Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.
To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser.
If baptism in water is only symbolic, a work of man that is nothing more than ritual symbolism, is the meaning of baptism changed?
a brief review of sacred scripture
2018
This essay will examine the theological significance of the differences between the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ baptism. The significance is found in the Gospel writers' understanding of the purpose of the baptism events. The crux of it lay on whether Jesus (Son of God – Divine) is being affirmed by the Father in his Messianic calling, or is he a divine man being initiated by God to become the Messiah? Matthew and John seem to affirm Jesus’s Messiahship prior to his baptism, whereas Luke and Mark indicate a Messianic initiation occurring after baptism. The very fact that Jesus accepted John’s baptism (of repentance) clouds the issue and caused problems in the early church . Bundy and Meier posit the main source of information for this event would have to be Jesus . He is the only consistent eyewitness and probably the basis of the story, yet the actual purpose of his baptism is never clearly indicated by the Gospel writers. There are three significant events within the baptismal narrative wherein one can try to draw Christological and Messianic distinctions. They will be addressed chronologically: Firstly, Recognition Conversation; Secondly, Vision of the Dove; Thirdly, Pronouncement versus Announcement.
2018
The events of Jesus’ baptism in the Gospel of Luke marked an important transition in God’s historic work to redeem the world. Nothing would be quite the same after Jesus was baptized, prayed and received the Spirit, and heard God’s voice acknowledging him in terms reminiscent of Isaiah 42.1, with distant echoes of Psalm 2. This paper will explore the place of the baptism of Jesus in the overall narrative context of Luke-Acts; relevant nuances of the meaning of John’s baptism affecting this context; Jesus’ baptism and subsequent ministry in the Spirit; and a brief connection of the meaning of Christian baptism relevant to Jesus’ baptism. This will be followed by a necessarily brief comment on the early Church Fathers’ approach to the baptism of Jesus, and a conclusion suggesting a path forward toward appropriate expectations and application in our own time.
The teaching of the Covenant of Grace The Covenant of Grace is designed by God to choose out a people for Himself. For this reason, He created the world. One would thus expect that the gospel, which we are commissioned to preach, must include pointers to that worldwide Covenant embracing all the world from whence the elect are chosen in Christ. In pre-Calvary days, this pointer was visually evidenced in the various blood sacrifices and circumcision as guarantees and pointers to the work of the Messiah, Christ. As Moses and the Prophets told the Old Testament peoples, these visual aids pointed to the Suffering Servant by whose stripes we are healed. We know from the teaching of Isaiah that the ancient Jews knew that the Suffering Servant was God Incarnate. We know from the teaching of Christ and the Apostles that the Old Testament prophetical types were fulfilled in Christ, who suffered His baptism of death for the dead as the once and for all time fulfilment of prophesy. The Antitype has come and thus there is no need for new and further sacrifices. The Covenant was one solely of Grace but the Law was added to it because of the covenant breakage of mankind. Law and Grace were thus ratified in Christ's vicarious death but not abolished, as the NCT Liberals would have us believe. All the children of the Covenant, both Jews and Gentiles, alias the Elect in Christ the Covenant Keeper, who have their names in the Lamb's Book of Life, must be first gathered in to make the New Jerusalem complete. This People of God, called by Scripture the House of Israel or the Commonwealth of Israel are not limited to an ethnic group, nor a particular denomination, nor a particular age-group or social class but they are always referred to as a remnant taken out of this world of sin to be one in Christ. We remember that our Covenant father Abraham was never the father of Jews only but father in the faith to all nations. The Jews had not even emerged as a people at that time. Thus, such people who refer to a 'Jewish Bride' or even a 'Baptist Bride' are clearly in error. It would help the understanding of many an unsaved Jew or gentile to read the story of the Greek Syrophoenician woman whom Christ included in
The Biblical Annals, 2021
The author analyses Jesus' baptism in Jordan, looking for its parallel in the Christian baptism. He begins by acknowledging the historicity of Jesus' baptism and reflects on the meaning of the baptism of John by juxtaposing it with similar rites described in the Old Testament texts, in Second Temple Jewish literature, and in rabbinical sources. Then he analyses the meaning of Jesus' baptism, criticizing the historical-critical interpretations that separate the scene of baptism from the theophany that follows it. According to the author, such an operation is unfounded due to the nature of ancient texts and the literary and thematic continuity between baptism and theophany in the synoptic Gospels. Further, the author presents arguments demonstrating that Jesus comes to Jordan already aware of his identity and mission, which the Father's voice announces to others and objectivizes. In the last step, it is argued that Jesus' baptism in Jordan together with the Lord's death and resurrection could have been a point of reference for the early Christian understanding of baptism connected with the gift of the Spirit, with the filial dignity and the "Abba" prayer and with the inheritance of heaven. All these elements can be found in Rom 8:14-17,23 which describes the new life of those baptized in Christ.
