BAPTISM AND THE RULES OF IMPLEMENTATION What is Baptism? The servant of the Lord, Mrs. E. G. White said : “The ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper are two monumental pillars, one without and one within the church. Upon these ordinances Christ has inscribed the name of the true God. “Christ has made baptism the sign of entrance to His spiritual kingdom. He has made this a positive condition with which all must comply who wish to be acknowledged as under the authority of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Before man can find a home in the church, before passing the threshold of God’s spiritual kingdom, he is to receive the impress of the divine name, “The Lord our Righteousness.” Jeremiah 23 : 6. “Baptism is a most solemn renunciation of the world. Those who are baptized in the threefold name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, at the very entrance of their Christian life declare publicly that they have forsaken the service of Satan and have become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. They have obeyed the command : “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, …… and touch not the unclean thing.” And to them is fulfilled the promise : “I will receive you , and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6 : 17, 18.– 6 Testimonies for the Church, p. 91. Baptism is a sign of entrance or a sort of certificate of citizenship granted to someone to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God on earth. Through an inaugural ceremony of baptism our status will be changed from non citizenship into the citizenship of the Kingdom, or in other words, our status will be changed from the children of men unto the children of God. Thus it is, that the same baptism would be a public renunciation of the world in seriousness. To this end Mrs. White said : “And the repentant believer, who takes the steps required in conversion, commemorates in his baptism the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. He goes down into the water in the likeness of Christ’s death and burial, and he is raised out of the water in the likeness of His resurrection.—not to take up the old life of sin, but to live a new life in Christ Jesus.” -- EGW. Bible Commentary, vol. 5, p. 1113. It is now clear, that when the baptism is carried out honestly and right, then all sins taken with us, either hereditary or by self-creation, they all will be abolished and forgiven. “These candidates have entered into the family of God, and their names are inscribed in the Lamb’s book of life.”-- EGW. Bible Commentary, vol. 6, p. 1075. The Pastor Work “Candidates who have grown to manhood and womanhood should understand their duty better than do the younger ones; but the pastor of the church has a duty to do for these souls. Have they wrong habits and practices? It is the duty of the pastor to have special meetings with them. Give them Bible readings, converse and pray with them, and plainly show the claims of the Lord upon them. Read to them the teaching of the Bible in regard to conversion. Show what is the fruit of conversion, the evidence that they love God. Show that true conversion is a change of heart, of thoughts and purposes. Evil habits are to be given up. The sins of evil-speaking, of jealousy, of disobedience, are to be put away. A warfare must be waged against every evil trait of character. The believing one can understandingly take to himself the promise: “Ask and it shall be given you.” Matthew 7 : 7 “ --- 6 Testimonies for the Church, p. 95. Implementation of Baptism “Whenever possible, let baptism be administered in a clear lake or running stream. And give to the occasion all the importance and solemnity that can be brought into it. At such a service angels of God are always present. “The one who administers the ordinance of baptism should seek to make it an occasion of solemn, sacred influence upon all spectators. Every ordinance of the church should be so conducted as to be uplifting in its influence. Nothing is to be made common or cheap, or placed on a level with common things. Our churches need to be educated to greater respect and reverence for the sacred service of God. As ministers conduct the services connected with God’s worship, so they are educating and training the people. Little acts that educate and train and discipline the soul for eternity are of vast consequence in the uplifting and sanctifying of the church. “In every church, baptismal robes should be provided for the candidates. This should not be regarded as a needless outlay of means. It is one of the things required in obedience to the injunction: “Let all things be done decently and in order.” 1 Corinthians 14 : 40. “It is not well for one church to depend upon borrowing robes from another. Often when the robes are needed, they are not to be found; some borrower has neglected to return them. Every church should provide for its own necessity in this line. Let a fund be raised for this purpose. If the whole church unites in this, it will not be a heavy burden.” – 6 Testimonies for the Church, pp.97-98. Baptism, the first step of the process of Justification by Faith The servant of the Lord, Mrs. White said: “The requisite steps in conversion, in all cases, are faith, repentance, and baptism. Thus the true Christian church is united in one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” – The Story of Redemption, p. 289. “The work for these last days is a missionary work. Present truth, from the first letter of its alphabet (A) to the last (Z), means missionary effort.”– Counsels on Health, p. 300. Repentance is a part of faith, because faith without repentance is nil. Men of faith are those, who believe and repent. Not only believe. How many times they fall, they shall repent. They shall repent on and on as long as those instructed them in the Bible from A up to Z. They also can repent times and again, repeatedly, “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again……..”-- Proverb 24 : 16. After fully believe and repent, that is, after being a man of faith, then the first step in Christian life is to surrender oneself to the baptism. Baptism is only once in the life time, because it is a sign of entrance into the spiritual kingdom of Christ. Through such a baptism all our personal sins, either hereditary or of self- committed, all of which will be forgiven, because they will be transferred to the Lord Himself. Under the guidance of the Spirit, either before or after the Baptism Prior to His return to heaven from His mission here on earth, Jesus has ever said, that He is to commission the Holy Spirit to represent Him here on earth. The Holy Spirit is also known by the Spirit of Truth. Thus He said: “Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth ….. and he will shew you things to come.” John 16 : 13. The servant of the Lord, Sister White then said : “The outpouring of the Spirit in the days of the apostles was the b e g i n n i n g of the early, or the former, rain, and glorious was the result. To the end of time the presence of the Spirit is to abide with the true church.”