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Study
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For
more information on the teachings of Christian
Science, explore the following study
topics:
Angels
Animal
Magnetism
Baptism
The
Bible
CS
vs. Evolution and
Creationism
Christ
Jesus
Death
Devil
God
Heaven
Hell
Holy
Ghost
Marriage
Mortals
and Immortals
The
New Tongue
Purity
Salvation
The
Term "Science"
"Science
and Health"
Stages
of Advancement
The
Tenets of Christian
Science
The
Trinity
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An Introduction to Christian
Science
BAPTISM
"Baptism." From
The Christian Science Journal, Nov.,
1898
Volumes upon volumes have been written on
Baptism by Baptists and Pedobaptists. Acrimonious
debates and controversies have been indulged in to
prove on the one side that adults only can be
baptized, and on the other side that infants, as
well as adults, must be baptized.
The mode of
administering the ordinance has also been the
subject of many a dispute among eminent theologians
and learned divines. Pedobaptists hold that
"Baptism with water is an emblem of baptism with
the Holy Ghost. The two baptisms, the material and
the spiritual, are the one a shadow or figure of
the other, and the mode of the material as
resembling that of the spiritual"
(Edwards).
To the earnest
seeker after the Truth, the question will come: Can
Christians have "two" baptisms when Paul says,
There is one baptism? (Ephesians, 4: 5.)
Christian Scientists are satisfied with this plain
declaration of the great apostle, and for them
there is but one baptism, as there is also but one
Lord, one faith, one God and Father of all.
Christian Scientists leave a clear field to those
who care for shadows and emblems; they seek only
after the true Substance, and are satisfied
therewith, and do not concern themselves about the
river Jordan, the water of the baptistery or of the
font.
Another question
will be asked: Is water baptism the baptism of
Christ, or the Christian baptism? Jesus, the
apostles, and the evangelists answer this question.
They all say it was "John's baptism," or "the
baptism of John." (See Matthew, 21: 25; Mark, 11:
30; Luke, 7: 29; 20: 4; Acts, 1: 22; 10: 37; 18:
25; 19: 3, etc.) John's mission was to prepare the
way for Jesus; to make him manifest to Israel, and
to those who, through repentance, were willing and
ready to acknowledge and receive Jesus as the
long-promised Messiah; he administered his
baptism. "I indeed baptize you with water unto
repentance: but he that cometh after me . . . shall
baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire"
(Matthew, 3: 11). "There cometh one mightier than I
after me, . . . I indeed have baptized you with
water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy
Ghost" (Mark, 1: 7, 8). "I baptize with water: but
there standeth one among you, whom ye know not, . .
. The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him and
saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away
the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said,
After me cometh a man which is preferred before me;
for he was before me. And I knew him not: but that
he should be made manifest to Israel,
therefore am I come baptizing with water . .
. . And I knew him not: but he that sent me to
baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon
whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and
remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth
with the Holy Ghost" (John, 1: 26-33). Here
John is telling us why he was baptizing with water,
and also what the baptism of Christ, or the
Christian baptism, was to be.
No one but John was
ever sent to baptize with water. In 1 Corinthians,
1:17 Paul says: "Christ sent me not to baptize"
(with water), and if he was not sent to baptize
thus, neither were the other apostles sent to
baptize with water.
Our Christian
friends will say, Jesus was baptized in water and
we must also be thus baptized. Very well; Jesus was
circumcised also, and what about that? Our friends
will say that Paul baptized Crispus, Gaius, and the
household of Stephanas. (1 Corinthians, 1: 14, 16.)
Yes; and because he had baptized only few he
thanks God, for, says he, "Christ sent me
not to baptize, but to preach the gospel." If water
baptism were the baptism of Christ, or that baptism
with which Jesus commanded his apostles to baptize
all the nations (Matthew, 28: 19), would Paul thank
God that he had baptized but few with water? The
apostles were commanded to baptize the nations
in the name of the triune God, but nowhere
can we see that they were commanded to baptize into
water. In the fulfilment of their mission we see
them baptizing "into the name of the Lord,"
into the life and character of the Holy One of
Israel. Why into that name? Because there was "none
other name under heaven given among men, whereby we
must be saved" (Acts, 4: 12). Could the Corinthian
believers be saved if they were baptized into the
name of Paul? (1 Corinthians, 1: 13). Although
among them that were born of women there had never
risen a greater man than John the Baptist (Matthew,
11: 11), could mortals be saved if they were
baptized into his name? No; for there is but one
Saviour, one Lord, and one Christ.
