Water Baptism


We update studies as the Lord Jesus leads us. You can find the latest update of this study at ChurchAges.net


Baptism is symbolic of death, burial, and resurrection. The Father and the Holy Spirit neither died, nor were buried.

First published on the 20th of May 2015 — Last updated on the 1st of September 2024

Water Baptism symbolizes death and resurrection

Water baptism represents death, burial, and resurrection back to life.

Trinitarians speak of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.

The Bible never says "God the Son" and "God the Holy Ghost". That is man-made fiction.

The Old Testament never speaks of "God the Father". Trinitarians cannot explain why.

The Father never died nor was He buried. The Holy Ghost never died nor was He buried.

So what did God the Father and God the Holy Spirit have to do with the water baptism?

Nothing, if they are separate Persons from the Son.

The Name Jehovah dominates the Old Testament, and the Name of Jesus is never mentioned in the Old Testament.

The Name Jesus dominates the New Testament, and the Name of Jehovah is never mentioned in the New Testament.

Trinitarians cannot explain this.

The Greek word “baptize” means to immerse or submerge.

Baptism is symbolic of death and burial under earth.

A person is "buried" underwater, where water symbolizes the earth that the corpse has been buried under. Underwater you cannot breathe, just like a corpse that cannot breathe.

ROMANS 6:3

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

:4    Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life.

:5    For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death,

we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

Baptism in water symbolizes burying the old sinful self in a grave covered with earth. Then a new person, with the Spirit of Christ inside that person, rises out of the watery “grave” to begin a new life focused on the Word of God and on the Holy Spirit of God, not on the things of the flesh and of the world.

There are numerous types of water baptism in modern-day churches. Many of them wanting to get away from the physical messiness and inconvenience of full immersion. So “baptism” by sprinkling or by partial immersion is popular. But, we do not bury anyone by sprinkling soil over them or partly immersing their bodies in a grave.

Many baptize unsaved people, but the apostle Peter did not do this.

ACTS 2:38

Then Peter said unto them,

Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,

and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Notice the order—first repentance and then the burial of baptism.

True repentance means to die to one’s self.  You can only bury someone who has already died.

Having repented and accepted Jesus Christ as your Saviour, your new faith is immediately put to a strong test.

Can you discern the Scriptural baptism of the Book of Acts from the whole variety of baptisms that are on offer by today’s churches?

This is a tough test that very few pass.

Let us consider some of the alternative church baptisms.

  1. No water baptism at all. Based on the thief on the cross who went to Paradise without being baptized.

But being nailed to a cross, he had no chance of being baptized.

Secondly,  the commission to baptize, which was given by Jesus, only came after His resurrection.

The thief on the cross never heard the command of Jesus to get baptized.

MATTHEW 28:19

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

:20    Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

“Teaching them”. The idea of teaching is repeated twice to emphasize the importanceof understanding what the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is.  There must be something difficult to understand if we need to be taught. This is not as simple as it sounds.

Repeating a formula, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost"

without having any understanding of what that name is,

simply implies that no teaching has been done.

Learning something off by heart, that we cannot explain, is not teaching.

What is the name of the Father and Son and Holy Ghost

First, baptism represents a funeral where we use water instead of the ground.

Secondly, we also need to be taught the Name of God.

God is the only Person described by the Titles Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

But, please notice that no disciples ever baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

Why?

Because they knew that God became a Man to die and be buried for our sins.

The human Name of God is Jesus. Jesus was a Man made from ground in Whom the fulness of the supernatural God dwelled.

Buried in water in baptism, signifying that we have died to ourselves, is  the only way that we can take on the name of Jesus Christ in a ceremony or event. The Bride must take on the name of her Husband spiritually, in this event.

The name that we use in water baptism tells the world what we believe the name of our Husband is.

If we get baptized in the name of three titles, then no name has been mentioned.

If our Husband has no name then He cannot be God because the Third Commandment tells us to honour the name of God.

MATTHEW 28:19    Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Water baptism marries us

The name of God is something that has to be taught before people can be baptized, because none of these three Titles is a Name.

So what is the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost?

In other words, what is the Name of God?

Surprisingly, most Christians cannot answer this simple question.

