p. 9 | A. E. FIELD by A. E. FIELD

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 12, 1906

A. E. FIELD

By A. E. FIELD

Baptism

A. E. FIELD

“ONE Lord, one faith, one baptism.” The minds of some people have been confused, and in some instances have been led to renounce water baptism. But we are sure that a thorough study of the text will establish water baptism, as well as Holy Ghost baptism. You will notice that the text says, “One Lord.” Are we to understand from this statement that there is only one person in the Godhead? A few texts of scripture will make it plain to our minds that there is a personal God; and that he has a personal Son is evident from Heb. 1:1, 2, which says, God spoke. How did he speak?—“By his Son.” Then God and his Son could not be the same person.

Again, in John 6:38, 39, it is plainly taught that the Son has come from heaven to the earth, not to do his will, but the will of the Father who sent him. Here we have two persons in the Godhead, but only one will. In John 4:34 Jesus says, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish the work.” So we see, the one will, but two persons, are brought to view. In John 12:49 we read, “I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak;” also in John 14:10, 11, he says, “I speak not of myself,” but he did obey the command of his Father. He says, in John 5:19, “The Son can do nothing of himself.” From these scriptures we learn that there are two persons in the Godhead, known as Father and Son, but there is only one will brought to view. Hence the Father and Son are one as brought to view in John 17:22. In this sense there is “one Lord;” so there are two baptisms in the “one baptism.”

The following scriptures settle the question in regard to water baptism. In Matt. 3:5, 6, we find that all Jerusalem, Judea, and the regions round about Jordan went out to John, and he baptized them in Jordan. In John 1:26 he says, “I baptize you with water.” In Acts 8:38, 39, we learn that both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him, and they came up out of the water; also in Acts 10:47 we read, “Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?” These are a sufficient number of texts to establish the fact that water is to be used in baptism, even after the Holy Ghost has been poured out upon them. These texts not only prove water baptism to be necessary, but they also teach Holy Ghost baptism.

In the study of this subject we should notice that God has commissioned man to administer the water (Matt. 28:19; Mark 16:15, 16), but God administers the Holy Ghost. Read Matt. 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33. Hence in the administering of the water by man and the Holy Ghost by God, we have the one baptism. In Acts 10:44–47 God poured out his Spirit on them, and Peter understood that it was a sign of God’s approval of them, so he commanded them to be baptized in water. Without the operation of the Spirit it would not be baptism. It takes a union of both water and the Spirit to constitute the one baptism. We are told in John 3:5 that we are to be born of water and the Spirit. Hence we have the “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”