3179.-Baptism by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 12, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 27.

3179.—Baptism

By Editor

Kindly explain in the Question Corner if the custom of the apostles was to dip three times in immersion. Give some historical quotations please. Matt. 28:19.

No, it was not the custom of the apostles to dip three times, nor does anybody dip three times. The trine immersionists make a show at it. The person is taken into the water, and the upper part is dipped three times forward, and the lower part once. It is a perversion of language to say that the "formula" found in Matt. 28:19 demands three immersions. We are baptized into the name of Deity, we become His children; and that threefold expression, simply means that the threefold manifestation of the Godhead is to be manifest in His children. God's name, meaning His righteousness; the name of the Son, His self-emptying, His unselfish, consecrated life; and the name of the Spirit, power to do God's work,—all these are summed up in the name of Christ, for so the later ones were baptized. See Acts 19:5.

That trine immersion was practised quite early in the church, is no evidence of its authority. A great many other perversions of the simple ceremonies of God's Word came into the church very early after the days of the apostles. What baptism is designed to represent is shown by comparing Rom. 6:3-6 and 1 Cor. 15:1-4. The three great facts manifested in the offering of Christ were His death, burial, and resurrection. These are expressed by baptism; but when men are buried, they are not buried three times; they are not lifted up from the grave and let down again twice over after the first burial. They are buried once and for all. The simple meaning of the act very clearly shows the kind of baptism. In trine immersion as practised by some, the candidate kneels and the body is dipped forward. This does not in any wise express the meaning designed to be conveyed by baptism, faith in the death and burial of Christ; but simple immersion, in which the candidate is buried, expresses perfectly faith in the great facts of the Gospel.

Dr. Francis Wayland, in his "Notes on the Principles and Practices of Baptist Churches," speaks of the simple method of immersion as follows: "In the administration of this ordinance we immerse the whole body in water instead of merely sprinkling water upon the face. . . . We believe this to be the meaning of our Saviour's command when He directs us to go forth to baptize the nations. In this belief we are confirmed by the testimony of all antiquity, the practice of the Greek Church, by the indirect allusions to the ordinance of baptism in the New Testament, and by the most universal consent of scholars from the revival of letters in Europe to Conybeare and Howson of the present day." See tract on "Baptism; Its Meaning," the last issue of Bible Students' Library.