One Baptism
W. Carl Ketcherside
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But the grandeur, sublimity and beauty of the foundation of hope, and of ecclesiastical or social union, established by the author and founder of Christianity, consisted in this,--that the belief of one fact, and that upon the best evidence in the world, is all that is requisite, as far as faith goes to salvation. The belief of this one fact, and submission to one institution expressive of it, is all that is required of Heaven to admission into the church. --Alexander Campbell in "The Christian System," page 130.
The above quotation occurs in a discussion entitled "Fundamental Fact." I am deeply indebted to it for enlightenment which I cherish. It has helped me to envision the magnificence of the divine purpose and plan. It struck the shackles of sectarianism from my boastful heart at a time when I was enslaved under the mistaken view that I was free. It helped me to receive God's children as he receives us all, without questioning the content of the mental baggage which they bring with them on their journey from the realm of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son.
At the risk of proving to be a little boresome I want to allow Alexander Campbell to elucidate what he meant by the above.
"The one fact is expressed in a single proposition--that Jesus the Nazarene is the Messiah. The evidence upon which it is to be believed is the testimony of twelve men, confirmed by prophecy, miracles, and spiritual gifts. The one institution is baptism into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Every such person is a disciple in the fullest sense of the word, the moment he has believed this one fact, upon the above evidence, and has submitted to the above-mentioned institution; and whether he believes the five points condemned, or the five points approved, by the Synod of Dort, is not so much as to be asked of him; whether he holds any of the views of the Calvinists or Arminians, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Methodists, Baptists or Quakers, is never once to be asked of such persons, in order to admission into the Christian community called the church."
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There is one baptism. On this matter there can be no question. If you accept the apostolic letters as authentic and authoritative, as I do, that matter is settled. And so far as I am concerned that one baptism is immersion in water of a penitent believer in my Lord. I feel quite certain that is the way the expression would have been understood by the Ephesians. It is the way I understand it, and I see no reason to change my mind.
It really doesn't make much difference whether anyone else agrees with my view or not. Truth is not determined by a majority vote. It is the truth if no one casts a ballot for it. But it makes me feel a little better if scholars, of whom I do not have the honor to be one, occupy the same position as myself. In this instance quite a number of them do.
William Barclay, who admits to being a fairly liberal Presbyterian, not only recognized baptism as the initiatory act into the fellowship but calls it "the gateway to the Christian church." In his book Turning to God he specifically states that baptism was not by sprinkling, but by immersion, and says it was the means whereby the forgiveness of sins was personally appropriated and the power of the Holy Spirit entered into the convert.
In modern religious circles one who holds as I do, that allegiance to the King is pledged and personal faith is validated by immersion in water, is regarded as kind of an oddity. This does not upset me. I am not bugged by it at all. Snide remarks and derogatory statements about baptism do not move me. My faith is firm in the right of Jesus to order my life and just as firm that no one else has the right to do so. I never ask what is the popular position. I could not care less about that. All that interests me is the will of God. I am concerned only with what the Holy Spirit teaches.
On that ground there is not too much controversy. Jesus began his personal ministry by being baptized in a river. He ended it by telling the apostles to baptize every person who believed the news they were to broadcast about him. You cannot proclaim the life of Jesus without telling about baptism. When a former deacon of a prominent congregation was invited to share the vehicle of a pious government official, he began with a scriptural prophecy and "proclaimed unto him Jesus." Nothing is said about him mentioning baptism, but the foreign politician asked, as they were passing a body of water, "What is to hinder me from being baptized?"
There was never any question among the primitive saints as to what constituted the one baptism. There was no unimmersed person among them and it was inconceivable that anyone would oppose something ordained by the Lord and commanded by his holy envoys. It was only when men ran the faith through their theological meat-grinders, shredding, shaping and moulding it by speculation and rationalization that they evolved all of the finely-honed arguments to pamper the sophisticated and confound the simple. They messed up what God straightened out!
I want to be numbered among the childlike disciples of the master, and while erudite men argue about all of the ramifications of a command I shall just go on and obey it. I would rather do what my Lord tells me to do than to spend my time discussing all of the angles. You might run out of life in which to do
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I do not think that "the baptism of the Holy Spirit" or in the Holy Spirit is the one baptism. It never was. I am quite aware that in one Spirit, and under the influence and mediation of the Spirit we are all baptized into one body, but that baptism is immersion into Christ Jesus who is the head of the body. The baptism which brings us into the relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, was to be administered by men, and men cannot administer the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That is the prerogative of Christ. I know all that because the Holy Spirit left the record which says it, and I believe what the Spirit has recorded.
