=1. Preparation for Baptism.=--The doctrine that baptism, to be
acceptable, must be preceded by efficient preparation, was
generally taught and understood in the days of Christ, as also in
the so-called apostolic period, and the time immediately
following. But this belief gradually fell away, and baptism came
to be regarded as an outward form, the application of which
depended little, if at all, on the candidates' appreciation, or
conception of its purpose; and, as stated in the test, the Lord
deemed it wise to re-announce the doctrine in the present
dispensation. Concerning the former belief a few evidences are
here given:
"In the first ages of Christianity, men and women were baptized
on a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ."--_Canon
Farrar._ "But as Christ enjoins them (Mark, xvi, 15-16) to teach
before baptizing, and desires that none but believers shall be
admitted to baptism, it would appear that baptism is not properly
administered unless when it is preceded by faith."... In the
apostolic age "no one is found to have been admitted to baptism
without a previous profession of faith and
repentance."--_Calvin._ "You are not first baptized, and then
begin to receive the faith, and have a desire; but when you are
to be baptized, you make known your will to the Teacher, and make
a full confession of your faith with your own
mouth."--_Arnobius_--a rhetorician who wrote in the latter half
of the third century.
"In the primitive church, instruction preceded baptism, agreeable
to the order of Jesus Christ--'Go, teach all nations, baptizing
them,' etc."--_Saurin_ (a French protestant; 1677-1730.)
"In the first two centuries, no one was baptized, except, being
instructed in the faith and acquainted with the doctrine of
Christ, he was able to profess himself a believer; because of
those words, 'He that believeth and is baptized.'"--_Salmasius_
(a French author; 1588-1653).
=2. Historical Notes on Infant Baptism.=--"The baptism of
infants, in the first two centuries after Christ, was altogether
unknown.... The custom of baptizing infants did not begin before
the third age after Christ was born. In the former ages no trace
of it appears; and it was introduced without the command of
Christ."--_Curcellaeus._
"It is certain that Christ did not ordain infant baptism.... We
cannot prove that the apostles ordained infant baptism. From
those places where baptism of a whole family is mentioned (as in
Acts xvi, 33; I Cor. i, 16) we can draw no such conclusion,
because the inquiry is still to be made, whether there were any
children in the families of such an age that they were not
capable of any intelligent reception of Christianity; for this is
the only point on which the case turns.... As baptism was closely
united with a conscious entrance on Christian communion, faith
and baptism were always connected with one another; and thus it
is in the highest degree probable that baptism was performed only
in instances where both could meet together, and that the
practice of infant baptism was unknown at this (the apostolic)
period.... That not till so late a period as (at least certainly
not earlier than) Irenæus, a trace of infant baptism appears; and
that it first became recognized as an apostolic tradition in the
course of the third century, is evidence rather against than for
the admission of its apostolic origin."--_Johann Neander_ (a
German theologian who flourished in the first half of the present
century).
"Let them therefore come when they are grown up--when they can
understand--when they are taught whither they are to come. Let
them become Christians when they can know Christ."--_Tertullian_
(one of the Latin "Christian Fathers"; he lived from 150 to 220
A. D.) Tertullian's almost violent opposition to the practice of
pedobaptism is cited by Neander as "a proof that it was then not
usually considered an apostolic ordinance; for in that case he
would hardly have ventured to speak so strongly against it."
Martin Luther, writing in the early part of the sixteenth
century, declared: "It cannot be proven by the sacred scriptures
that infant baptism was instituted by Christ, or begun by the
first Christians after the apostles."
"By _tekna_ the Apostle understands, not infants, but posterity;
in which signification the word occurs in many places of the New
Testament (see among others John viii, 39); whence it appears
that the argument which is very commonly taken from this passage
for the baptism of infants, is of no force, and good for
nothing."--_Limborch_ (a native of Holland, and a theologian of
repute; he lived 1633-1712).
=3. Baptism Necessary.=--"That Gospel baptism is necessary to
salvation, is abundantly evidenced in the sacred writings.
Christ, the highest authority known to man, asserted this most
emphatically when He said to Nicodemus: 'Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he
cannot enter into the kingdom of God' (John iii, 5). So important
did the Savior consider baptism, that when He went to John to be
baptized, and John forbade Him, He replied to him: 'Suffer it to
be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness'
(Matt. iii, 13-15). In this he taught John the doctrine that a
fulness of righteousness, or salvation, could not be received
without it. The prophet Nephi, who lived nearly six hundred years
before the birth of our Savior, clearly understood the necessity
of baptism. Said he: 'And now, if the Lamb of God, he being holy,
should have need to be baptized by water, to fulfil all
righteousness, O then, how much more need have we, being unholy,
to be baptized, yea, even by water?' (II Nephi xxxi, 5). The
prophet Mormon, who lived nearly one thousand years after Nephi,
also taught the necessity of following the example of our Savior
in being baptized, first by water (Mormon vii,
10)."--_Compendium_, p. 32. See also: Doc. and Cov. v, 16;
lxviii, 8; lxxvi, 51; cxii, 29; cxxviii, 12; Book of Mormon: II
Nephi xxxi, 11, 17; Alma v, 62; ix, 27; III Nephi xviii, 5;
xxviii, 18; Mormon ix, 29; Moroni vi, 1-4; viii, 4-22.