p. 8 | Question Corner by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 8, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 26.

Question Corner

By Editor

"Enquire, and make search, and ask diligently."

No. 596. Baptism.

WILL you be kind enough to inform me through your publication at what time or what is the earliest practical date of baptism known among men since the days of Christ and his apostles, and by whom was baptism first practised among those of Protestant faith? W. H. W.

We do not question at all the statement frequently made that it has been practised by believers in Christ from that day till the present time. Like the Sabbath, it was perverted by the rapidly apostatizing church. In Schaff-Herzog Cyclopedia, article Baptism, it is said that "there is not a dissenting voice in all the literature of the Christian church for twelve hundred years" that "immersion was the act of baptism." "Historians, and those who treat of the early liturgies, unite in the same testimony." "The Oriental churches, Greek, Russian, Armenian, Coptic, and others, have always practised immersion, and allow nothing else for baptism." "The Western churches also preserved the baptism of the New Testament for thirteen hundred years, and then gradually introduced pouring or sprinkling." "Luther sought, against the tendency of the times, to restore immersion." "Calvin was the first to assert that immersion was of no importance," and he is thus quoted: "Whether the person who is baptized be wholly immersed, and whether thrice or once, or whether water be only poured or sprinkled upon him, is of no importance; churches ought to be left at liberty in this respect to act according to the difference of countries. The very word 'baptize,' however, signifies to immerse; and it is certain that immersion was the practise of the ancient church."

Even in the Catholic Church, "the Council of Ravenna (1311) was the first to allow a choice between sprinkling and immersion."

The Baptists, who revived the true mode, appeared first in Switzerland in 1523. They were found in the years 1525-30 with large churches, fully organized, in Southern Germany, Tyrol, and in Middle Germany. "In all these places persecution made their lives bitter." From these and other facts it is most probable that they existed long prior to these dates; and were composed in most cases of the descendants of those who refused to depart in the fourteenth century from Bible baptism.

No. 597. Rom. 14:14.

WILL you be so kind as to explain the fourteenth verse of the fourteenth chapter of Romans, and greatly oblige an interested reader of the Word? E. R. K.

Rom. 14:14 reads as follows: "I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean [literally, 'common'] of itself; but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean [common], to him it is unclean [common]." The word "unclean" seems to refer to ceremonial uncleanness as opposed to that which is consecrated by ceremony. Unwashed hands, tho clean, were considered by the Jews as unclean, or defiled. Mark 7:2. See also Acts 10:14, 15. To him who seeks Christ's glory, there is, if necessity demands, no ceremonial uncleanness; but he who is devoted to God's service will also follow God's will as expressed in his Word. In that Word the Lord has made a distinction between meats (Leviticus 11), and evidently for a reason beyond mere ceremony. The child of God, it seems to us, will respect his Father's will. Yet if God's service in Christ demands, there is no arbitrary law to forbid. It is left to faith and conscience. The chief points of this whole scripture are: (1) Liberty in Christ Jesus, but not to serve the lusts of the flesh (see chapter 13:14); (2) we have no right to judge a brother in Christ; (3) neither have we a right to put a stumbling-block in his way by indulging in what to him are wrong practises; (4) the object of the Christian life is not eating or drinking, "but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost," to which all things else should be auxiliary; (5) our only judge is God; live for him and his glory, not to indulge the flesh.

No. 598. "Can Not Sin." 1 John 3:9.

1 JOHN 3:9 reads as follows: "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him; and he can not sin, because he is born of God." Please explain the same, and harmonize with other scriptures which seem flatly to contradict this verse. J. W. A.

Sinning is a matter of will and choice. Deut. 30:19; Prov. 1:29; Isa. 66:3, 4. He who by faith gives up self and chooses Christ for all things, is born again, a child of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Gal. 3:26. If he continues to walk in Christ by faith, he "doth not commit sin," or, as rendered by some, "does not practise sin," he has no desire to sin, it is not his thought or purpose to sin. His can not rests upon his will not. It is well illustrated by the expression, "What I will not that I can not do." Said one who made excuse, "I have married a wife, and therefore I can not come." Luke 14:20. He could not come because he did not wish to come, would not come. There will never come a time when one who wishes to sin can not sin. He who loves God and abides in his Word, will not wish to. If it were physically impossible for the children of God to sin, why the exhortations in 1 John 2:1, 24, 28; 3:18, 4:7; 5:21? It is in Christ Jesus, and only in him, that we are sinless, and only by abiding in him that we can not and do not sin.