Mexico weekly ledger., 1893-11-09

admits and practices immersion
Does be not declare that those whom
he has immersed are not baptized2
How can he say, when be immerses,
~ baptize thee" etc.. when he does
not believe the Scriptures teach i'm.
mersionf Alasl alas! for those
whom he has immersed. When be
immersed them he said he was bap-
tizing them, but he now declares
that they are not baptized. Is moi
this consoling to immersed Metho.
dists?
Bro. Jackson does not think the
command ''to go and baptize all
nations to be as binding as when
uttered by our Savior. Well, how
binding is itP If a part of the COM
mission may be set aside in that
way: any other part of the Bible
that does not suit us may be sci
aside in the same way. Paul does
not mean to say that baptism is Of
any less Importance, but that it was
not the principal work to which he
was called, that being the preaching
of the gospel in comparison with
which everything else a second
airy. Paul preached baptism, and
Lydia and her household "attended
unto the things which were spoken
of Paul'' and baptism followed. To
the Philippian i%ailor, Paul and Silas
''spoke unto him the word of the
Lord" and the result was that he
was baptized.
But to the twenty reasons: The
first reason Sin favor of s~prinkling
and pouring for baptism as against
immersion is, that sprinkling and
pouring occur frequently in both the
Old and New Testament and in
connection with baptism; while
neither immersion nor its equiva-
Tents are found in the Bible" We
deny that either sprinkling or pour
ing is found in either the Old or the
New Testament with reference to
baptism, and call on Bro. Jackson
to give Us the passages.
AS to the statement that ''immer.
sion nor its equivalents are found in
the Bible" We are at a loss to know
what he means by the Bible. Does
he mean the original Scriptures or
pedobaptist translation of the origin
al Scriptures? He admits that
there are translations where it does
occur, hence we infer that he means
to say that the equivalent of immerse
is not found in the original Scrip
lures. That it is found will be
shown when we come to notice his
third reason.
Second. 1.-THE versions of the New
Testament gotten out by INNER
sionists in which immerse is insert
ed wherever the word baptize occurs,
fell still born from the press and
even its friends will not use it,"
This statement we deny. These
versions are used to-day as books of
reference, just as the revised version,
by pedobaptists, is used by scholars.
Shall it be said that the revised
version ''fell still born from the
press'' simply because it is not gen.
orally used in the pulpit or gener-
ally accepted by the people?
Third. His third statement is
that "New Testament Greek is a
separate and distinct idiom of the
Greek language, and in it baptizo is
never used in the sense of immerse,"
and he refers to Robinson, Green
field and Schlushner to support this
statement. know nothing about
schlushner, but l have by me Rob-
inson and Greenfield. Robinson
says baptizo means to dip in, to
sink, to immerse; and in a
foot note he says: "While in
Greek writer's, as above exhibited,
from Plato EDWARDS, baptizo
is everywhere to sink, to i'm
merse, to overwhelm, either wholly
or partially; yet in Hellenestic
usage, and especially in reference
to the rite of baptism, it would
seem The does not dare to affirm
that it is sol to have expressed not
simply immersion, but the
more general idea of ablution or
He admits that his rea-
son for this inference is the difficulty
be has with immersion in the New
Let it be remembered
that Mr.. Robinson was a pedobaptist
and a professor in a Presbyterian
Theological Seminary.
Greenfield says baptizo means
immerse, immerge, submerge,
sink; in the New Testament to
wash, perform ablution, cleanse to
mmerse, to baptize.
1t is thus shown by Bro. Jack
own authorities that baptizo
s used in the New Testament in
he sense of immerss. All Greek
exicons give the primary meaning
# baptizo to be to plunge, to dip,
o immerse.
Prof. M. w. Humphreys, former
Y of Vanderbilt University Meth
now of the University of