THE RELATION OF BAPTISM TO SALVATION, 1881
R. Graves “Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things I command you? “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. “If a man love me, he will keep my words “—commandments.”—Christ. The above are the words of Christ, and fraught with meaning of the utmost moment to each one of us. The reasonable inference from the above solemn declaration is, That Christ accounts no one as his friend, in fact, that no one loves him, unless he obeys whatsoever things Christ commands him. Now Christian immersion stands first and foremost among the commands Christ enjoined upon all who profess to love him—the first and representative of all future obedience—since, embraced in its profession, is the pledge of unqualified and continued obedience in all the requirements of Christ. The questions proposed to be discussed, therefore, are I. Has Christian immersion any connection with salvation? II. If any, what is that relation? III. In what circumstances should we consider ourselves unsaved, —no friends of Christ unless we obey his command to be baptized? There are those who evidence impatience at the announcement of such a topic, because, in their opinion, the Scriptures do not furnish the shadow of a reason to justify any one in supposing that immersion in water—an overt act, and contingent entirely upon the will of third parties—can, in any way, by a merciful Savior, be connected with our eternal salvation; that simple faith in Christ is the one and all—sufficient thing that Christ requires of a believer to secure his richest blessings here, and salvation hereafter. If there be no semblance of a connection between baptism and salvation, how can we account for the fact, that every denomination of professing Christians, save the Baptists, do, in the published Symbols of their faith, whether called "Decrees of Councils," "Confessions of Faith," "Creeds," or "Disciplines," teach that there is a [2] vital connection—i.e., that, where baptism is wanting, no salvation can exist; and base their constant practice upon this doctrine? There must be a relation of some sort, or we can not rationally account for the almost universal belief and perpetuation of so gross an error through so many ages. Naked error can not endure the light, and it must have the outer semblance of truth with which to clothe itself. The theory that baptism is essential to salvation, and that, in the use of this rite as the effectual means, the blessings of remission of sins and regeneration are obtained, and all the benefits of Christ’s mediation secured to the recipient, whether adult or infant, is commonly known as "baptismal regeneration;" and it might better be called baptismal salvation, since a regenerated person is, without doubt, a saved person. Now, this theory is held and practiced today by the overwhelming mass of professed Christians, by all Catholic and by all Protestant sects, as well as by many hundreds of thousands who do not class themselves with Protestants; as the Campbellites, Mormons, and lesser sects.
prefácio à colectânea "Dos poderes dos Chefes de Estado no Direito Comparado" , 2019
Medieval Worlds, 2023
In: G. Nöth, M. Schaupp, M. Pulverich (Hrsg.), Erforschen und Gestalten - Festschrift für Leonhard Scherg zum 80. Geburtstag (Marktheidenfeld 2024), 161-178.
Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2006
arXiv (Cornell University), 2020
Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft, 2024
Malaria Journal, 2016
Molecules (Basel, Switzerland), 2018
Revista Pueblos y fronteras digital, 2010