ESTABLISHED: BAPTISM (BY IMMERSION; IN JESUS NAME) JOHN 3:1-7
THE LAST MESSAGE PREACHED BY JESUS WAS A COMMAND TO BAPTIZE ALL NATIONS IN MATTHEW 28:19…
THE FIRST MESSAGE PREACHED BY THE APOSTLES RESULTED IN A COMMAND FOR EVERYONE TO BE BAPTIZED IN ACTS 2:38…
YOUR SALVATION IS DEPENDENT UPON YOUR BEING BORN OF THE WATER!!
THERE ARE THREE PRE-REQUISITES FOR BEING BAPTIZED IN JESUS NAME:
1. ACTS 2:38: REPENTANCE 2. ACTS 8:35-37: BELEIVING (EUNUCH: WHAT DOTH HINDER ME? PHILLIP: IF THOU BELEIVEST WITH ALL THINE HEART.) 3. MATTHEW 28:19: TEACHING OR PREACHING THE WORD (ACTS 2:41 “THEN THEY THAT GLADLY RECEIVED HIS WORD WERE BAPTIZED.”
EVERY NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH WAS FORMED BY THOSE WHO WERE BAPTIZED IN JESUS NAME AFTER HEARING THE WORD, BELEIVING AND REPENTING…
CHURCH AT JERUSALEM: 3000 WERE ADDED HAVING RECEIVED THE WORD AND GETTING BAPTIZED IN ACTS 2:41.
CHURCH AT SAMARIA: MEN AND WOMEN HEAR PHILLIP PREACHING AND ARE BAPTIZED IN ACTS 8:12-16.
CHURCH AT CAESAREA: PETER COMMANDED THEM TO BE BAPTIZED IN ACTS 10:48.
CHURCH AT PHILIPPI: LYDIA AND THE PHILLIPIAN JAILER ARE BAPTIZED IN ACTS 18:8.
CHURCH AT CORINTH: PAUL PREACHED, THEY BELIEVED/BAPTIZED. ACTS 18:8
CHURCH AT EPHESUS: PAUL RE-BAPTIZES THOSE IMPROPERLY BAPTIZED IN ACTS 19:1-6. THEY WENT FROM JOHN’S BAPTISM OF REPENTANCE TO BEING BAPTIZED IN THE NAME OF JESUS AND SPEAKING IN TONGUES AND PROPHECYING.
CHURCH AT GALATIA: BELIEVED PAUL AND WERE BAPTIZED IN GALATIANS 3:27.
CHURCH AT COLOSSE: THEY WERE BURIED WITH CHRIST IN BAPTISM IN COL 2:12.
CHURCH AT ROME: THEY DIED TO SIN AND WERE THEN BURIED IN BAPTISM IN ROMANS 6:1-4.
WE ARE ALSO ADDED TO THE CHURCH WHEN WE ARE BAPTIZED IN HIS NAME!
BAPTISM IS NOT AN OPTION. IT IS NOT AN ACCESSORY TO OUR CHRISTIANITY. IT IS NOT SOMETHING THAT YOU MAY WANT TO CONSIDER AT SOME POINT IN THE FUTURE AS YOU GET CLOSER TO JESUS... IT IS NOT AN ADDED BLESSING, NOT A SPECIAL BUT OPTIONAL FEATURE, NOT AN APOSTOLIC UPGRADE, OR AN UN-NECCESARY UPDATE…
1 BUT IF YOU WANT TO BE ADDED TO HIS CHURCH BRIDE AND YOU WANT TO SEE JESUS; THEN YOU ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, UN-EQUIVOCABLY, WITHOUT ANY ARGUMENT OR EXCEPTIONS; YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN OF THE WATER AND BE BURIED IN THE SAVING NAME OF JESUS CHRIST FOR THE REMISSION AND WASHING AWAY OF YOUR SINS!!!
IN ACTS 2 PETER ANSWERED THE QUESTION “MEN AND BRETHREN WHAT SHALL WE DO?” WITH THE ANSWER “REPENT AND BE BAPTIZED EVERY ONE OF YOU IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST FOR THE REMISSION…”
IN MARK 16:16 JESUS HIMSELF SAID, “HE THAT BELEIVETH AND IS BAPTIZED SHALL BE SAVED; BUT HE THAT BELEIVETH NOT SHALL BE DAMNED.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DAMNATION AND SALVATION IS BAPTISM!