--- The Acts of the Apostles, pp. 54, 55. The true church in this time of the end is none other than the Laodicean church, which is the Seventh-day Adventist Church, because only in this church THE WHOLE TRUTHS in their authenticity could be found. Only in this church. We are to be led by the Holy Spirit into all truths and the things to come, even unto the true baptize and so on. The other popular churches have been left in partial darkness, because they have rejected messages from God in their respective time. That means they have rejected the Holy Spirit that brought to them the truth that is badly needed by them at their appointed time. The result is, though still having been in possession of partial truth of the gospel, they have been fallen in sin against the Spirit, and the Holy Spirit of God will no more abide in their midst. Nevertheless as personal beings, especially for those who are still hungry and thirsty for the truth Holy Spirit of God is still calling to repentance. In the experience of Mrs. White and her family, through the saving grace of God they have been led by the Holy Spirit to leave the Methodist Church to move first to join William Miller and his associates of the first-day Adventists, up to later on to establish her own church of Seventh-day Advents, the last church of the Laodiceans in the time of the end. Observing so many Baptisms carried out by the churches up to now ‘BAPTISM IS A MOST SACRED AND IMPORTANT ORDINANCE, AND THERE SHOULD BE A THOROUGH UNDERSTANDING AS TO ITS MEANING. IT MEANS REPENTANCE FOR SIN, AND THE ENTRANCE UPON A NEW LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS. THE SHOULD BE NO UNDUE HASTE TO RECEIVE THE ORDINANCE.” ---- 6 Testimonies for the Church, p. 93. Based upon the divinely instructions above, there are several requirements to be first fulfilled prior to a ceremonial baptism could be carried out. They are as follows: (1) There should be a thorough understanding on all the requirements that should be met, either by the candidates of baptism or by the gospel ministers themselves. (2) There should be a thorough repentance from sin. That is, every act of transgression of the Law and all its rules of implementations in the SPIRIT OF PROPHECY should stop. (3) There should first be seen in the life of the candidates a marked change into the more similarities to the life of Christ. (4) There should be no undue haste to grant baptism to anyone. But from the facts of so many baptisms carried out by the churches in the world up to now we should doubt if the names of so many people now registered with the churches are truly Christians of the Lord. It seems clear that the leadership of the Church has deliberately changed most of the requirements laid out in the written testimonies of the Spirit, which is the SPIRIT OF PROPHECY to meet their own private conditions, which is mainly motivated by the number of new converts to win by the ministers, targeted by their superiors in the Organization. This is the reason why most of the rules for implementing the true Baptism in the churches have been left out of consideration. The doctrines of health reform, dress reform, Christian temperance, and the things to come (John 16 : 13), as those laid out in the SPIRIT OF PROPHECY have been deliberately neglected by the Organization. And now you will see why the call for a spiritual revival and a spiritual reformation in the Review and Herald, dated February 25, 1902 has been so completely left out of consideration. It is very difficult today to see new converts coming to their baptism through the call of God’s own Spirit. Most of those coming to the baptism only through intimidation, or through persuasion, and none coming through repentance to the obedience of the Law of God and all its rules of implementation in the SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. The consequence is very serious, because the servant of the Lord said: “The accession of members who have not been renewed in heart and reformed in life is a source of weakness to the church. This fact is often ignored. Some ministers and churches are so desirous of securing an increase of numbers that they do not bear faithful testimony against unchristian habits and practices. Those who accept the truth are not taught that they cannot safely be world lings in conduct while they are Christians in name.” --- Evangelism, p. 319. “Too much hasty work is done in adding names to the church roll. Serious defects are seen in the characters of some who join the church. Those who admit them say, we will first get them into the church, and then reform them. But this is a mistake. The very first work to be done is the work of reform. Pray with them, talk with them, but do not allow them to unite with God’s people in the church relationship until they give decided evidence that the Spirit of God is working on their hearts.” “Many of those whose names are registered on the Church books are not Christians.” --- Review & Herald, May 21, 1901. Baptism That Fails A baptism failed because it is not approved by the Lord. because not all the rules of implementation of the Law in THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY were obeyed. Those whose baptism failed should have understood that they have lacked the guidance of the Holy Spirit to lead them unto all Truth and the Things to Come. (John 16 : 13). And the result is that they failed to repent thoroughly, to get the remission of their sins fully. Such are those who failed to gain the approval of God mercy to gain entrance into His spiritual kingdom here on earth. Of such people the servant of the Lord has ever warned: (1) “Many of those whose names are registered on the Church books are not Christians.” --- Review & Herald, May 21, 1901. (2) “There are many ministers who have never been converted. . . . Review & Herald, October 8, 1898 The chance to repent for the first time in Christian life is at the baptism. When someone is deemed “to have never been converted”, it means that ever since the first time he was baptized he is still lacking the sign of entrance into the spiritual kingdom of Christ on earth. He is still lacking the status of citizenship of the kingdom of Christ. It is because his baptism was not as yet approved in the sight of the heavenly intelligence. Indeed, “The test of discipleship is not brought to bear as closely as it should be upon those who present themselves for baptism. It should be understood whether they are simply taking the name of Seventh-day Advents, or whether they are taking their stand on the Lord’s side, to come out from the world and be separate, and touch not the unclean thing.”-- 6 Testimonies for the Church, p. 95. bible-prophecies.org
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