Trinitarians thus serve a Triune God Who has no name.

AMOS 6:11   Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue:

for we may not make mention of the name of the LORD.

Trinitarians certainly fulfill this Scripture.

Because they believe in a Trinity, just like the Babylonian and Egyptian priesthoods used to do, they keep looking for three Names for three People.

The word “Trinity” is not in the Bible, but never-the-less that is what Christians believe, and that unscriptural word "Trinity" makes them unable to see God’s true Name, Jesus Christ.

In the Old Testament, God was called Jehovah but never "God the Father".

In the New Testament God is called "God the Father" but never Jehovah. Trinitarians cannot explain this.

The Name Jehovah dominates the Old Testament, and the Name of Jesus is never mentioned in the Old Testament.

The Name of Jesus dominates the New Testament, and the Name Jehovah never appears in the New Testament.

So the Jehovah (the supernatural Spirit) of the Old Testament became the Man Jesus of the New Testament.

COLOSSIANS 2:9

For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

As the Father, God was above the Jews in the Old Testament.

As the Son, God was with the Jews and called Emmanuel, which means "God with us".

God took on the human name of Jesus.

JOHN 14:17   Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

As the Holy Spirit, God is in His church.

God was manifest above the Jews as the Father, with the Jews as the Son, and in the church as the Holy Ghost.

Let us briefly consider some of the other forms of baptism practiced by the thousands of different types of denominations and churches that represent today’s Christianity. And new denominations and churches with more different unscriptural ideas keep on springing up. A real spiritual swamp.

Churches have many alternative false water baptisms

  1. Baptize babies by sprinkling them on the head with any water.

But the Greek word for baptize means to immerse.

  1. Baptize babies by sprinkling them with “holy water” on their heads.

But there is no mention of "holy water" in the New Testament. That is a Catholic belief.

But they cannot answer a simple question.

If a fly falls into holy water, is the water polluted, or is the fly made holy?

This debate has continued since the Dark Ages.

No New Testament person ever mentioned holy water.

abc NEWS (2013):  Researchers at the Institute of Hygiene and Applied Immunology at the Medical University of Vienna tested water from 21 springs in Austria and 18 fonts in Vienna and found samples contained up to 62 million bacteria per milliliter of water,

none of it safe to drink.

Tests indicated 86 percent of the holy water, commonly used in baptism ceremonies and to wet congregants' lips, was infected with common bacteria found in fecal matter such as E. coli,

enterococci and Campylobacter, which can lead to diarrhea, cramping, abdominal pain, and fever.

Nitrates, commonly found in fertilizer from farms, were also identified in the water.

If ingested, water containing nitrates over the maximum contaminant level could cause serious illness, especially in infants younger than 6 months, which could lead to death if untreated, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"We need to warn people against drinking from these sources," said Dr Alexander Kirschner, study researcher and microbiologist at the Medical University of Vienna.

The study, published in the Journal of Water and Health, also found that

all church and hospital chapel fonts contained bacteria -- the busier the church, the higher the bacterial count.

Dangerous, infected water cannot be called holy water.

Only God is holy.

Where God dwells is holy due to His Presence.

In the Old Testament, God lived in the Jewish Temple, making it the holy place. His Presence in the Temple in Jerusalem made Jerusalem the holy city. His Presence in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, made Israel the holy land.

But God's Spirit tore the Temple veil as God left the Temple when Jesus died in AD 33.

In AD 70, the Roman army destroyed the Temple under their general Titus. So that is no longer God’s dwelling place. The Book of Acts describes how, through the Holy Ghost baptism on the day of Pentecost, God came down to dwell in the hearts of men and women, turning them into His spiritual Temple's living stones not built by human hands.

Today, on planet earth, God dwells in holy people. Holy men and women. Not in holy places or holy things.

I PETER 2:5
Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

HEBREWS 9:11

But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building

(the Jewish Temple).

As the pagan Roman soldiers destroyed the Jewish Temple, so the pagan Roman emperors killed three million Christians in their attempts to destroy God’s spiritual Temple or Tabernacle, which is built up of all the Christians that He lives in.

Today, you can find holy men and women if the Spirit of God dwells within them, but not "holy water" as God does not dwell in the water.

