Some
people believe that our Lord's command recorded in Matthew
28:19 ("Go therefore and make disciples of all the
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit") is not to be taken at face value,
but must be understood by the examples of Acts, where baptism
is often described as being in Jesus' name.
Inasmuch as they believe that Jesus is God's proper name, the
words Father, Son and Holy Ghost, refer to titles, offices,
roles or functions that Jesus has at different times in
different relationships. As such, in their understanding, the
words Father, Son and Holy Ghost function much the same way as
the words king or savior do. In other words, God reveals
himself to people through many analogies: he is like a mother
hen who gathers her chicks under her wings (Luke 13:34); he is
like a husband grieved at his wife's adultery (Hosea); he is
like a warrior awakened from sleep and provoked by wine (Psalm
78:65). Understanding Father, Son and Spirit simply as roles
of the one person Jesus, they believe that what he meant in
Matthew 28:19 is that we must baptize using the words "in
Jesus' name."
I have examined these issues in several short essays which are
below.
Is
God's Name Jesus?
Does
the Bible teach that God is both one and three?
What
did Peter mean about baptism in Acts 2:38?
Why is
there no uniform picture of formal worship in the New
Testament?
Why
are there discrepancies in the New Testament about how people
were baptized?
Oneness
Questions About the Trinity
Baptism
and the Lord's Supper, Pathways to Jesus
If you prefer to read them in
non-HTML, here they are as PDF files. You will need to
download the Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to access them.
Is God's Name Jesus?
Does the Bible teach that
God is both one and three?
What did Peter mean about
baptism in Acts 2:38?
Why is there no uniform
picture of formal worship in the New Testament?
On the issue of whom should be baptized, Christians have often
times disagreed. I think that this is true because the issue
is not dogmatically clear in Scripture but is more a matter of
weighing the evidence. Here are some things to consider in
favor of baptizing the children of believers:
In HTML: Infant
Baptism and the New Testament Witness
A
Biblical Response to John MacArthur, Jr.'s "A Scriptural
Critique of Infant Baptism"
Raising
our Children for God: A View from over the Hill
As a PDF: Infant
Baptism and the New Testament Witness
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