To be or not to be, that is the question
October 28, 2022
Baptism is a subject that was once a given passage into the church. For centuries, the church went all over the world baptizing people as the act of conversion into Christianity. But in the last century, the question has arisen across Christendom as to its necessity. I want to spend the next few weeks studying the history of baptism, its use in the Bible, the mode of baptism, and then let the reader decide whether or not it is necessary to be a Christian. The Greek word for baptism in the New Testament is “baptizo,” which means to immerse or submerge, for the purpose of cleansing. So, if we go back in the history of the Holy Scriptures of God, we will begin to unravel God’s purpose and mode of this interesting subject of baptism.
We must first understand how God wrote His word. God wrote His Holy Scriptures as a mystery book (Colossians 1:26), which has now been disclosed to His people, which has so many clues about the coming of His beloved son, Jesus the Christ. That story begins in the Garden of Eden when Satan tempts and man sins. During the judgment of Satan for his misconduct, God refers to the battle between Jesus and Satan when in Genesis 3:15 it says, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” God is introducing His son as the one who will battle the Evil One and will crush the head of Satan and become the savior of the world. God introduced His son from the beginning and the entire Holy Scriptures are about Jesus the Christ coming to save the world.
With that said, here is how the mystery works. God set up patterns of teachings from the very beginning, patterns being teachings that are presented using different words or phrases that declare His will for us. A great example of this is the teaching of the Lord’s Supper which Jesus instituted the night he was betrayed. I Corinthians 11:20 calls it the “Lord’s Supper,” but when Jesus instituted it, he used the bread and wine as symbols of his body and blood.
We can trace the history of bread and wine all the way back to when Melchizedek brought Bread and Wine to Abraham to acknowledge his covenant with God. Bread and wine has always been about a participation in a covenant, from Melchizedek, to the tabernacle/temple, and into the New Testament. I Corinthians 10:16 says, “16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?”
Let the reader understand that the Lord’s Supper was referred to in different words or phrases (Bread and Wine, Lord’s Supper, Body and Blood, Loaf, etc.), that all had the same teaching about a participation in a covenant.
In the next several weeks, we will study all the different words and phrases used to describe and explain the history of baptism, its uses and the mode, and then let the reader determine whether it be necessary or not. Stay Faithful my brothers and sisters!
We invite you to join us at College Hill Church of Christ, 1102 College Blvd, every Sunday morning at 10:30am for worship, or follow us on Facebook at College Hill Church of Christ Alva Oklahoma. We are a fellowship of believers that follow God’s Word and love all who worship with us!
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