Cowley's Talks on DoctrineCowley, Matthias F. (Matthias Foss)
Religion
Cowley's Talks on Doctrine
Cowley, Matthias F. (Matthias Foss)
Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines
Now as concerning the baptism of Jesus, who is the pattern, we have
Matt. iii:16, which says, "And Jesus when He was baptized went up
straightway out of the water." It is not likely that John would be
baptizing in Jordan and that Jesus would have gone down into the water
if anything less than immersion would have fulfilled the law. This also
agrees with the account of the Ethiopian's baptism by Philip (Acts
viii:38): "And they went down both into the water, _both Philip and the
eunuch,_ and he baptized him." As making still plainer this using a
river of water and going _"down into the water"_ to receive the sacred
rite, we quote from St. John iii:23: "And John also was baptizing in
Enon, near to Salim, because there was _much water there."_ A statement
so plain as the foregoing needs no comment. It speaks for itself. He
was baptizing not only in Enon, but at a certain point in the stream
"because there was much water there." Such a reason could not have been
given if sprinkling or pouring had been a proper mode.
We refer further to the New Testament statements where not only the
mode of baptism is indicated by the language, but the fact that baptism
symbolizes the birth into the world, the death, and the resurrection of
the body. To Nicodemus, Jesus said: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
except a man be born of water, and of the spirit, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God." (St. John iii:5.) When man comes forth into the
world, he is born or brought out from the watery element, being first
buried in it, and this constitutes his birth. To be "born of water" as
a sacred ordinance would be impossible if the rite of sprinkling or
pouring be the mode employed. Only complete immersion will answer the
ordinance indicated in the language of Jesus to Nicodemus.
Paul also said to the Romans, "Know ye not that so many of us as were
baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we
are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was
raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His
resurrection." (Rom. vi:3-5.) The foregoing shows that baptism is a
likeness of burial. When the body is laid lifeless in the tomb it is
covered completely; it is not left partly buried and partly uncovered;
and as the body comes forth in the resurrection, immortal, and free
from the conditions of mortality, thus walking in "newness of life,"
so by the remission of sins through faith, repentance and baptism, the
obedient candidate comes forth free from sin, and walks in a new life,
prepared for the birth of the spirit, thus symbolizing in beautiful
similarity the death and resurrection of the body. This is still
farther emphasized by the language, "For if we have been planted,"
etc., thus using a word which implies a complete burial as in planting
seeds in the earth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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