The Truth in Print Vol. 29, Issue 1, Feb. 2023
A Publication of the Valley church of Christ,
2375 W. 8th Street, Yuma, AZ 85364
(928-782-5058)
Website
Address ~ http://yumavalleychurchofchrist.com
Wrong Thinking of Scholars on Baptism #2
An
often-used commentary is Robertson’s Word Pictures (RWP). A.T. Robertson (1863-1934) was a Southern
Baptist preacher, and is said to have been a noted Greek scholar who focused on
the New Testament. One should be extremely careful in the use of commentaries,
as such reflect the personal beliefs of the writers. Anyone interested in their
own salvation should see through his use of Jonah’s preaching in Nineveh, and
their acceptance of it, as given in the below. Again, I’m going to state
scripture for clarity.
SCRIPTURES:
Act
2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath
made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Act
2:37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said
unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we
do?
Act
2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you
in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the
gift of the Holy Ghost.
Act
2:39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that
are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Act
2:40 And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save
yourselves from this untoward generation.
Act
2:41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same
day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
Before
considering RWP, here are important things to consider in the context of Acts
2:
Peter had stated that the words spoken
by the apostles were given to them through Christ, by the Holy Spirit (Acts
2:33). What is preached is not to be taken lightly. When Peter commands
repentance and baptism “for” the remission of sins (Acts 2:38), the word “for”
doesn’t mean “because one has” the remission of sins because they just asked
what to do to have the remission of sins! (Acts 2:37). In this context the
“and” (conjunction) in Acts 2:38 joins two commands -- both “repent” and “be
baptized” are imperatives, i.e., commands, and answer the question in Acts
2:37.
NOW, RWP ACTS 2:38
Unto the remission of your sins (eis aphesin tōn
hamartiōn hūmōn).
This phrase is the subject of endless controversy as men look at it from the
standpoint of sacramental or of evangelical theology. In themselves the words
can express aim or purpose for that use of eis does
exist as in 1Co 2:7 eis doxan
hēmōn (for our glory).
Rather
than rush off to a verse elsewhere, why not discuss the context of Acts chapter
2? And show the Word is being revealed that men and might hear, and obey, and
be saved? (Cf. Jo 16:13-14; Mk 16:15-16). Let me repeat what I just stated
about the context of Acts 2:
Peter had stated that the words spoken
by the apostles were given to them through Christ, by the Holy Spirit (Acts
2:33). What is preached is not to be taken lightly. When Peter commands
repentance and baptism “for” the remission of sins (Acts 2:38), the word “for”
doesn’t mean “because one has” the remission of sins because they just asked
what to do to have the remission of sins! (Acts 2:37). In this context the
“and” (conjunction) in Acts 2:38 joins two commands -- both “repent” and “be
baptized” are imperatives, i.e., commands, and answer the question in Acts
2:37.
Now comes the “but” -- what else would
be expect from a Southern Baptist preacher.
RWP ACTS 2:38
But then another usage exists which is
just as good Greek as the use of eis for aim or
purpose. It is seen in Mat 10:41 in three examples eis
onoma prophētou, dikaiou,
mathētou where it cannot be purpose or aim, but
rather the basis or ground, on the basis of the name of prophet, righteous man,
disciple, because one is, etc.
CONTEXT:
The context is Jesus’ instruction to the
twelve when He sent them out. Here are the verses RWP refers to:
Mat 10:40 "He who receives you receives Me, and he who
receives Me receives Him who sent Me.
Mat 10:41 He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet
shall receive a prophet's reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the
name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.
Mat
10:42 And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in
the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his
reward."
Don’t
you think that Robertson knows what he’s doing? He knows this is a different
context. The context is instructions Jesus gave to the twelve when sending them
out, and it concerns receiving a prophet, and a righteous man, and giving a cup
of cold water.
Now,
here’s more of what you’d expect from a Southern Baptist preacher. This is some
great analogy from the prophet Jonah, and the reception of his preaching in
Nineveh.
RWP
ACTS 2:38
It is seen again in Mat 12:41 about
the preaching of Jonah (eis to kērugma
Iōna). They repented because of (or at) the
preaching of Jonah. The illustrations of both usages are numerous in the N.T.
and the Koiné [28928]š generally (Robertson, Grammar,
p. 592). One will decide the use here according as he believes that baptism is essential
to the remission of sins or not.
HERE
IS THE SCRIPTURE:
Mat
12:41 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn
it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than
Jonah is here.
ABOUT
GOD, JONAH, AND NINEVEH:
Jon
1:1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai,
saying,
Jon
1:2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it;
for their wickedness has come up before Me.
He
tried to flee from God and this responsibility. When he did finally go, he
declared to them their wickedness, and demanded what God demanded, i.e.,
repentance.
SOME
MORE SCRIPTURES:
Jon
3:1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying,
Jon
3:2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the
message that I tell you."