"He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved; but he that
believeth not shall be damned" (Mark, 16: 16). Our
friends will tell us that water baptism is meant
here; but if they are right, how could Paul bring
salvation to the Gentiles since he was not sent to
baptize (with water)? Paul was sent to preach the
Gospel, and "Woe is unto me, if I preach not the
gospel!" (1 Corinthians, 9: 16), and it is by the
preaching of the Gospel of Truth that the nations
were to be baptized or washed clean into the name,
life, character, and holiness of the Son of
God.
Water baptism was
but for a season. John says, "He [Jesus]
must increase, but I must decrease" (John, 3: 30).
After John had been put in prison, we hear Jesus
asking: The baptism of John whence
was it? from heaven or of men?" (Matthew,
21: 25; Mark, 11: 30; Luke, 20: 4.) When Jesus
asked this question water baptism had already
ceased to be the baptism with which converts were
to be baptized, for if it had been yet in force
Jesus would not have asked, "whence was it?"
but "whence is it?" It is true, water
baptism was yet administered after Jesus had
disappeared. In the case of the eunuch (which our
friends never fail to cite as their main proof) we
see a man coming to Jerusalem from the distant land
of Ethiopia. Everywhere he had heard about John's
baptism, and how immense multitudes had been
baptized by John. He was undoubtedly like the Jew
named Apollos and like the twelve disciples Paul
found in Ephesus: he knew only John's baptism.
(Acts, 18: 25; 19: 1, 2, 3, 4.) And when he saw
some water he asked to be baptized. Note Philip's
answer: "If thou believest with all thine
heart, thou mayest." Not "thou must,"
but "thou mayest." (Acts, 8: 37.)
Philip knew well
that if there was no good in water baptism neither
was there any evil; and since the eunuch desired
John's baptism, Philip having first required faith
in Christ, granted the request with "thou mayest."
But our friends will say that if water baptism was
not the Christian baptism, Philip had no right to
administer it. He had as good a right to baptize
the treasurer of Queen Candace as Paul had the
right to circumcise Timotheus, a Christian believer
and disciple whom he found at Lystra. (Acts, 16: 1,
2, 3.) Paul writes to the Galatians (5: 2, 6), "If
ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing
. . . . For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision
availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith
which worketh by love." To the Corinthians (1
Corinthians, 7: 19) he writes: "Circumcision is
nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the
keeping of the commandments of God." To the Romans
(2: 28), "He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly;
neither is that circumcision which is outward in
the flesh: But he is a Jew which is one inwardly;
and circumcision is that of the heart, in the
spirit, and not in the letter."
To Paul,
"circumcision which is outward in the flesh" was
nothing; yet he circumcised a Christian believer,
and why? Because this was deemed expedient for the
success of his mission among the Jews of that
region, for those Jews knew that Timothy had not
been circumcised, since his father was a Greek.
Philip knew that "water baptism" was not the
baptism that saves us. He knew that the true
baptism, or the true washing or cleansing, is "that
of the heart in the Spirit, and not in the letter,"
not in material water. But when the eunuch had
expressed his desire in these words: "See, here is
water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?" Philip
saw no wrong in granting the request of the eunuch
and he baptized him. But because the eunuch was
baptized in water, it does not follow that
believers must be thus baptized. Because Timothy
was circumcised it does not follow that Christians
must be circumcised, and until our Christian
friends shall prove that John the Baptist was a
false prophet Christian Scientists will continue to
believe that "He [Christ] shall baptize you
with the Holy Spirit," and will recognize this
baptism as the only true Christian baptism there
can be since it is that "one baptism" with which
Christ was to baptize and is now baptizing all true
believers. Christians are followers of Christ, not
of John.
NOTE. All
the italics used in the above article are the
author's.
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