Saturday, May 06, 2006

Into Who or What Are We Baptised?

"Furthermore, there is no salvation in anyone else, for there is not another name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must get saved" - Acts 4:12

The Scriptures show we are to be baptised in the name of Jesus alone.

"Peter [said] to them: “Repent, and let each one of YOU be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for forgiveness of YOUR sins ... " - Acts 2:38

"For it had not yet fallen upon any one of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus." - Acts 8:16

"With that he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they requested him to remain for some days." - Acts 10:48

"On hearing this, they got baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus." - Acts 19:5

Did Jesus command that we be baptised in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit?

Many churches use a variation of the baptismal formula found at Matthew 28:19 which reads, "Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit,"

This has been called the trinity formula since it contains the three person of the Godhead.

At present time we do not have any complete manuscripts of Matthew prior to the 4th century. All existing manuscripts written thereafter contain this phrase.

However there is evidence that this reading was a later corruption of the original text. Early Church historian Eusebius appears to quote from a different manuscript then any we have presently. Eighteen times in between 300 to 336 he cited Matthew 28:19,20 as:

"Go ye and make disciples of all the nations in my name, teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I commanded you."

It is interesting that the traditional trinitarian reading of Matthew 28:19 does not appear in Eusebius' writings until after the council of Nicene wherein the trinity began to formally held as official doctrine.

Evidence strongly indicates that this is a spurious scripture inserted by later Trinitarians in the same vein as 1 John 5:7-8

Are we baptised under men or into a man-made organizations?

"What I mean is this, that each one of YOU says: “I belong to Paul,” “But I to A·pol′los,” “But I to Ce′phas,” “But I to Christ.” The Christ exists divided. Paul was not impaled for YOU, was he? Or were YOU baptized in the name of Paul? " - 1 Corinthians 1:12-13

"Or do YOU not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?" - Romans 6:3

"For all of YOU who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." - Galatians 3:27

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