I PETER 3:21 “…EVEN BAPTISM DOTH ALSO NOW SAVE US…”
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON IMMERSION AND THE NAME OF JESUS…
IMMERSION:
GREEK WORD FOR BAPTISM IS “BAPTIZO” MEANING TO DIP, IMMERSE, BURY. GREEK WORD FOR SPRINKLING IS “RANTIZO”
THE ORIGINAL NT TEXT AND THE SPOKEN LANGUAGE OF THAT DAY WAS GREEK. THE AUTHORS OF THE NT KNEW THESE TWO GREEK WORDS AND THEIR NUANCES AND DIFFERENCES.
THESE TWO WORDS BAPTIZO AND RANTIZO ARE NEVER INTERCHANGEABLE AS THEY HAVE ENTIRELY DIFFERENT MEANINGS. EVERYTIME IN THE BIBLE THAT THE WORD BAPTISM IS USED IT IS BAPTIZO AS IN “IMMERSION OR TO BURY”!
CLASSIC GREEK-ENGLISH DICTIONARY BY POLLET: GREEK WORD BAPTIZO MEANS TO DIP UNDER. IN EVERY INSTANCE THE GREEK WORD BAPTIZO IS TRANSLATED IMMERSE.
SCHAFF-HERZOG RELIGIOUS ENC: VOL. 1 PG 451: “BAPTISM WAS ALWAYS A BURIAL. THE COMMAND TO BAPTIZE WAS A COMMAND TO IMMERSE.”
CATHOLIC BIBLICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA: PG 61, PARAGRAPH 2: “IMMERSION WAS OLDEST METHOD EMPLOYED.”
ENCYCLOPEDIA DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE: PG 202: “IT IS EVIDENT THAT THE ACTION PERFORMED IN BAPTIZING WAS IMMERSION.”
WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA: VOL 2, PG 70: “THE EARLY CHURCH PRACTICED IMMERSION OR SUBMERGING UNDER THE WATER.”
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE LUTHERN CHURCH: VOL 1, PG 188: “MARTIN LUTHER PREFERRED IMMERSION AS MORE TRUE TO ORIGINAL PRACTICES.”
2 BAPTISM IN THE NAME OF JESUS.
WHEN THE COUNCIL OF NICEA MET IN 325 A.D., THE TRINITARIAN FORMULA FOR BAPTISM WAS ADOPTED.
FOR THE NEXT 1200 YEARS THE CATHOLIC CHURCH WAS WITHOUT RIVAL AND HAD TREMENDOUS INFLUENCE ON THE RELIGIOUS WORLD.
THEN IN 1517 MARTIN LUTHER BEGAN WHAT WAS LATER KNOWN AS ‘THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION’ WHERE RELIGION BEGAN TO BREAK AWAY FROM CATHOLIC TEACHING, BUT THEY KEPT THE CATHOLIC FORMULA OF BAPTIZING “IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, SON AND HOLY GHOST.”
WHAT IS CLEAR AND WITHOUT ARGUMENT IS THAT THE ORIGINAL FORMULA FOR BAPTISM FROM THE VERY BEGINNING IN ACTS 2 HAS ALWAYS BEEN BAPTISM IN THE NAME OF JESUS!
NO ONE IN THE BIBLE WAS EVER BAPTIZED ANY OTHER WAY THAN BY IMMERSION AND HAVING THE NAME OF JESUS CALLED OVER THEM!
BRITANNICA ENCYCLOPEDIA, 11TH EDITION, VOL 3, PG 365: “BAPTISM WAS CHANGED FROM THE NAME OF JESUS TO WORDS FATHER, SON AND HOLY GHOST IN THE SECOND CENTURY.”
CANNEY ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION: PG 53: “THE EARLY CHURCH BAPTIZED IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS.”
