Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1877-11-15


designed by it-before he had ever seen the
Saviour, and he continued it sfterward. Jesus
never commanded him, as he did bis own dis.
ciples after bis resurrection, to 60 into all the
world, or into any part of the world, and bap'
tie in the name Of the triune God, or in any
other name. Ifhe did, no man can prove it
for not one word is said in the Scriptures
about it. ..... .....,.
1t has been said that Jesus recognized the
baptism Of John as from heaven, and, conse'
quently, Christian baptism, because when the
chief priest and elders asked him by what au.
thority he taught the people, he replied by
asking them whether the baptism of John
was from heaven or of men. Matt, 2l: 23-
25. This question put them to silence. Had
they said it was from heaven, they would
have stultifed themselves and had they said
it was of men, they would have imperiled
themselves. On one occasion We find the
chief priests and scribes sending spies to Jesus
for the purpose Of bringing him in contact
with the Roman government. These spies
asked the Saviour this question: "Is it lawful
for US to give tribute to Cesar?" He replied
by asking them to show him penny. This
being done, he asked, "Whose image and su.
prescription hath it?" They answered and
said, "Cesar's" Jesus said, "Render, there.
fore, unto Cesar the things which are Caesars,
and unto God the things which be Gods. +"
Luke, 20: 1877.
Now, will any one say that we are warrant
ed in saying that Jesus either approved or
disapproved of the Roman government
Nothing at all is said about the Roman gov.
ernment by the Saviour. Neither does he af:
firm or deny the heavenly origin of Johns
baptism, when he asks whether it was from
heaven or of men. His object, which he &C.
complished, was to silence the chief priest and
elders of the people. These individuals were
placed in such peculiar predicament that
they dare not say anything except I'VE cannot
TELL" (Matt. 81 :27) which was clear eva.
sion. Jesus knew that they dare not answer
his question any way. But even should it be
proven that Johns baptism was from heaven.
which is impossible from the passage quoted
this would not prove that it was Christian
baptism. There are multitudes of things that
are indisputably from heaven that are not
Christian baptism.
Whenever it shall be proven that the New
Testament church was fully established be.
fore an atonement was made, or that Chris
tian baptism is an Old Testament rite, then
there will be some reasonable ground to be-
lieve that it may be possible to prove that
Johns baptism was Christian baptism. Even
then, there would be great difficulties in the
way. It would have to be settled whether
Jesus, like "Jerusalem and all Judea, and the
region round about Jordan, came to John
and was baptized, confessing his sins" Matt.
1856. Such thought is awful! Some
subterfuge would have to be devised to es.
cape the conclusion that he was sinner. This
done, some more twisting and turning Of the
word of God would have to be resorted to to
account for the glaring contradiction that an
innocent Saviour was baptized with baptism
unto repentance, part of the ceremony Of
administering which was to exhort the recip'
lent to bring forth fruits meet for repentance
All this done, we would have to account for
the fact that Jesus let this Christian sacra'
ment remain for period of about three years
in comparative disuse.- In fact, we would get
into so many difficulties and have to resort to
so many far.fetched and hard-strained inter
pretations of Gods word, that the man who
regards the obvious import of the Scriptures
as their correct meaning, would be almost
persuaded that we were wrestling Gods word.