  1. Baptize babies by a man dipping his thumb in water and drawing his thumb across the baby’s forehead.

This is a copy of what Hindus do with ashes.  It involves no immersion.

  1. Immersing the baby in a small container of water until just its head remains out of the water. Obviously, they do not want the baby to drown.

But baptize means immerse, complete immersion. You do not bury anyone with their head sticking out of the ground.

  1. A rapid, full immersion of the baby in a small water container is done by the Greek Orthodox Church. Because “baptize” means “immerse” in Greek.

In the Book of Acts Chapter 2, verse 38, Peter said we must first repent and then be baptized. Babies cannot repent and, therefore, should not be baptized.

  1. Sprinkling an adult on his head with water.

This is not immersion.

  1. Pouring water from a shell or a small container over an adult’s head.

This is not immersion.

  1. Immersing an adult numerous times in a river.

A person is only buried once.

  1. Immersing an adult backward i.e. face up, three times. Immerse in the Name of the Father. Then the person is brought above the water and then re-immersed in the Name of the Son. Then the person is brought up again and then re-immersed in the Name of the Holy Ghost (Who has no Name in the Bible).      That is why they use titles because there is no name for the Holy Ghost.

Firstly,  Jesus did not say “Baptize in the Name of the Father and in the Name of the Son and in the Name of the Holy Ghost”.  That implies three Names.

MATTHEW 28:19

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

Jesus spoke of one Name for the Father and for the Son and for the Holy Ghost.

Thus we need teaching to understand what this one Name is for God, Who has three Titles.

If there were three Names involved, that would not require teaching. Obviously, three Persons would have three Names.

Secondly, we only bury a person once, not three times.

What is the Name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?  Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are Titles, not Names.

( If you want to claim that Jehovah is the Name of the Father. Then Jesus is the Name of the Son, but no Name is given in the Bible for the Holy Ghost ). Thus Trinitarian Christians have two Names for three Persons. This is not very convincing.

This formula of “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost” for baptism does not reveal the Name of God because we were told to baptize in the Name, singular, not in the Names, plural.  Two Names for three Persons. Not a happy solution to the problem.

In reality, the Father was called JHVH which is unpronounceable. But it was only after 1500 that "J" entered the English language. Before then the correct letters were YHWH, also unpronounceable and thus simply translated as "LORD".

You cannot have a name that cannot be pronounced. So men added vowels to YHWH and JHVH.

Letters were artificially added in to make Yahweh or Jehovah but these are man-made names.

So Yahweh and Jehovah are translated as LORD.

The name of God, Who was the Father, was secret in the Old Testament.

Samson's parents wanted to know God's name.

JUDGES 13:18   And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret?

JUDGES 13:22   And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.

Adonai means Lord.

El, Elah, Elohim simply mean God. God is not the name of God.

I AM is not a name, it is a statement of eternal existence.

Abba is just the Greek word for Father.

EXODUS 34:14    For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

Jealous is not a name. What people call a name is simply a characteristic of God.

 

Let us return to the water baptism that represents the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

The Father and the Holy Spirit never died, were never buried, and never rose from the dead. So the baptism in water does not reflect at all what they did.

Another huge problem is that nowhere in the Bible are we told what the Name of the Holy Spirit is. So what is the point of saying “in the Name of the Holy Ghost” when we do not know what that Name is, especially if we insist that the Holy Ghost is a separate Person in the Godhead?

  1. Immerse forwards one time in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost because Jesus pitched forwards when He died on the cross.

We bury people on their backs, not face down.

Again, this method does not tell us what the Name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is. Christians keep avoiding this issue of God's Name by fudging it with the three Titles of God. As if three Titles is a Name. To say that “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost”  is a Name is fuzzy thinking, very delusional.

  1. Immerse backward one time in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. This baptism correctly interprets the concept of burial, but once again does not reveal what the Name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is. Three Titles, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, cannot replace one Name.

No one in the Bible was baptized this way.

  1. Immerse backward one time in the name of “Jesus only” for the remission of sins.

Our sins are washed away by the Blood of Jesus Christ, not the waters of baptism.