HASTINGS ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION: VOL 2, PG 377: “CHRISTIAN BAPTISM WAS ADMINISTERED USING THE WORDS ‘IN THE NAME OF JESUS’.” PG 389: “BAPTISM WAS ALWAYS IN THE NAME OF JESUS UNTIL THE TIME OF JUSTIN MARTYR.”
CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: VOL 2, PG 435: THE AUTHORS ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE BAPTISMAL FORMULA WAS CHANGED BY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
SCHAFF-HERZOG RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA: VOL 1, PG 435: “THE NEW TESTAMENT KNOWS ONLY THE BAPTISM IN THE NAME OF JESUS.”
HASTINGS DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE: PG 88: “IT MUST BE ACKNOWLEDGED THAT THE THREE-FOLD NAME OF MATTHEW 28:19 DOES NOT APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN USED BY THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH, BUT RATHER IN THE NAME OF JESUS OR LORD JESUS.”
ACTS 4:12 “NEITHER IS THERE SALVATION IN ANY OTHER: FOR THERE IS NONE OTHER NAME UNDER HEAVEN GIVEN AMONG MEN, WHERBY WE MUST BE SAVED.”
MANY MISCONCEPTIONS AND FALSE DOCTRINES REGARDING BAPTISM: 1. OPTIONAL SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE. DOING IT OR METHOD OF BAPTISM 2. WAIT TO GET BAPTIZED…SOW YOUR WILD OATS IN YOUR YOUTH, THEN WHEN YOU ARE READY TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT LIVING FOR GOD, THEN GET BAPTIZED. (SPANISH APOSTOLIC)
3 WHY MUST WE BE BAPTIZED? I’M SO GLAD YOU ASKED…
1. BAPTISM IS FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS.
THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FORGIVENESS AND REMISSION. WE ARE FORGIVEN AT REPENTANCE, BUT OUR SINS ARE REMITTED OR WASHED AWAY AT WATER BAPTISM.
2. BAPTISM IS FOR THE WASHING AWAY OF OUR SINS.
ACTS 22:6 PAUL COMMANDED BY ANANIAS TO “ARISE, AND BE BAPTIZED, AND WASH AWAY THY SINS, CALLING ON THE NAME OF THE LORD.”
WE RISE FROM THE WATERY GRAVE OF BAPTISM AS NEW CREATURES IN CHRIST WITH OLD THINGS PASSED AWAY AND ALL THINGS BECOMING NEW…
3. WATER BAPTISM IS PART OF THE NEW BIRTH EXPERIENCE.
JOHN 3:5 “EXCEPT A MAN BE BORN OF THE WATER AND OF THE SPIRIT, HE CANNOT ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD.”
4. BAPTISM IS A WASHING AND CLEANSING OF THE CONSCIENCE.
I PETER 3:21, HEBREWS 9:14
5. BAPTISM IS A BURIAL.
ROMANS 6:3-4 “KNOW YE NOT, THAT SO MANY OF US AS WERE BAPTIZED INTO JESUS CHRIST WERE BAPTIZED INTO HIS DEATH? THEREFORE ARE WE BURIED WITH HIM BY BAPTISM INTO DEATH: THAT LIKE AS CHRIST WAS RAISED FROM THE DEAD BY THE GLORY OF THE FATHER, EVEN SO WE ALSO SHOULD WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE.”
COLOSSIANS 2:12 “BURIED WITH HIM IN BAPTISM, WHEREIN ALSO YE ARE RISEN WITH HIM THROUGH THE FAITH OF THE OPERATION OF GOD, WHO HATH RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD.
6. BAPTISM IS US TAKING ON THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST.
GALATIANS 3:27 “FOR AS MANY OF YOU AS HAVE BEEN BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST HAVE PUT ON CHRIST.”
ROMANS 13:14 “BUT PUT YE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST...”
I CORINTHIANS 6:11 “BUT YE ARE WASHED, BUT YE ARE SANCTIFIED, BUT YE ARE JUSTIFIED IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS, AND BY THE SPIRIT OF OUR GOD.”
COLOSSIANS 3:17 “WHATSOEVER YE DO IN WORD OR DEED DO ALL IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS…”
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