Lesson 833

(Lesson 833)(12-07-13) Today's lesson is from Matthew 21:23-27;

"And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority? And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him? But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet. And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things."

When Jesus was confronted by the high priests and asked by what authority He spoke, Jesus made a reference to "he baptism of John". He, in essence, asked the priests if John's message was from God, or if John had simply made it up. After reasoning how they should answer, the priests said they didn't know. Since they were unable to answer, Jesus refused to tell them by who's authority He taught.

I believe the most important lesson that should be taken from this text is Jesus' reference to "the baptism of John".

The vast majority of today's "Christian" population, when asked what is meant by the term "baptism", will respond with and answer that somehow concerns water, either by total immersion, or by some form of sprinkling.

The erroneous notion that "baptism" always requires the use of water has poisoned the minds of millions of would be Christians into believing that one must be "baptized" in water to be eternally saved. A complete and in-context study of all the appearances of the term within the New Testament, proves that notion to be untrue.

Just as Jesus used the term "baptism" in today's quote to refer to the message John the Baptist brought, there are many applications of some form of the term "baptism", throughout the New Testament, whereas those terms refer to something other than water as the medium into which, or whereby, a person is to be baptized.

A classic example of this is when Jesus described His own death, burial, and resurrection, as a "baptism", "But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!" (Luke 12:50)
When the entire testimony of Jesus is carefully studied, within the proper context, we find that Jesus was said to have actually used a form of the term "baptize" a total of ten times. (This total does not include the repetitions that appear in the different accounts given by Matt., Mark, Luke, and John) NOT ONCE out of those ten times did Jesus use that term to define a water baptism.

There will be much more said concerning water baptism and its place in Christianity as these lessons continue.~