That is why Peter first said, "Repent" before he spoke of people getting baptized. Repentance is what forgives us our sins.

REVELATION 1:5

And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us,

and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

Baptism does not wash away our sins. Repentance does. By faith, repentance brings our sins under the Blood of Jesus.

Only His Blood can wash away our sins. Then we must receive a portion of His Holy Spirit into our hearts that will enable us to live above sin because the Holy Spirit takes away the desire to sin.

Remember, many humans today have been given the name of Jesus by their parents. So we must specify which Jesus, namely Jesus Christ or the Lord Jesus, by using at least one of His titles that are Lord or Christ. There is only one Lord Jesus Christ.

  1. Immerse backward one time in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the most rejected baptism amongst Christians.

Each Christian chooses his or her preferred variety of baptism, and even if Christians do not believe in the other baptisms, they will still reasonably tolerate them.

The only baptism that really gets them upset is the last one, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the only baptism that they totally reject because it undermines their dominant belief that God is a Trinity. This is the major Babylonian mystery-belief (the pagan mysteries of Babylon) that entered Christianity through the Roman Catholic church (Mystery Babylon).

The pagan Trinity was passed on to Rome's Protestant daughters who tried to separate from Rome in many ways but could not break away from the strong attraction of Trinitarianism.

The historian Gibbon described Roman Catholicism as “baptized paganism”.

Thus baptism is not just a step of obedience. It is also a test of your understanding of what baptism means and, very importantly, what the Name of God is?

Do you know the name of God?

Do you know the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost?

Baptism requires repentance

MATTHEW 3:6

And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.

We get saved by confessing our sins and accepting Jesus Christ as our Saviour.

Here baptism is associated with confession of sin, which is necessary for salvation.

This does not apply to babies. They are not aware of sin.

LUKE 3:7

Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

:8    Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance,

and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

We should not get baptized unless there is evidence that our repentance is genuine. We can say the right words but not really mean it, and therefore our so-called repentance is not really effective.

LUKE 7:29

And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John.

:30    But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.

If we are not properly baptized, then we have not grasped the counsel of God.

If we do not really know Who God is, we will not know His Name, and we will get baptized wrongly.

MATTHEW 3:11

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

John was not speaking of effortless and convenient Christianity.

Baptism is again linked to repentance. John is speaking to adults, not babies.

ACTS 2:38

Then Peter said unto them,

Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ

for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Jesus was washed as the sacrifice and High Priest

MATTHEW 3:13

Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.

:14    But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?

:15    And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to

fulfil all righteousness.

Then he suffered him.

“Righteousness” – how do I get right with God?

God’s Word is right.

Abraham believed God … this counted as righteousness.

GENESIS 15:6

And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

“Fulfil” – fulfillment of a previous prophecy or shadow of the Law. That is a deeper fulfillment of the Law.

ISAIAH 42:21

The LORD is well pleased

for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law,

and make it honourable.

ROMANS 10:4

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

The law was righteous in that it pointed towards Christ, Who was to fulfill its deeper meanings. Things must happen to Christ in the same way that they happened to the elements of the Law because the Law was the shadow or outline of what was to come.

Only Christianity fits into the outline of a previous religion (the Jewish religion)  and fulfills that outline or shadow in a deeper sense.

COLOSSIANS 2:16

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:

:17    Which are a shadow of things to come;

but the body is of Christ.

HEBREWS 8:4

For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:

:5    Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things,

as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.

HEBREWS 10:1

For the law having a shadow of good things to come,

and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

So Christ, Who is the High Priest, had to be washed by a prophet in the same way that the prophet Moses washed the high priest Aaron before Moses anointed  Aaron with oil.

LEVITICUS 8:5

And Moses said unto the congregation, This is the thing which the LORD commanded to be done.

:6    And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water.

Aaron’s sons were to be high priests after him.

LEVITICUS 8:12

:12    And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron's head, and anointed him, to sanctify him.

JOHN 1:32

And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.

So Jesus, our High Priest, was washed by the prophet John and anointed with the Spirit to fulfill the requirements of the Law.

He was also washed as He was our sacrifice for sin and our burnt offering as He suffered the torments of hell on our behalf as He paid the price for our sins.

II CHRONICLES 4:6

He made also ten lavers, and put five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them:

such things as they offered for the burnt offering they washed in them;

but the sea was for the priests to wash in.

Jesus is our sacrificial Lamb. He was our burnt offering. So He had to be washed in water. This happened in the river Jordan.

EXODUS 12:8

And they shall eat the flesh in that night,

roast with fire,

and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

:9    Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water,

but roast with fire;

his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.

:10    And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.

Our  “sacrificial Lamb”  at Calvary became our "burnt offering" as He walked over hellfire to win the keys of death and hell from Satan and dumped our confessed sins onto the Devil.

Roast with fire. This represented the fires of hell. There was no water present. Fire is much hotter than boiling water. There was no mercy for Jesus in His sufferings.

Any left-overs were totally burned and could not be used again.  Some were eaten and some were turned to ash. Nothing about the Passover lamb would rot.

Jesus is our Passover Lamb, and He would never see corruption when He died because He resurrected in three days, before corruption could set in.

The sacrifice was used once, and then the remains were burnt.

"Burnt" also meant it could only be used once. One sacrifice for sin, once.

REVELATION 1:15

And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace;…

REVELATION 1:18

I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen;

and have the keys of hell and of death.

He carried our sins across hellfire to dump them on the Devil, who is the source of sin.

Being sinless and perfect, hellfire could not consume Him.

The prophet John the Baptist washed Jesus as the High Priest. Then Jesus was anointed as the Spirit came down on Him.

MATTHEW 3:16

And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove,

and lighting upon him:

The Spirit rested upon Him, it did not go into Him.

Anointing means oil on the flesh, not going into the person’s body by drinking the oil.

So the Spirit never went into Him.

He already had the Spirit, being conceived by the Spirit.

MATTHEW 1:20

But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife:

for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

So the Holy Ghost was His Father. But God was His Father.

So the Holy Ghost is God the Father. One and the same Spirit. A baby cannot have two fathers.

"God the Father" is never mentioned in the Old Testament.

God only became "God the Father" when all of God dwelled bodily in the Person of Jesus.

COLOSSIANS 2:9   For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

EPHESIANS 4:4

There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; .

ISAIAH 43:11

I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.

There is no Jesus as a second Person and Savior who stands beside the throne of God.

JOHN 1:33

And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me,

Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him,

the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.

Jesus was anointed with the Holy Ghost, which descended on Him and remained on Him.

The Holy Ghost did not go into Him.

He was not baptized with the Holy Ghost. He is actually the One who baptizes others with the Holy Ghost.

Two Scriptures on baptism cannot contradict each other

MATTHEW 4:1

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

:2    And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

:3    And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

:4    But he answered and said,

It is written,

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

:5    Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,

:6    And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down:

for it is written,

He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Satan interpreted a Scripture in a plausible way that would make Jesus do something irrelevant just to be a supernatural showoff.

MATTHEW 4:7Jesus said unto him,

It is written again,

Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

But Jesus quoted yet another Scripture.

Satan took one Scripture and tried to make it contradict another Scripture. That was a wrong move.

Do not rely on one Scripture Matthew 28:19 and make it contradict Acts 2:38.

MATTHEW 28:19

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Jesus said this to His disciples.

Look how they fulfilled the command to go and baptize.

ACTS 2:38

Then Peter said unto them, Repent,

and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ.

ACTS 8:16

For as yet he was fallen upon none of them:

only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

This was the ministry of Philip.

ACTS 8:38

And he commanded the chariot to stand still:

and they went down both into the water,

both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.

Both went down into the water. Philip did not stand on dry land and sprinkle him.

ACTS 10:46For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter,

:47    Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?

They received the Holy Ghost but still had to be baptized in water.

What is the name of the Lord?

PHILIPPIANS 2:11

And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

EPHESIANS 4:5

One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

ACTS 19:5

When they heard this,

they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

This was Paul’s ministry.

ROMANS 6:3

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ

were baptized into his death?

The Father and the Holy Ghost never died and were never buried. So we cannot be baptized into their death.

