Water Baptism Part 9

[Footnote 181: Acts 22.12; Acts 21.18, 26]

[Footnote 182: Acts 1.6]

[Footnote 183: Acts 15.28, 29; Acts 21.25]

[Footnote 184: Acts 22.21; Gal. 2.7, 9; Acts 13.47]

[Footnote 185: 1 Cor. 10.25, 29]

[Footnote 186: Col. 2.16, 18]

[Footnote 187: 1 Cor. 1.17; Rom. 1.16]

[Footnote 188: Acts 2.38, 41; Acts 4.33, 37; Acts 2.44, 46]

[Footnote 189: Acts 10.44; Acts 11.15; Acts 10.47]

[Footnote 190: Acts 10.42, 44; Acts 11.15, 16; Acts 10.47]

[Footnote 191: Acts 15.28, 29]

[Footnote 192: Acts 8.27, 39 R.v.]

[Footnote 193: 2 Cor. 3.15]

[Footnote 194: Exodus 20.18]

[Footnote 195: Jon. 3.30]

[Footnote 196: Jon. 16.12]

[Footnote 197: Jon. 14.23, 26]

[Footnote 198: Jon. 16.12]

[Footnote 199: Mat. 11.25]

WATER BAPTISM AFTER THE APOSTLES' TIME

By collateral evidence we are led to suppose that several of the apostles were martyred under the Roman Emperor, Nero, about A.D. 64.

The Jews rebelled against the Romans, A.D. 66. At the approach of war, Christians of Jerusalem and Judea removed to Pela, beyond the Jordan.[200] Eusebius says they fled in obedience to a Divine revelation.[201] These were all Jews, and in their new homes were called Nazarenes or Ebonites.[202]

Jerusalem and the temple were utterly destroyed and the Jews ma.s.sacred by the Romans, A.D. 70.[203]

Dean Stanley says: "The fall of Jerusalem was the fall of the Jewish world; it was a reason for the close of the apostolic age; a death-blow of the influence of Jewish nationality for a long time to come."[204]

After the destruction of Jewish Jerusalem, Gentile Antioch appears to have become the seat of church authority.

John was probably the only apostle then living and he, it is thought, was in a distant country.

At Antioch and other places Gentile Christians evidently soon gained the ascendency and discouraged, even Jews from circ.u.mcision and other offensive Jewish customs, while water baptism and other usages not repulsive to Gentiles were generally continued and in time modified to suit taste and convenience.

The early Christians were not united in making these changes; they caused continued discord and division among them as is manifest throughout the writings of the Ante-Nicene Fathers and Eusebius.

The Nazarenes, Ebonites and some others adhered to circ.u.mcision and the customs of Moses as the elders at Jerusalem had insisted that Paul should do and as in the "Hermit Church" of Abyssinia they still continue to do.[205][206]

We find these Nazarenes and Ebonites soon cla.s.sified as heretics after the Gentiles preponderated.

Water baptism seems not to have been insisted upon at first but in the second century greater importance appears to have been attached to it.[207] Many, however, claimed that only baptism of the Holy Spirit and purity of the heart were necessary because none of the apostles but Paul were baptized with water, and Christ said: "John indeed baptized with water but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit;"[208] and again, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see G.o.d."

Justin Martyr[209] said: "What is the use of that baptism which cleanses the flesh and the body alone. Baptize the soul from wrath, envy, &c., and lo! the whole body is clean." And again: "What need have I of that other baptism who have been baptized with the Holy Spirit."

While many such expressions occur in the writings of the "Fathers,"

there are many more which support sacramentalism. Their testimonies are conflicting.

About the beginning of the third century we find water baptism first called a sacrament by Tertulian and about the same time he complains that many tried to destroy it. Plainly, as water baptism was exalted, opposition increased.[210]

The sect called Asc.o.o.ndrutes rejected all symbols and sacraments on the principle that incorporeal things cannot be communicated by things corporeal nor divine mysteries by things visible.[211]

Schaff says[212]: Many Jews and Gentiles were baptized only with water; not with Holy Spirit and fire of the Gospel, and smuggled their old religious notions and practices into the church.

The Roman Emperor, Constantine, professedly became a Christian, while he virtually remained a heathen; A.D. 312.[213]

Christians were few in number before Constantine, but now pagans flocked to the church and sat in its councils.

"Constantine married the Christian church to the heathen world." He virtually united church and state. He convened the council of Nice and they formed a creed A.D. 325.

Many protested against this council and its decisions but the ma.s.s supported the Emperor and the creed.

Among obscure dissenters whom the ruling church called heretics may we expect thereafter to find the nearest approach to Christianity as Jesus taught it upon the Mount and elsewhere.

Mosheim says: No sooner had Constantine abolished the superst.i.tion of his ancestors than magnificent churches were erected for the Christians, which were richly adorned with pictures and images and bore striking resemblances to the Pagan temples both within and without.[214]

The simplicity of the Gospel was clouded by the prodigious number of rites and ceremonies which the bishops invented to embellish it.[215]

They imagined the Pagans would receive Christianity with more facility when they saw the rites and ceremonies to which they were accustomed adopted in the church. So the religion of the Christians was made to conform very nearly to that of the Pagans in external appearance.[216]

The vice and insolent tyranny of many of the priesthood soon became notorious.[217]

Neander says: Such individuals of the laity as were distinguished by their piety from the great ma.s.s of nominal Christians and from the worldly minded of the clergy often suffered persecution from the latter.[218]

The name of Andeus stand prominent among the many dissenters who protested against the corruptions of the ruling church at this time.[219]