The Holy Spirit operates upon the heart of one who is an alien to the rule of heaven, in and through the good news, the gospel message concerning our Lord. The gospel is the glad tidings of what God has accomplished for us through the Word who was made flesh, and who brought grace and truth. When the full impact of this is brought to bear upon the honest heart, regardless of how seared or scarred by sin it may be, an aroused conscience becomes unbearable until the requirements of the Spirit are met.
I do not hold that "the baptism of the Holy Spirit" is available today, not because God's power is in any sense lessened, but because his purpose in respect to it has long since been served. That purpose was never to endow men to speak in tongues, dialects or languages which they had not studied or with which they were not conversant. That they were empowered to do so upon one occasion to enable them to address foreigners in their native tongues, and upon another occasion to convince skeptical members of the kingdom of heaven that they were equally worthy of citizenship had nothing to do with the divine purpose of "the baptism of the Holy Spirit." These demonstrations were secondary to the purpose of the baptism, and were to accomplish another design. That they were given in conjunction with "the baptism of the Holy Spirit" has little to do with it, since many others received the gift of tongues who were not baptized in the Holy Spirit.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit was a one-time experience for the formation of the spiritual body of Christ as a new creation, just as immersion is a one-time experience for each individual who becomes a new creation. After the spiritual body was formed, the baptism of the Holy Spirit was never again mentioned. It is not once referred to in any epistle addressed to the saints of God. It is conceivable that many who had letters from the apostles never even heard of it. The idea that those who come into the new divine-human relationship when immersed into Christ are subsequently baptized in the Holy Spirit is as foreign to the new covenant scriptures as purgatory or extreme unction. Not only is no mention made of such a thing but there is not even a hint of it when the sacred scriptures are read without presupposition.
I am always glad when someone who has been nibbling around the edges of the faith is convicted of the sin of an unfilled spiritual life, and gets on serious terms with his Maker. I am thrilled when such men and women get down on their knees and agonize about their apathy and uselessness. I want them to "zero in" on the throne of mercy. And I am not surprised when, in the throes of genuine confession and commitment, they experience traumatic phenomena they have never known before. I would be surprised if they did not! I am not even upset when they get on "a high" and go into "a spiritual orbit" and testify to things that happened to them which have never happened to me, and probably never will. But they are mistaken
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Not even that mistake upsets me like it does a lot of my brethren. If you are not free to make mistakes you are not free at all. And I am not about to make a bigger mistake and hound brethren out who credit a change in their very life-style to the baptism of the Spirit. I am glad they changed. I have changed. I am glad they are happy. I am happier than most of them! I know a lot of other brethren who ought to change and be joyful. I will not serve the best interests of the King of glory by making a test of one's loyalty to Jesus or relationship with the Father out of an experience to which he testifies. I will not do so by allowing one to test my faith by his own experience either. "Hast thou faith? keep it to thyself." How about doing the same with your experience? My creed is Christ, not a personal experience with him. No one will ever sell me on another creed. I mean no one! I belong to Jesus and I shall continue to do so!
Since I am wound up I might as well tell you what I think about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. If you cannot buy my view, and most of you will not, praise the Lord anyhow. You need not agree with me to be loved and revered. I simply think there were two occasions of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, because these two fulfilled God's purpose for that baptism. I do not recall seeing the term used upon any other occasion.
The secret of God's will was according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself. That will was that when the fullness of times was worked out, he would unite in Christ, everything in heaven and on earth. Mankind was divided into two great groups. On one side of a yawning prejudicial gulf were the Gentiles in the flesh. They were uncircumcised, separate from Christ, strangers to the community of Israel, outside of God's covenants and the promise that goes with them. Their world was a world without hope and without God.
On the opposite side were the Jews. One of their own described them in these words. "They are the people of Israel, theirs is the right of sonship and the glory, the bonds and the giving of the law, and the worship and the promises; theirs are the fathers and of their race is Christ in his human nature" (Romans 9:4,5). These were the ones who were near. The others were afar off.
Between these two, like an impregnable barrier, stood the wall of hostility, bolstered by the law with its rules and regulations. The incredible task which God set for Jesus was to break down the wall and annul the written code, the very action of which was to promote and preserve segregation, to keep those who were under it aloof and separate from the others. Jesus offered his person as the peace. From the two frighteningly divergent strains he created a single new humanity in himself. "This was his purpose, to reconcile the two in a single body to God through the cross, on which he killed the enmity."
Fifty days after the cross the situation was unchanged. Hearts were still filled with bigotry and hate. The atonement had been made. It was time for the Spirit to be poured out as confirmation that Jesus had been elevated to the right hand of God, and was sovereign in authority. "Therefore, being lifted up by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you see and hear."
