THEY BECAME FOOLS by Frank Hope

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 31, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 34.

“THEY BECAME FOOLS.”

By Frank Hope

PAUL, in speaking of the manner by which the ungodly became so iniquitous, says: “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” Although the apostle is especially speaking of the heathen, yet this principle applies to all who reject the word of God and cleave to human tradition, and it is strikingly illustrated in the way men have dealt with the doctrine of baptism. The Bible plainly teaches that baptism is by immersion—a burial in the likeness of Christ’s death. Rom. 6:3-5. But many who professed themselves to be wise were not satisfied with it, and sought out some invention of their own, and, gradually becoming more foolish, they adopted the old heathen practice of sprinkling; from this they went to the baptizing of infants, and finally baptism degenerated into a mere superstitious rite. This is shown in the manner in which it is sometimes performed by the Catholics.

In “Bancroft’s History of Mexico,” vol. 2, p. 176, we read: “Father Gante himself writes without hesitation that he and a companion used to baptize ‘eight thousand, sometimes ten thousand, and even fourteen thousand persons in one day.’ With such numbers the formalities prescribed in the ritual could not be observed, and a readier method was adopted. Those who declared their willingness to be Christians were assembled in formidable groups, the children being placed in the first ranks. The ritual was then performed with a few select, and the rest were merely sprinkled with water. In applying names all the males baptized on one day received the appellation of John, and the females Mary. The following day the names of Peter and Catalina were given, and so on through the list of saints. . . . The rite had an attraction for these superstitious people in its similarity to their own.” Vatancourt, another author, says: “The day before St John, forty thousand were baptized at the chapel of St Joseph, Mexico.” And it is said that one priest baptized three thousand six hundred a day. This shows to what depths of foolishness and darkness men will go after having rejected the light.

But Catholicism is not allowed to carry off the palm without competition; many Protestants follow hard on the same trail. Here is an instance. Some time ago the Rev. Dr. Barbee preached a sermon on this subject at Nashville, Tenn., which was published as sound doctrine. In it he said: “If I should stand at a convenient distance and never touch the water or the subject, and say, . . . [here he repeats the usual invocation], the subject at the same time dipping his big toe into a basin of water, he would be as effectually baptized as if I had immersed him in a creek.” When men who are called doctors of divinity so ridicule and trifle with a sacred doctrine of the Lord Jesus, they show the truth of Paul’s statement that men “professing themselves to be wise” become fools, and their foolish heart becomes darkened; and says Christ, “He that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.”

FRANK HOPE.