baptism is never once named nor alluded to in any of those
eighty texts.
This silence impressively suggests that water baptism is entirely
foreign to this kingdom and must belong to another dispensation.
Plainly no door of entrance to this kingdom by way of water baptism had
been discovered at the time the New Testament was written. Jesus said
that he himself was the door to this sheepfold and that he is a thief
and a robber who climbs up some other way.[149]
We read that John baptized with water but Jesus should baptize with the
Holy Spirit, and with fire;[150] and again: Except a man be born of
water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God; and again:
Except a man be born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God.[151]
This birth from above; this birth by water and the Spirit; and this
baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire are all three plainly one and
the same divine operation and there is no water baptism either
mentioned or implied: Yet man who is prone to substitute the letter
which killeth for the spirit which giveth life, long ago perverted this
testimony of Christ to Nicodemus by construing "born" to mean "baptized"
and thus by changing one Scripture word he would close the kingdom of
God against his fellow man who would not come to him and be baptized
with water.[152]
But we trace through history from the beginning a seed or remnant who
constantly protested against such sacramentalism and by legions sealed
their testimonies with martyr's blood.[153]
With the Bible, which was long forbidden, now open to all, how can we of
this enlightened day still adhere to such idle dogma or ever quote these
words of Christ to Nicodemus as authority for any water baptism?[154] By
this whole context and by all of Christ's relevant sayings upon the
Mount and elsewhere he had no allusion to water baptism. Had he meant
baptized he would have said baptized and not born.
Just as Christ said: We must surely be born of water and the Spirit and
we must just as surely be baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire,
but we shall no more be born of material water than we shall be baptized
with material fire.[155]
Neither is Christ's fan material nor his axe at the root of the tree,
nor are the waters which he said should flow from the bodies of
believers, nor the waters which he promised should be in them a well of
living water springing up unto everlasting life;[156] nor the living
fountains of water, where God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes.
Neither shall we be tried and refined literally as gold and silver; nor
purged literally as a fuller purges with material soap.[157]
These fires, fountains, births, baptisms, waters, &c., are all
spiritual. The purifications are symbols of our spiritual regeneration
and preparation for the kingdom of God which the unrighteous shall
neither inherit nor enter.[158]
Like those Corinthians we must be washed, sanctified and justified in
the name or power of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit of our God; be
saved by the washing of regeneration and the renewings of the Holy
Spirit shed upon us abundantly by Jesus Christ our Saviour.[159]
We must be circumcised and crucified as well as washed and baptized.
We must be crucified upon a cross which we may often carry but with
outward eyes can never see. We must be circumcised in Christ and buried
with him in baptism. We must be baptized into Christ. Put on Christ. We
must be circumcised of heart in the Spirit by the circumcision of
Christ.[160]
As instructed by Scripture we accept this circumcision without hands,
and this baptism and washing without water, and do most firmly believe
that our Saviour never commanded nor intended any other.[161]