Page 15 - lesson28.vp

Lesson 28 Hope of Israel Ministries BIBLE Correspondence Course 15

his disciples to baptize for him -- by his instrument turns out to be imperfect, remember
authority. all humans are imperfect, and that the baptism
2. Did Yeshua commission the apostle was DONE FOR, and IN THE NAME OF the
Paul to baptize repentant believers, or to preach only human being who ever was perfect. And
the gospel? I Corinthians 1:13-17. since it was in reality done by the Messiah, it
should never be done again if one has
understood and complied with YEHO-
VAH’s conditions for salvation.

Baptism -- A self-Administered
Rite

The ordinance of baptism is
patterned after the ritualistic mikvah or
sacred bath. The practice of cere-
monial immersion, the forerunner of
Christian baptism, was a "self-
administered" baptism, in which the
person, or priest, walked out into the
Thousands of Christians have died with the HOPE of being bath, or pool, and then immersed
resurrected at the Messiah’s appearance. And thousands himself (or herself).
of others are being baptized today for this same “hope of In light of this, Dr. Robert Lind-
the dead.” sey of Jerusalem has suggested that
John the Baptist himself did not
COMMENT: Paul baptized very few! actually "baptize" people, by putting
He had others do it for the Messiah. He was the his hands on them and pushing them under the
called minister by whom the Messiah carried the water. Rather, the baptism was a self-
gospel to the Gentiles (”Lost” Ten Tribes) -- administered procedure to which John bore
through whom the Messiah, as head of the witness and supervised.
Ecclesia, ruled the ecclesias which had been Similarly, in the Judean ritual of the
raised up by the preaching of Paul and the mikvah, the person is forbidden to touch anyone
YOUNG MEN he had taught and sent out under else while in the baptismal pool or bath. Such
his direction. Paul did not consider it important touching would "contaminate" the process and
or essential that he, personally, baptize all those render it "unclean" and unfit.
being converted under the ministry YEHOVAH How does this relate to the Christian
God carried on through his supervision. “Christ practice of baptism?
sent me not to baptize,” Paul said. Yeshua the Messiah, John the Baptist,
The principle to remember is that it is and the early apostles were all Judeans. They
really THE MESSIAH who baptizes you! The were well acquainted with the mikvah, and the
man who puts you under the water is merely rites of purification. It is undoubted therefore
performing this physical act FOR the Messiah, that baptism, which was based on and patterned
in his stead -- BY HIS AUTHORITY. on the mikvah purification ritual, should also be
Consider that it is THE MESSIAH who performed in a similar fashion, without human
is baptizing you by a HUMAN INSTRUMENT hands of another person interfering with the
who has been COMMISSIONED BY HIS process.
TRUE ECCLESIA! And even if his human Baptism is literally between each man or

Avoid a Counterfeit Baptism!