Why I was baptised/immersed in the name of Jesus Christ.

The Kingdom of God is within us. But that does not mean that it is ephemeral, ‘airy fairy’ or subjective in any way.

On the contrary, because it is God’s kingdom, realm or domain then it must transpire that God reigns within us by the indwelling Holy Spirit and His rules and commands are to be obeyed in the outward world in which we have our temporal being.

We are in the world, but we do not belong to it, that we should be subject to the world’s rule, ideas, traditions and ways.

We have been bought with a price. Born from above, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man but of God.

The good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus the Christ in the New Testament texts was proclaimed in a manner that invited obedient faith in the Lord Jesus the Christ and surrendering one’s own thought or mind for the mind of Christ. (Repentance in the sense of the Greek text.)

The first act of obedience would normally be being baptized/immersed in water in the name of Jesus Christ. This was familiar in a Jewish culture where being baptized/immersed was a common event. John baptized repentant hearers of his message that the kingdom of God was at hand. Jesus had his own disciples baptize new disciples. We are not told in the scriptures the manner of this baptism but it is not beyond the bounds of reason that this was done in the name of Jesus, as the people were becoming disciples of Jesus.

On the day of Pentecost, when the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples of Jesus Christ, Peter proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ.

Act 2:22  Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:

Act 2:23  Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:

Act 2:24  Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.

Act 2:25  For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:

Act 2:26  Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:

Act 2:27  Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

Act 2:28  Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.

Act 2:29  Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.

Act 2:30  Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;

Act 2:31  He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.

Act 2:32  This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.

Act 2:33  Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.

Act 2:34  For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,

Act 2:35  Until I make thy foes thy footstool.

Act 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.

Act 2:37  Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

Act 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.

Act 2:39  For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

Unfortunately this good news of the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ is not commonly heard in Western evangelical circles.

By the grace of God I was born of the Spirit without hearing this good news and afterwards I became influenced by the traditions of the group of believers I joined, thinking they would perhaps teach me ‘what I should do’. Accordingly I was eventually baptised in a religious building by religious leaders in the manner of their religious traditions. I never felt convinced about this being that which occurred in the scriptures. But I knew no better.

After I had repented of being a disciple of the folks I was with and not a disciple of Jesus, (1982) I was impressed with the need to see the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ as a simple announcement of facts and commands, including immersion/baptism in the name of Jesus. Whilst being uneasy at the formula enforced by Constantine; ‘In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Amen’, I never encountered anywhere the practise of baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. So I reckoned the actual ‘terminology’ mustn’t be important.

This is the whole point of replacing the name of Jesus Christ with ‘Father, Son and Holy Ghost’. Together with calling the disciples of Jesus ‘Christians’ this is a device of Satan to diminish the name of Jesus, the name above every other name. The name besides which there is no other name given in heaven or in earth whereby we must be saved.

No wonder so many who happily affirm they are ‘Christians’ are confused about whether they are actually disciples of Jesus Christ or not!

I was persuaded by the Holy Spirit that I should be immersed in the name of Jesus Christ as otherwise, how could I with integrity proclaim baptism in the name of Jesus Christ as integral to the good news of the kingdom of God? How could I baptise others in the name of Jesus Christ if I hadn’t been so immersed myself?

If nothing else, it makes a clear statement that my faith is in Jesus Christ, that I belong to Him, that I have become His disciple.

The history of Israel teaches many lessons of the slippery slope of disobedience to the Laws of God.

Of  adaptation of the Laws of God to fit current perceptions and practises. Ending up with the state of the temple at the time of King Josiah. Full of rubbish, heathen idols and artefacts, emptied of the Holy furnishings and equipment. And the king was oblivious to all this until the book of the law was found.

The good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ has been attacked since the beginning. At our time, there isn’t much left that resembles the life or teaching of the early disciples of Jesus Christ as described in the book of Acts. What is stopping us from reclaiming what we can?

Colin Thompson. Gateshead. England. (Nobody important.)

Comments welcome by email to colin@followingjesuschrist.co.uk

Other material on site at http://www.followingjesuschrist.co.uk/