In the Christian faith, perfection is needful. The bible says in ( Mathew 5:48 ) Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. We must pattern our lives to that of Christ.
However if the principles of the doctrines of Christ is not properly laid as a foundation, to go on to perfection is futile. Apostle Paul was saddened when the early converts to the faith, the Jews spent so much time on the rudiments of the christian faith as some are doing today.
My earlier posts, I touched on repentance from dead works, faith towards God. Lets us look into the doctrine of baptisms.
(Hebrews 6:2) Of the doctrine of baptisms.
This is mentioned as the third element or principle of the Christian religion. The Jews made much of various kinds of washings, which were called baptisms.
(Mark 7:4) And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.
To understand the true doctrine respecting baptism was one of the first principles to be learned then, as it is now, as baptism is the rite by which we are initiated or born into the Church of the living God. This was supposed to be so simple, that young converts could understand it as one of the elements of the true religion; The truth is, it was probably regarded as among the most simple and plain matters of religion; and every convert was supposed to understand that the application of water to the body in this ordinance, in any mode, was designed to be merely symbolic of the influences of the Holy Ghost.
So it was important that the true doctrine on the subject should be stated as one of the elements of the Christian religion, that they might be recalled from superstition, and that they might enjoy the benefits of what was designed to be an important aid to piety. It will be observed that the plural form is used here as baptisms.
It is supposed, also, that they were in the practice of baptizing proselytes to their religion. (Mathew 3:6) And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
The baptisms whose necessity is taught by the Christian religion
1. baptism by water
In the New Testament the whole matter is perfectly plain. The uniform meaning of “dip” for baptizo and the use of the river Jordan as the place for baptizing by John the Baptist makes inevitable the notion of immersion. Sprinkling infants in baptism crept into the church during the dark ages when traditions and dogma ruled the church.
( Peter 3: 20-21) In the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
The baptism of Noah’s day foreshadowed the salvation made possible by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Eight people entered the ark and were buried in a watery grave. Then Noah and his family came out of that wooden tomb to start a new life on a cleansed planet.
The children of Israel “were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Corinthians 10:2).
The Red Sea was the water of separation that divided God’s people from their enemies and those who were saved from those who were damned.
(Mathew 3:6) “And they were baptized of him in the river Jordan. In (Mark 1:9-10 ) “was baptized of John in the Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw.”
So in (Acts 8:38) we read: “They both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit…… caught away Philip.”
If one could still be in doubt about the matter, Paul sets it at rest by the symbolism used in (Romans 6:4), “We were buried therefore with him through baptism unto death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.”
In (Colossians 2:12) Paul again says: “having been buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
The submergence and emergence of immersion thus, according to Paul, symbolize the death and burial to sin on the one hand and the resurrection to the new life in Christ on the other.
There arose therefore a questioning on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about purifying. What this questioning was we are not told. The word “therefore” doubtless refers to the baptisms just mentioned, so that the dispute probably related to the necessity or purifying effects of that ordinance. But whatever the dispute was about, it brought to notice the fact that Jesus was baptizing more than John, a fact which some of the disciples of John quickly resented.
2. baptism by the Holy Ghost: The first of which is symbolic of the second. These are stated to be among the elements of Christianity, or the things which Christian converts would first learn. The necessity of both is taught. “He that believeth, and is baptized shall be saved,” (Mk 16:16.) “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,”(John 3:5).
On the baptism of the Holy Ghost, It is the Lord himself who baptizes with the Holy ghost. (Mathew 3:11; Acts 1:5; Acts 19:1-6).
(John 16:13) Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
In the Old Testament, God sealed his covenant with Abraham with the sign of circumcision.
(Romans 4:11) And he [Abraham] received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised:
Now God seals the covenant he makes with “whosoever believeth in him” with of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
(Ephesians 1:13) In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
The presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and the gifts he manifests through us make possible a new level of communion with God.
3. The Baptism of Fire (Matthew 3:11-12)
He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
Fire refines and purges all the dross away. Therefore all who come to the Lord Jesus Christ would be tested and every one’s deeds would pass through the fire to see what sort is made of. The prosperity gospel of feel good without testing of ones faith is not the gospel our early fathers stood for.
(1 Peter 1:7) That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:”
(Zechariah 13:9) And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.”
(Proverbs 17:3) The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.”
Shalom!
AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST 