I have a few questions regarding your article entitled “Were the apostles baptized in Acts Two?” If the apostles were not baptized on Pentecost how could they be members of the Lord’s church? In the 5th paragraph of your answer you said “The apostles, the 120, the 500, and other disciples…comprised the initial church of Acts Two.” I have always believed that the church (the kingdom) began on Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the apostles. I believe that is what Jesus was referring to in MARK 9:1. When was the church established? I understand that the baptism of John was for the remission of sins, MARK 1:4. Paul said we are baptized into Christ, GALATIANS 3:27; also into His death, ROMANS 6:3. “For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body…”, 1 CORINTHIANS 12:13. Were the ones who were baptized in John’s baptism: Baptized into Christ? Baptized into His death? (How could they be baptized into His death before He died?) Placed in the church (body)? Given the gift of the Holy Spirit, ACTS 2:38? Made Christians? In ACTS 19:1-7, why were those who received John’s baptism baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus by apostle Paul? ~ Richard Parsons, Ellenboro WV
First, any answer to this question, even if it is wrong, is relatively moot, since every accountable person now living and every accountable person who may yet live on earth in the future is amenable to the Great Commission and must be baptized for the remission of sins (Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:38). It is not important to me that anyone be convinced one way or the other regarding this specific question, because this question neither affects our salvation nor the faithful practice of our Christianity.
Second, nowhere does the Bible state that the apostles were recipients of the baptism of the Great Commission. It is arguable whether the Bible implies from which we are to infer that the apostles were the recipients of the Great Commission baptism. Your question and my response is a part of that cordial debating the question, which suggests a degree of uncertainty about it.
Third, I concur that the “the church (the kingdom) began on Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the apostles” in fulfillment of Mark 9:1, among other prophecies. Yes, the church began at that point and everyone still living who had undergone the preparation for the establishment of the church or kingdom through the ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ became the charter members of the church or kingdom. Later in Acts 2, about 3,000 souls were added by the Lord as a result of their baptism for the remission of sins.
Fourth, everyone who heartily embraced through obedience the teachings of the ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ, when those teachings were valid, fulfilled the requirements of God for their salvation, dependent upon and effective upon the sacrifice of Christ and the subsequent establishment of his church. Likewise, the faithful who lived under Patriarchy and Judaism are the recipients of the blessings of Christ’s sacrifice and the establishment of his church or kingdom, though they were not baptized into the death of Jesus Christ.
The institution we commonly call the church is also known biblically by the terms kingdom, body, house of God, etc. It seems that when we use the term church, we often forget the other descriptors and their significance respecting the church. For instance, though the kingdom, which is the church, began in Acts 2, the kingdom encompasses more than obedient souls since the birthday of the church in Acts 2. The faithful under Patriarchy and Judaism are in this kingdom, too; therefore, the faithful who lived under Patriarchy and Judaism (when those systems were valid) are in the church, too.
Jesus used the words church and kingdom interchangeably (Matthew 16:18-19). Therefore, when Jesus referred to “the kingdom of heaven,” which was about to be established, he was talking about the church. Yet, Old Testament worthies who lived under Patriarchy will participate in “the kingdom of heaven” with Christians. “And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11). “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:28-29). Mark, like Luke, more often attributes the phrase “the kingdom of God” to Jesus, also referring to the church, for instance when Jesus will commune with us in the Lord’s Supper (Mark 14:25; Luke 22:16).
The blood of Jesus Christ by which redemption is procured for the church or kingdom (Ephesians 1:7; Acts 20:28) proceeds forward and backward to save the faithful who obeyed God under Patriarchy, Judaism and Christianity. “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance” (Hebrews 9:14-15).
Fifth, no, ‘the ones who were baptized in John’s baptism were no more baptized into either Christ or his death’ than anyone who lived under Patriarchy or Judaism, who nevertheless are saved by the blood of Christ and members of the kingdom (church). Yes, those baptized under John’s baptism were ‘placed in the church (body),’ which is the kingdom, howbeit under the same circumstances under which the faithful through Patriarchy and Judaism were placed in the kingdom or the church, based on their obedience to the divine terms then applicable and the death of Jesus Christ with the subsequent establishment of the church or kingdom. Yes, those who were baptized by John’s baptism were ‘given the gift of the Holy Spirit, ACTS 2:38,’ as long as we understand that the gift of the Holy Spirit refers to the miraculous demonstrations operative in the first century that were given to classes of humanity comprised of the Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles. (Faithful brethren hold to three distinct views respecting the definition of the “gift of the Holy Ghost” in Acts 2:38; I am confident it refers to miracles.) Upon the establishment of the kingdom or church, Abel, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, for instance, became members of this kingdom as well as the 3,000 of Acts 2. If it is biblically correct to acknowledge that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are members of Christ’s kingdom, which is the church, and therefore, technically correct to refer to them as Christians, likewise, it would be equally appropriate to say the same regarding the faithful who submitted to the baptism of John the Baptist when that baptism was valid.
Sixth, particular care was exercised in Scripture in Acts 19:1-7 to note that disciples who lately had been baptized in the baptism of John the Baptist (when it was no longer valid, having been replaced with the baptism of the Great Commission), were re-immersed in the baptism of the Great Commission. Yet, a few verses previously one finds Apollos (18:24-26) who only knows the baptism of John (into which obviously he had been baptized). Aquila and Priscilla informed Apollos of the Great Commission baptism, but there is no indication that Apollos was required to be re-immersed in the baptism of the Great Commission. The logical explanation why Apollos was not re-immersed whereas those he had recently taught were re-immersed has to do with when Apollos versus the 12 men of Acts 19 were respectively baptized in John’s baptism. Apollos must have been baptized in John’s baptism when it was still valid, before the beginning of the church, but the 12 were mistakenly (based on Apollos’ lack of information) baptized in John’s baptism after it had been replaced with the Great Commission baptism.
Finally, I find it rewarding to examine religious questions for which I must study to obtain biblical answers. This particular exercise emphasizes the little addressed benefit of the kingdom to those who only saw it through the eyes of the prophets (e.g., Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc.).
