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THERE IS BUT ONE BAPTISM

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Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, May 6, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 19

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THERE IS BUT ONE BAPTISM.

(Continued.)
Mr. Percy went back to his office, studying this new phase of the question. Punctual to his promise, Mr. Percy came in soon after supper on the next evening, and found the Rev. Mr. Johnson, the pastor of their church, already there. He had called early, having learned that Theodosia was like to go crazy about these “new-fangled Baptist notions.” He had not said a word upon the subject of dispute, and seemed reluctant to approach it; but when Mr. Percy came in, it could no longer be postponed.
“I am very glad to meet you here, Mr. Johnson,” said the young man. “Miss Theodosia and I had quite a discussion yesterday evening, on the subject of baptism. She has taken a fancy that she has never been baptized; and I believe that I nearly exhausted my logic in trying to convince her that she had. I hope your arguments will be more effectual than mine.”
“Really, my children, I don’t know,” said the old man, “what I may be able to do. I have never studied these controversies much. I think it is better to live in peace, and let every one enjoy his own conscientious opinion. These discussions are apt to run into disputes and quarrels, and often occasion a great deal of ill-feeling.”
“But what are we to do with such lovely heretics as this,” said the young man, with a smile and a sly glance toward her mother. “She must be satisfied that she has been baptized, or you will have her running to the school-house next Sunday, to hear that Baptist preacher; and ten to one, she will ask him to go down into the water and baptize her according to the New Testament model. She says she wants to be baptized as Jesus Christ was, and that was in the river, you know.”
“Oh, as to that,” rejoined the pastor, “there is no evidence that Jesus Christ was immersed in the river, at all. It has been satisfactorily proved that he was sprinkled or poured upon; and it is very certain that sprinkling was practiced by the apostles and early Christians.”
“Oh,” said the young lady, “do tell me how it is ascertained that Christ did not go into the river, and what evidence there is that he was sprinkled.”
“Well, I don’t know that I can call up all the evidence just at this time; but you may be assured that there is such evidence, and that of the most satisfactory character, or else all the learned and talented theological scholars of the various Pedobaptist churches would not have continued for so many ages to teach and practice it.”
“Certainly, I have no doubt that the evidence exists, since you say so; but can’t you tell me what it is, or show me where to find it? I shall never be able to rest in peace till I am convinced that I have been baptized. And if that which I witnessed at the river yesterday was baptism, I am sure I never was.”
“Oh, don’t be so confident, my daughter. There are more modes of baptism than one. That was, perhaps, one mode (though of that I have some doubt). You were baptized by another mode. That may have been baptism; yours certainly was.”
“Well, do please prove it to me some way, Mr. Johnson. What you say is something like what Mr. Percy said yesterday. He told me that ‘baptize’ was a generic term, expressing rather a certain result than any specific act.”
“Certainly,” said the pastor; “baptism is the application of water as a religious ordinance. It does not matter about the quantity of water, or the mode of applying it.”
“Yes; that is what mother said yesterday; and we looked in Webster, and found that such was, indeed, the present English use of the word ‘baptize.’ But brother says ‘baptize’ is a Greek word slightly modified, and transferred from the Greek Testament to the English. It is the New Testament meaning, in the time of Christ, and among the people for whom the gospels were first written, that we want, not the meaning that it has acquired in the English since its transfer to our language.”
“You see, pastor, she is going to be hard to satisfy. She pleads her cause like a lawyer.”
“No, no, Mr. Percy; I will not be hard to satisfy. I desire, I pray, to be satisfied. I can never rest till I am satisfied. You said yesterday that ‘baptize’ was a generic term meaning ‘to sprinkle,’ ‘to pour,’ or ‘to dip’; but we found it in the lexicon, and it proved to be a specific term meaning only ‘to dip.’ It was simply and only dipping. To-day, Mr. Johnson tells me about several modes, but they are not modes of dipping. And yet, if the Greek word ‘baptismos,’ ‘baptism,’ means dipping, then they must, in order to be modes of baptism, be modes of dipping. But, Mr. Percy, you have not yet told us the result of your examination of other lexicons.”
“We can make nothing of them. I am sorry to say they all agree substantially with the one you have in the house. If we trust to them, we must grant that the word means, primarily, to dip, to plunge, to immerse. Of this there is no doubt.”
“Then I am more perplexed than ever. You said yesterday, that in order to know what the act was which the disciples performed and Christ commanded, we must ascertain the precise meaning of ‘baptize,’ as they employed it in the Greek language. You have examined all the lexicons (the highest authorities), and find they all agree in saying it was ‘dip,’ ‘plunge,’ ‘immerse.’ You admitted yesterday that if they should agree in this, the question was settled. If they said baptize meant to dip, and baptismos a dipping, or immersion, then every time we read that one was baptized, we must understand that he was immersed. I think that was a plain, straightforward case. I felt that I could understand it. Well, now you say you have examined carefully the other lexicons, and they all agree with this. No one says, ‘Sprinkle,’ no one says, ‘Pour’—all say, ‘Dip;’ and consequently the gospel says Jesus was dipped of John in the river Jordan. But then, our pastor says that he has evidence that Jesus did not enter the river at all, and that he was sprinkled, and not dipped. Of course, he would not say it unless it was so; but I really don’t understand how it can be so.”
“I have some curiosity on that point, myself,” said Mr. Percy, evidently relieved to find that he could (for the moment, at least) take the other side of the question. “I find myself in a very close place. These lexicons have killed me. I don’t know what to say. I suppose, of course, there is some way to get around the difficulty; but I must leave it to our pastor to point it out. For my part, I submit the case.”
“Really,” said Mr. Johnson, “the question never presented itself to me in just this light before. You must give me a little time to consider about it.”
(Concluded next week.)