On Pentecost the Holy Spirit did not fall upon all of the Jews. A select number received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and they announced the good news to all who were present. Those who believed the message were told to reform and be immersed upon the firm conviction that Jesus was now both Lord and Christ. Those who did this were to be granted forgiveness of their sins and receive the Holy Spirit as a gift.
Many of the Jews mistakenly thought the kingdom of heaven was but a fulfillment of Jewish dreams. They concluded that one could only be accepted among
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At this juncture, Jesus administered the baptism of the Holy Spirit unto the Gentiles, the uncircumcised ones. The time had come to demonstrate that those who were afar off were to join with those who were near. The family of Cornelius was chosen to receive the baptism as indicative that the Gentiles were to be admitted on the same terms as God accepted the Jews. Simon Peter, a kosher Jew, who had never in his life entered into a Gentile home or eaten with an uncircumcised person, was selected to take the gospel to them.
Even before the emissaries arrived to request him to come, God had to ready him for the task by giving him a mystifying vision while he was hungry. He was ordered to go with the Gentiles without a question. But with all of this, he still took six other Jews with him as witnesses. The reluctance with which he came into the Gentile home is evidenced by his words.
But as Peter began to speak the Holy Spirit fell on the uncircumcision to the utter amazement of the Jews who were present. When it dawned upon Peter that these were to be accepted of God he commanded them to be baptized in water as a pledge of their allegiance unto Christ. Word of the event seeped back to Jerusalem where "the apostles and brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God." When the "circumcision party" in the congregation called Peter "on the carpet," he rehearsed to them the matter from the beginning. He informed them that "the Holy Spirit fell on them as on us at the beginning."
This announcement silenced the objectors in the congregation. The Jewish brethren gave praise to God saying, "This means that God has granted life-giving repentance to the Gentiles also." The gospel was God's dynamic to save all who believed its message. It had now been proclaimed to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Upon both occasions the baptism of the Holy Spirit validated the event. Jew and Greek were now drawn together by the proclamation of the cross. They were no more twain, but one body. A new humanity consisting of both had been produced. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is never again mentioned.
Any Jew who trusts in the Lord Jesus can now be saved. Any non-Jew who trusts in Jesus can also be saved. There is required no further divine demonstration of acceptance. The eternal purpose of the ages is a reality. Any person can share in that reality of oneness with Christ. We have been raised up together. We have been made to sit together. All that God has prepared for His children is now our heritage. Every child of God receives the Spirit at the time he is born into the family. The Spirit lives in him as in a temple and provides for him all that the Father has designed for us while we are in the flesh.
There is no such thing as a child of God who does not have the Spirit of God. It is true that there are many unconcerned, indifferent, worldly-minded children of God who stumble along through life until a crisis is faced, and then they must face up to the real choice of whether they shall truly follow Jesus. Some of them, in an agony of reproach for their past, throw themselves upon the mercy of God, and in their time of deep need find that God is near. He has always been but they have never truly called upon him before. Many who find inner peace and real joy and relief, imagine, in the ecstacy of the moment, that this is "the baptism of the Holy Spirit."
I do not think it is so at all. But if they mistake their experience for "the baptism of the Holy Spirit," I shall not fight or argue or debate with them. I have given you my own personal understanding derived from my study of the word of the Spirit. I do not intend to bind it upon any person nor to discredit
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Let me repeat that the one baptism is immersion in water of one who sincerely believes with all of his heart that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. Every person on this whole wide earth who submits to the act upon the basis of that faith is God's child and my brother. I do not care who instructed him. I do not care who immersed him. Jesus ordained as a response to the good news concerning himself, belief of the facts announced therein and baptism. I have no power, inclination or desire to alter, amend or change those terms. I accept them exactly as he stated them.
Because I believe what he said I shall not set up other criteria related to degrees of knowledge, understanding or intellectual apprehension. One is not forgiven of his sins because of doctrinal attainment but because of his faith, his absolute trust in Christ Jesus. One is not justified by baptism but by faith. Yet it is faith that acts, and baptism is the God-ordained act by which faith reaches out to lay hold upon God's promise. It is faith that grasps the promise of divine grace, marvellous as that grace is.
Never would I go through life without being immersed into Christ. Never would I advise, counsel or suggest to anyone else to do so. "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." I am glad both of those sentences begin with "for." There's a reason for it! We are children of God. We became children of God through faith. We exhibited that faith by baptism into Christ. In that act we put him on like a garment. He is still my garment, my shield and buckler.
The older I get, the longer I live, and the more I study the revelation of God, the more convinced do I become that baptism is an irrevocable part of the divine plan for our entrance into the unity of the Spirit. No one can ever slight it and still do justice to the testimony of the apostles. Because of my faith I simply accept what the word of God says. I trust you will do the same!