I CORINTHIANS 10:2

And were all baptized unto Moses

in the cloud and in the sea;

The Jews crossed through the Red Sea with walls of water towering up on either side of them. Moses, a name, means drawn out of the water. So they were baptized unto the name of Moses and came out of the water alive.

The army of Pharaoh, a title, also went into the sea but died.

Baptism in a name, Moses, saved the Jews. Baptism in a title, Pharaoh, killed the Egyptians.

Baptism in a Name, Jesus Christ, prepares us for His Second Coming.

That is the only way that the Bride can take on the name of the Husband for the Wedding Supper.

Baptism in Titles, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, prepares us for the 3.5 years of great  Tribulation where we will die even if we have accepted Jesus as Saviour.

No one knows the name of Pharaoh.

No Trinitarian knows the Name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

I CORINTHIANS 15:29

Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?

Some people mistakenly believe in getting baptized on behalf of family members who have already died but were never baptized. A person must repent before baptism. The dead cannot repent. Baptism speaks of burial. You cannot bury someone who is already buried. So their idea was totally wrong. But, once again, Paul was linking the idea of baptism to death, burial, and resurrection.

 

MATTHEW 4:10

Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan:

for it is written,

Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

:11    Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

Baptism must be followed by the experience of believing what is written throughout the Word. This is the best way to get the enemy to leave off influencing your life.

How can we reconcile Matthew 28:19 with all the other Scriptures on baptism?

Simply by realizing that Jesus Christ is the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

EPHESIANS 4:5

One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

Then alone, we will have only one baptism.

MATTHEW 28:18

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

:19    Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

:20    Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

We need to be taught. Name is a singular word. This is the Name of God. There are three titles for God, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” but we need to be taught His name.

Baptism is a test to see if you know the Name of God.

Jesus Christ is the name of Almighty God.

Jesus is the Son of God but is never called God the Son

“God the Father” is Scriptural,  being mentioned about 16 times in the Bible. But never in the Old Testament.

Trinitarians cannot explain why "God the Father" is not in the Old Testament.

JOHN 6:27

Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.

“God the Son” is not Scriptural as this phrase never appears in the Bible

but the “Son of God” is Scriptural as it is mentioned about 52 times.

Why is there this difference?

JOHN 4:24

God is a Spirit:

God is a Spirit. God is not flesh and blood. The Son refers to the humanity of Christ, the Father refers to His supernatural divinity.

"God the Son" implies that God is flesh and blood.

This is wrong. God is a Spirit, not a man.

That is why the Bible never says "God the Son".

Nimrod, the arch-rebel against God, was called El Bar which means God the Son.

"Son of God" means that the Man Jesus was subject to the supernatural Spirit that dwelt in Him.

JOHN 14:10

… but the Father that dwelleth in me,

he doeth the works.

“God the Holy Ghost” is unscriptural. This expression is never found in the Bible. Why?

As the Father, God was a supernatural Spirit that dwelt above the Jews. This Spirit was the fullness of God. There was nothing more needed to describe the fullness of God.

But in the Old Testament, there was no person who could act as THE body or THE son of God in whom God could fully express Himself.

Thus God could not be God the Father until Jesus came on the scene as the Son of God.

Today God’s supernatural Spirit dwells in the human body of Jesus, Who sits on the mercy seat in Heaven as our Sacrifice for sin. God’s Spirit is infinite and projects out from the mercy seat as the Holy Spirit to guide and protect us.

A repentant heart becomes the dwelling place for a portion of Christ's Holy Spirit. Thus the Holy Spirit is a full description of God’s supernatural nature, but to fully describe God, we must also refer to His human nature as the Man Jesus who sits on the mercy seat. The Holy Spirit brings us both the supernatural character of Christ as well as the true human nature of Christ that God wants each one of us to be. Only when we reflect Christ will God be happy with our humanity.

So Jesus achieved the impossible. He became both Man and God. His Supernatural manifestation is the Holy Spirit, His human manifestation is the Son of God, the Man who died for our sins and now sits on the mercy seat. Neither of these manifestations on their own is a complete description of God. Thus we cannot say “God the Holy Ghost” or “God the Son”.

But the manifestations of both the human and the supernatural attributes of Jesus combine to give a complete description of God.

Remember what Jesus said to the Devil?  "It is written". So we must learn to stay with Scripture.

