Loveland Protestant Reformed Church

709 East 57th Street; Loveland, CO 80538

Services: 9:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. June through August)

Vol. 6, No. 7 Pastor: Rev. Garry Eriks Phone: (970) 667-9481

Homepage on Internet: http://www.prca.org

Content:
The Apostolic Church
  Conditional Promises (4)
  Does 'Baptism' Mean "Submerse"?

The Apostolic Church

The church of Rome considers itself apostolic because it claims that the popes are the successors of the apostles and that there is an unbroken line of succession. None of these claims, of course, are true.

Some Protestant churches claim to be apostolic because they believe they have returned to apostolic practice or doctrine. While this may be true, it is not what is meant in the Nicene Creed.

Both in the Nicene Creed and Reformed theology the reference is to Ephesians 2:20, which describes the church as "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets." Obviously and closely related is Matthew 16:18, where Jesus says, "Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

The church of Rome takes this rock to be Peter himself and the Popes as the successors of Peter, because of the similarity between the name "Peter" (Petros in Greek) and the word "rock" (petra in Greek). The grammar of the text forbids this, however. These are actually two different words in Greek, the word "petros" referring to an isolated rock or small stone, and the word "petra" referring to a cliff, mountain or mountain chain. In fact, Jesus is saying that He is not going to build His church on Peter himself (he was not big enough to be the foundation of the church) but upon Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. That is a firm and unconquerable foundation.

In that light Ephesians 2:20 must also be interpreted as referring to apostolic (and prophetic) teaching and doctrine, i.e., to the inspired Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. They are the church's foundation.

Built upon the teaching and doctrine of the Apostles the church is built upon Christ! He then is the chief cornerstone "in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth into an holy temple in the Lord" (vs. 21).

The implication is, of course, that all the doctrine and teaching of the concerns Christ. "Search the Scriptures," Jesus says. "They are they that testify of me" (Jn. 5:39). And so Paul, speaking for all the Apostles says, "For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified" (I Cor. 2:2).

A church that is truly apostolic, therefore, is truly the church of Christ. No wonder, then, that when the church is built on such a foundation, even the gates of hell cannot overcome her.

How few churches today are truly apostolic! Most of them have little or none of the teaching of the apostles and prophets and are completely vulnerable to the assaults of the forces of hell. Rev. Ronald Hanko

Conditional Promises (4)

If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever. Jeremiah 7:6-7.

We are interested in only one aspect of this passage from Jeremiah: its conditional character. It is to this conditional structure of the verse that a question sent to us refers: "Are the promises of God always conditional? A brother I am in correspondence with recently wrote to me quoting Jer. 7:6-7 as proof that God makes conditional promises.... [This passage] calls to obedience with attached promises of blessing. The question is, are the promised blessings conditional on obedience?"

We have one more article to write on this question. In this article I want to deal with the question of the reason why God makes use of conditional sentences in Scripture. We have, in earlier articles, dealt with this matter, but it is of sufficient importance to discuss it again. We can find several reasons why God uses conditional sentences in Scripture. All of them are important.

The first reason is that conditional sentences make the promises of God to which they are attached particular, i.e., for some people only. The conditional sentence, e.g., in the verse from Deuteronomy quoted above, makes it very clear that the promise of God that He will give the land of Canaan as an everlasting dwelling place is not for all men, not even for all Israel, but only for those who do not oppress the stranger, the orphans, and the widows; who do not shed innocent blood; and who do not serve other gods. It is important to stress this, for many in our day want to make the promise of the gospel general, i.e., to all who hear the gospel.

In the second place, the conditional form of the sentence gives emphasis to the definition of those who do inherit the promise. The form of the statement is almost like a name which God gives to those in whom He delights. They are those who show mercy and compassion and those who serve the Lord their God. They are merciful Jehovah-servers. That is how you may identify them. That is their spiritual name.

In the third place, the conditional form of the sentence explains the way in which these merciful Jehovah-servers inherit the promise. They receive the promise exactly in the way of showing mercy and serving Jehovah with fear. They know the mercy of God to them and show that mercy to others. They have been brought into fellowship with Jehovah their God and serve Him alone with thankful hearts. And in the way of being merciful Jehovah-fearers they receive the promise.

