BAPTISM
4062 Washing Away Sins?
Question: Please explain Acts 22:16, “Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”
Answer: This verse does not teach that the washing away of Paul’s sins was to be accomplished through his being baptized. He is commanded to do three things: (1) arise, (2) be baptized, and (3) have his sins washed away. The verbs are all aorist imperatives. They are followed by the participle “calling” which may modify all three verbs, meaning that Paul called on the name of the Lord simultaneously with his rising, being baptized, and having his sins washed away. This doesn’t yield good sense, however, and therefore it seems best to take the participial phrase as instrumental in usage.
Other examples of this use may be seen in Acts 16:16; Matthew 6:27; I Timothy 1:12. The text would then read, “Rise up, be baptized, and wash away your sins, by calling on the name of the Lord.” It is the “calling on His name,” not the rising up or the being baptized, that brings forgiveness.
4063 Roman Soldier’s Oath
Early Christians called baptism a “sacramentum,” which is the Latin word for the Roman soldier’s oath of absolute devotion and obedience to his general.
4064 John Sung Baptized Again
John Sung was asked to baptize at Peniel Mission Church in Hongkong. “But I have never been baptized by immersion myself.” Therefore on his request, missionary Rev. Reiton baptized him first, and he in turn baptized 21 women and 12 men!
4065 Two Thousand Baptisms
Approximately 2,000 persons participated in a mass baptism, April 17, 1971, under the direction of ministers from Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California. The gigantic baptismal service was performed in the Pacific Ocean at Corona del Mar.
—Christian Life
4066 Charlemagne Gave Shirts
It was the deplorable practice of Charlemagne to force all those he conquered to become Christians. Into the rivers and lakes near the battlefield he drove his defeated enemies to be baptized. Thus thousands of Saxons were made to profess the Christian faith. Naturally it did them little good for they did not know what they were pledging and they had no desire to accept it.
One scheme Charlemagne hit upon to persuade the Saxons to be baptized peacefully was to give every convert a clean, white shirt. So numerous were the requests for these shirts that the supply ran out, and the newly-baptized began receiving instead a coarse yellow shirt. This was not so attractive, as we gather from the disdainful remark of a Saxon chieftain who was offered a yellow shirt: “I have been baptized already twenty times and received white shirts. I refuse to be baptized any more and will have nothing to do with a religion that is so stingy with its clothes.”
4067 Health Menace?
Baptism was castigated as “health menace” and “a senseless and dangerous rite” in the weekly pro-atheist broadcast of Moscow Radio. The Communist commentator said, “Thousands of babies died of pneumonia following christening ceremonies and that “weak hearts” and “weak lungs” in adults had been traced to baptism in their early years.”
4068 Civil Baptism
The republicans of France, who already had civil marriages and civil funerals, introduced civil baptisms. At a village in the Indre-et-Loire, the mayor officiated, and poured white wine on the child’s head, pronouncing the words, “Pierre Victor, I baptize thee in the name of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. Vive la Republique!”
4069 Presbyterian and Baptist Modes
A Presbyterian and a Baptist minister were discussing baptism. After a beautiful dissertation on the subject by the Baptist minister, the Presbyterian minister asked if the Baptist considered a person baptized if he was immersed in water up to his chin. “No,” said the Baptist.
“Is he considered baptized if he is immersed up to his nose?” asked the Presbyterian.
Again the Baptist’s answer was “No.”
“Well, if you immerse him up to his eyebrows do you consider him baptized?” queried the Presbyterian.
“You don’t seem to understand,” said the Baptist. “He must be immersed completely in water—until his head is covered.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you all along,” said the Presbyterian, “it’s only a little water on the top of the head that counts.”
—Speaker’s Sourcebook
4070 Save The Children
The Save the Children Fund in London, England, has come up with a novel fund-raising scheme: the sale of small bottles of Jordan water for christenings. The only problem with the scheme is that some of the containers are recycled medicine bottles bearing the stern warning, “Keep away from children”.
—Prairie Overcomer
4071 Baptizing The Pocketbook
Dr. R. E. Neighbour was in the baptismal pool with a railway engineer. The pastor was ready to proceed with the baptismal service. “Wait!” whispered the engineer; “I forgot something. I want to return to the robing room, and get my pocketbook and let you baptize it with me!” Oh, that more of our pocketbooks were “baptized.” O, that more of God’s children were taking with seriousness their financial responsibilities to God’s work !
4072 Disposable Robe
A new convenience for immersionists is being advertised. It is called Bapto—a disposable baptismal robe. The complete kit includes a cloth to keep water out of the nose, a paper towel for drying, and a plastic bag in which to put everything after the ceremony.
—Pastor’s Manual
4073 Rings In Baptism
Cleanliness may have been forgotten in the rush to godliness in some of Nashville’s Baptist churches. Last month the city health department ordered churches to clean up their baptistries because of the danger of bacterial infection.
According to Dr. Joseph Bistowish, the department director, some churches empty their baptistries only once every month or two. That, says the good doctor, is not enough. So he ordered staff inspectors to wade in with bacteria-sampling equipment and to look particularly for green slime on the baptistry walls. Excessive bacteria could transmit skin disease and even Salmonella or typhoid, he warned.
4074 Flogging Rector
Archdeacon Sinclair tells a good story of the famous Dr. Keate, headmaster of Eton. He was a disciplinarian that earned a nickname similar to that which will ever cling to that other great schoolmaster, Bushby, of Westminster, and was called “Flogging Keate.”
Finding one morning a row of boys in his study, he began, as usual, to flog them. They were too terrified at the awful little man to remonstrate till he had gone halfway down the row, when one plucked up courage to falter out: “Please, sir, we’re not up for punishment—we’re a confirmation class!”
“Never mind,” said Dr. Keate, “I must be fair all around, and it will do you good.” So he went on through the row as usual!
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