"IF YE WILL INQUIRE, INQUIRE YE."
By Editor
This Inquirers' Department is conducted for the purpose of helping those who are studying the Bible. The answers are oftentimes only suggestive. They are never to be considered infallible, only as they agree with the infallible Word. The writer who may answer them does not consider that his opinion is infallible. He will simply give the best that he has, and plead with the inquirer to search the Word. Such questions only will be answered as, to the editors, seem to minister to the good of the readers and to the mission of the paper. We can not answer repeatedly in the same volume questions upon the same scripture. The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable. No letters are answered which do not contain the name of the writer. It is well always to enclose stamp for reply. 3233.— Sprinkle Clean Water
"Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them."
Does the sprinkling show a form of baptizing used in those days? A friend of mine pointed to that as a reason for sprinkling now. B. B. 1601. The passage has no reference whatever to baptism, rather it refers to the ceremony of cleansing described in Lev. 14:50-52, and elsewhere in the laws of Moses. The sprinkling of water in that ceremony meant authoritative cleansing. Judicially the man stood clean before God, and to this the Lord declares through the prophet, "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean." See also Ps. 51:7, first clause. It means that God will absolutely take away their sin, so that the law shall not hold them guilty. He promises to do more than that; He will give them a new heart and a new spirit, and the new spirit shall cause them to walk in God's statutes and keep His commandments in the love which it bears toward them.