Jon
3:3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now
Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent.
Jon
3:4 And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried
out and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be
overthrown!"
Jon
3:6 Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and
laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes.
Jon
3:7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by
the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd
nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water.
Jon
3:8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to
God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and
from the violence that is in his hands.
Jon
3:9 Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce
anger, so that we may not perish?
Jon
3:10 Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and
God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and
He did not do it.
QUESTION:
WHERE DID GOD EVER REQUIRE BAPTISM IN NINEVEH? JONAH NEVER PREACHED ON BAPTISM!
THEY DID WHAT GOD REQUIRED IN REPENTING. IF ONE GETS ANYTHING AT ALL FROM THE
CONTEXT OF MATT. 12, IT WOULD BE TO REPENT (MATT. 12:41) AND OBEY GOD’S
COMMANDS (MATT. 12:50).
Robertson
(RWP) says one will decide according as he believes, and he has believed
contrary to the scriptures – he runs off to contexts that do not relate to conversions in Acts 2. What you
are seeing in this scholar is deceit. He uses another context, and an entirely
different “age” from the old testament, and it only mentions repentance where
Christ referred to it. How convenient! He knows what he’s doing!
AGAIN,
RWP ACTS 2:38
My view is decidedly against the idea
that Peter, Paul, or any
one in the New Testament taught
baptism as essential to the remission of sins or the means of securing such
remission. So I understand Peter to be urging baptism on each of them who had
already turned (repented) and for it to be done in the name of Jesus Christ on
the basis of the forgiveness of sins which they had already received.
CONTEXT PLEASE: Peter had stated that
the words spoken by the apostles were given to them through Christ, by the Holy
Spirit (Acts 2:33). What is preached is not to be taken lightly. When Peter
commands repentance and baptism “for” the remission of sins (Acts 2:38), the
word “for” doesn’t mean “because one has” the remission of sins because they
just asked what to do to have the remission of sins! (Acts 2:37). In this
context the “and” (conjunction) in Acts 2:38 joins two commands -- both
“repent” and “be baptized” are imperatives, i.e., commands, and answer the
question in Acts 2:37.
SCRIPTURE:
Gal
3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that
we might be justified by faith.
Gal
3:25 But after that faith is come, we are no
longer under a schoolmaster.
Gal
3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith
in Christ Jesus.
Gal
3:27 For as many of you as have been baptized
into Christ have put on Christ.
Gal
3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Gal
3:29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs
according to the promise.
NOW,
RWP GAL 3:27
He does not here mean that one enters
into Christ and so is saved by means of baptism after the teaching of the
mystery religions, but just the opposite. We are justified by faith in Christ,
not by circumcision or by baptism. But baptism was the public profession and
pledge, the soldier’s sacramentum, oath of fealty to Christ, taking one’s stand
with Christ, the symbolic picture of the change wrought by faith already (Rom 6:4-6).
His
“not,” reminds me of Gen. 3:4 “thou shalt not surely die.” Eve knew God said
they would die if they ate of the forbidden fruit, and she was deceived with
the Devil’s “not.” Certainly, Paul taught the Christians in the churches of
Galatia were not justified by circumcision (Cf. Gal 2:16; 5:2). He’s keeping
them from going to the Mosaic law for justification! (Cf. Gal 5:1-2). Baptism into Christ, for the
remission of sins, is not part of the Mosaic law. And Paul explained in Gal
3:26-27, that they have been baptized into Christ to put on Christ. Nowhere did
Paul, or any other New Testament writer, say man is justified by faith only!
The only verse that mentions “faith only” says “not by faith only”:
Jas
2:24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith
only.
Jas
2:25 Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she
received the messengers and sent them out another way?
Jas
2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead
also.
CONCLUSION:
Peter
commanded baptism, and Paul was baptized to have his sins washed away. The
great danger is named scholars don’t want to admit that it is in baptism, a
burial in water, that Christ’s blood cleanses one from all sin, and then one
rises to walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4). And baptism is for the remission
of sins (Acts 2:38). Peter said baptism saves us (I Pet. 3:21). How can it be
up to how the individual sees baptism, as to whether baptism is for the
remission of sins, since the Lord Himself told Paul to listen to what Ananias
would tell him? Christ directed Saul to heed the command to be baptized. Act
22:10 So I said, 'What shall I do, Lord?' And the Lord said to me, 'Arise
and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all things which are appointed
for you to do.' What did Ananias command? Act 22:16 And now why are you
waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of
the Lord.'
Valley
Church of Christ
2375 W. 8th Street,
Yuma, AZ 85364
(928)
782-5058 ~ http://yumavalleychurchofchrist.com
Sunday
Services – Classes ~10:00; Assembly 10:50 am; Evening: 6:00 pm.
Wednesday
evening – 7:00 pm
To learn more call, visit or visit our website
at:
http://yumavalleychurchofchrist.com