Does this mean that to be merciful and to serve God alone are conditions to the promise? Most emphatically not! These people are merciful because God has shown mercy to them, and they have experienced God's mercy. They worship Jehovah alone because they have been delivered by sovereign grace from the idolatry of the heathen. They are, therefore, the elect of God in whom is worked the true religion -- which James describes as being "to visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction, and to keep one's self unspotted from the world " (James 1:27).

And, as this word of God comes to them in the preaching, God works in them the consciousness of His work. As He sets forth the inseparable relation between this "true and undefiled religion" and everlasting life in heaven, he shows to His people how He, Jehovah their God, has inseparably joined the two. God works in them this great religion; they experience this work of God as they themselves visit the orphans and widows and walk in the fear of God. And in this way they have the assurance that God is indeed their God and that the promise of an eternal inheritance in the Canaan which is above is theirs.

Thus also they are warned concerning their sin. When they walk in the ways of their sin, they lose the assurance of the hope of the promise and experience only God's wrath. But that very wrath brings them again, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, to repentance and confession of sin.

God deals with us, not so that we are puppets, the strings of which are in His hands, but as those in whom He works His salvation so that it is our conscious blessing, and so that, knowing that blessing, we may give glory to God alone. But it is all of God who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Prof. H. Hanko

Does 'Baptism' mean Submerse?

We continue in this issue with the questions raised in the last issue concerning baptism. In this article we want to focus on the meaning of the word "baptism." Baptists, for the most part, insist that the word means "immerse" or "submerse." It can be easily shown that this is not so.

Hebrews 9:10 refers to the various washing of the OT as baptisms, using the ordinary N.T. to describe them. These "baptisms" are further described as "sprinklings" in the same passage (vss. 13, 19, 21). There at least the word does not mean "immerse" or "submerse."

Further, the gift of the Holy Spirit is described as a baptism (Matt. 3:11, Mk. 1:8, Lk. 3:16, Jn. 1:33, Acts 1:5, 11:16). In no passage of Scripture is it even suggested that this baptism is by submersion. Rather, believers are always said to have the Holy Spirit poured, sprinkled, shed forth or fallen on them (Acts 2:17, 18, 33, 8:16, 10:44, 47, 11:15, 16; cf. also Ezek. 36:25-28).

Scripture even speaks of being baptized with fire (Matt. 3:11) or with death (Matt. 20:22, 23), neither of which imply submersion at all. Not only that, but the O.T. prophecy that speaks of Christ baptizing speaks of sprinkling (Is. 52:15).

Some object that the baptisms of Christ (Matt. 3:16) and of the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:38, 39) were definitely by submersion because the passages speak of going down into and coming up out of the water. We beg to differ.

First, a simple study will show that the words translated "down into" and "up out of" or "up from" could be and often are translated "down to" or "up from." The words used do not in themselves even imply that Jesus or the Eunuch were standing in the water, much less that they were submersed in it.

Second, if these words are describing the actual baptism by submersion of the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8:38, 39, then Philip baptized himself as well as the Eunuch. He is described in the passage in exactly the same terms as the Eunuch as going down into and up out of the water. Obviously, then, these words refer not to the baptism itself but to what happened immediately before and after the baptism and they say nothing about the mode of baptism.

It might also be objected that baptism (real baptism in this case, not water baptism) is described in terms of burial and resurrection with Christ in Romans 6:3-6 and Colossians 2:11-12. In answer, we would point out (1) that Christ was not buried under the ground but in a sepulchre; and (2) that the point in Romans 6 and Colossians 2 is not that we are submersed in death and resurrection with Christ, but rather that we are united to His death and resurrection by baptism.

In reality, the word "baptism" really says nothing by itself about the mode or manner of baptism. That must be learned from other parts of Scripture and they teach baptism by sprinkling or pouring, not by submersion. Rev. Ronald Hanko