The Rock is the revelation of Who Jesus is

MATTHEW 16:15

:15    He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

:16    And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

:17    And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

:18    And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

:19    And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

The rock represents the true revelation of Who Jesus is.

The Rock is Christ

I CORINTHIANS 10:4

And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

The rock is not Peter.  Four verses later, he is called Satan.

MATTHEW 16 :23

Get behind me satan.

Peter would go on to deny Jesus three times just before He was crucified.

MATTHEW 7:24

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

:25    And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

 

Key to Heaven is Repent and baptism in name of Jesus

MATTHEW 16:19

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven:

and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven:

and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

What did Peter bind?

What did Peter loose?

JOHN 1:33

And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.

Water baptism is to be followed by the Holy Ghost baptism.

JOHN 16:13

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:

for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

The evidence of the Holy Ghost is to enable you to believe all Scripture.

Peter bound John the Baptist’s baptism and loosed a new baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ.

ACTS 2:36

Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Peter taught them about the Titles of Jesus, Who is both Lord and Christ, and then revealed to them that the Name of God is Jesus Christ.

ACTS 2:38

Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

He also loosed us from our sins by introducing the pattern: repent, get baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, and receiving the Holy Ghost baptism.

ACTS 8:12

But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God,

and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized,

both men and women.

:13    Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done.

:14     Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John:

:15    Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost:

:16    (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them:

only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.)

ACTS 8:38

And he commanded the chariot to stand still:

and they went down both into the water,

both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.

(Sprinkling does not require them both to go down into the water.)

ACTS 19:1

And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,

:2    He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.

:3    And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism.

(Peter had loosed the key to the Holy Ghost baptism which would guide them into all truth, and that was to repent and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ.)

:4    Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.

(Paul told them that Peter’s baptism had bound up John’s baptism which had since unfolded into something deeper as Peter introduced the Name of our Saviour Who had won our salvation at Calvary.

So if you have not been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus you must get re-baptized.)

The name is Jesus.

Lord and Christ are titles.

Lord means Boss.  Christ means Anointed One.

You must attach at least one title to the name of Jesus to show Who you are talking about.

Lord Jesus. Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus Christ. All mean the same name. Only "Jesus" is the name.

ACTS 19:5

  When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

ACTS 10:44

While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.

ACTS 10:47

Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?

:48    And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord.

Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.

(Even if you have the Holy Ghost you must still get baptized in the name of the Lord.)

PHILIPPIANS 2:11

And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

DEUTERONOMY 6:4

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

ZECHARIAH 14:9

And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one. 

You must have one name for God. Jesus.   You cannot find one name for the Trinity God. So something is wrong.

MARK 12:29

And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

1 CORINTHIANS 8:6

But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him;

and one Lord Jesus Christ,

by whom are all things, and we by him.

EPHESIANS 4:5

One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

COLOSSIANS 3:17

And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,

giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

Baptism is a deed, as well as a word of faith. So it must be done in the name of Jesus.

ROMANS 6:3

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ

were baptized into his death?

:4    Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

:5    For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death,

we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

Baptism is a symbol of death and burial.

We are only buried once, lying on our backs, covered in earth as we cannot breathe.

Lying on our backs under the water, we also cannot breathe. Very symbolic of death and burial.

The true Bride must take on the name of her Husband

GALATIANS 3:27

For as many of you as have been

baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Being baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ allows us to take on the Name of Jesus Christ.

The wife takes on the name of her husband. So Christ’s Bride, the true church, must take on His Name.

Mister Jesus Christ is not coming for Mrs. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

But some humans are also named Jesus. So we need at least one title, Lord or Christ, to specify which Jesus.

That is the key to the water baptism, which represents the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

EPHESIANS 3:14

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

:15    Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

We must take on the Name of Jesus Christ.

II CORINTHIANS 11:2

For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

The Bride must take on the Name of Jesus Christ Who is her Husband.

When does this happen? If not in baptism, then when?

The Earth got baptized once, covered in water during the Flood.

We are each a handful of dust.

So we too must go under the water of baptism to take on the Name of our Husband, Jesus Christ.

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” — 1 Corinthians 16:23