p. 165 | THE BAPTISM OF JOHN by John Nevins Andrews

The Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 20, 1879

THE BAPTISM OF JOHN.

By John Nevins Andrews

[From Les Signes des Temps.]

BAPTISM is an ordinance peculiar to the New-Testament church. It is designed to represent and commemorate certain events in the history of human redemption. Baptism originated with John, the forerunner of Christ. God sent him to preach and to baptize, that he might thus prepare the way before the Saviour. John preached the great truth that Christ was about to be manifested, and bade the people repent of their sins, that they might be prepared to receive him.

That they might in a proper manner express their faith in a coming Messiah, John, by God's direction, gave to them the ordinance of baptism, and vast multitudes of the people were baptized. It is certain that some of Christ's disciples were baptized by John, John 1: 35-42; and it is every way probable that all of them were baptized by him, for John's preaching was designed to prepare the people for Christ's first advent. Those who received his preaching were baptized. Christ chose his disciples from those who were prepared to receive him as the Messiah. It is therefore evident that not merely a part of his disciples, but all of them, were baptized by John before being called to the apostleship. If they had rejected John's baptism or neglected to observe it, they would have been unfit to fill so important and responsible a place.

Near the close of John's ministry, Christ himself was baptized. He submitted to this ordinance that he might, as our pattern, set us an example to follow. After Christ began to preach, the people lost their interest, to a great extent, in the preaching of John. John 3:26. His influence diminished as the influence of Christ increased. Verse 30. John continued to baptize even after the ministry of Christ had commenced, and Christ began to baptize immediately after he began to preach. John 3:22, 23; 4:1. He did not himself baptize any one, but those who were converted by his ministry were baptized by his apostles. And thus while John was still baptizing, the disciples of Christ, under the direction of their Lord, began to baptize the people. There was no conflict between John and Christ. John did all his work as the forerunner of Christ, and Christ acknowledged the great importance of the work done by John. Matt. 10:11. There was no difference between the baptism administered by John and that which the apostles administered under the eye of Christ. Baptism administered by John was gospel baptism, and baptism administered at the same time by the apostles was in no respect different. Christ attested the excellence of John's baptism by being baptized at his hands. The apostles who baptized while John was still engaged in baptizing, had been themselves baptized by John, and were not baptized anew by Christ; therefore baptism by the disciples of Christ and baptism by John, which took place at the same time, were each of the same nature and character.

A certain great truth was set forth before the people in the ordinance of baptism. The people were exhorted to repent, for the advent of Christ was at hand; and they were to show their faith in this truth by being baptized. Matt. 3.

Paul teaches, in the sixth chapter of Romans, that the ordinance of baptism represents the burial and resurrection of Christ; that the sinner, having died to sin, is to be buried in the water, as Christ, after he had died for our sins, was buried in the grave; and that as Christ was raised from the tomb to immortal life, so the believer, being raised from the water, is to walk in newness of life. When John preached to the people that they should repent, he bade them believe on Him that should come after him, that is, Christ. It is evident, then, that John preached the forgiveness of sins through the Saviour.

John understood and announced the fact that Christ is the “Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” John 1:29. John therefore preached the gospel in announcing to the people the death of Christ as the sacrifice for the sins of men. It is not difficult, then, to understand why John, when he taught the people to repent of their sins and to believe in Christ who was about to be revealed, also taught them to be baptized. The Son of God, through whom they were to be saved, must die and rise again, and this great fact was represented in the ordinance of baptism, which John taught the people. The only baptism received by Christ and his apostles was that administered by John.

Christ did not baptize his apostles, but when he commenced his ministry he employed them to baptize those who were converted by his preaching. John 4:2. The only baptism administered during the ministry of Christ must have been of the same nature as that administered by John.

If it be objected that John's baptism was not gospel baptism, because administered before the death and resurrection of Christ, the same objection may be urged against the baptism administered by the apostles during Christ's ministry. But no one will say that those who were baptized during the ministry of Christ did not receive gospel baptism, or that that baptism was not of the same nature as that which was administered by the apostles after Christ's resurrection.

But it will be asked how baptism can commemorate the resurrection of Christ if it began to be observed before his death. This question presents a difficulty, and merits our careful attention. If we consider the ordinance of the Lord's supper, we shall find certain facts with regard to its origin which will help to solve this difficulty. This ordinance commemorates the breaking of Christ's body, and the shedding of his blood. No one doubts that it is the memorial of the death of Christ. But this ordinance was observed for the first time before the death of Christ. Though it was instituted to commemorate that event, it was observed for the first time before that event had taken place.

The ordinance of baptism and that of the Lord's supper, though designed to commemorate the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, were first, by divine authority, observed in anticipation of those events, and as expressing the faith of the disciples that those events should actually take place. But from the day that they transpired till the present time, these ordinances have been observed in memory of these events.

But it will be asked, If the baptism of John was gospel baptism, why, then, did Paul, as recorded in Acts 19, baptize again some who had been baptized according to John's baptism? The answer to this question is not difficult. The persons here referred to were the disciples of Apollos, converted at Ephesus a short time previous to the visit of Paul. See the last part of Acts 18. Though this was twenty-five years after the resurrection of Christ, Apollos knew only the baptism of John, and baptized just as John had administered the ordinance, telling the disciples that they should believe on a Messiah that was yet to come. It was all right for John to give this instruction to those whom he baptized; for the Saviour was about to be manifested to the people. But it was a great error on the part of Apollos to teach the people that Christ was yet to come, when, in truth, he had died and risen from the dead twenty-five years before. The error of Apollos was corrected when Aquila and Priscilla took him and expounded to him the way of God more perfectly.

It was necessary that Paul should baptize those disciples anew; for Christ had already come, whereas they were baptized in the name of one who was yet to come. Those who were baptized by John personally in the faith of the coming Messiah did not need to be baptized again when Christ had actually presented himself to the people. But those who were baptized in the faith of a Messiah yet to come after he had died and risen from the dead, needed to be baptized again, that their baptism might not be a denial of Christ, but a confession of faith in him.

Those who ate the Lord's supper that night on which he was betrayed, received it as an expression of their faith in the Saviour who was yet to die for them; but since his death we eat it in memory of him who has already died for us. If the apostles had eaten the Lord's supper after Christ's death as an expression of their faith in a Saviour who was yet to die for them, it would have been an act like that of those who were baptized in the faith of a Messiah yet to come after he had already been manifested to men and had returned again to his Father.

J. N. A.

Bale, Oct. 1, 1879.