The Baptism of John

[Arial]

To fully understand John's baptism, we must ground it in its historic aspects. For four hundred years no prophetic voice had been heard in Israel. The last had been Malachi voicing God's displeasure with his covenant people, Their polluted offerings and constant profaning of the covenant. In the last chapter a messenger is announced who would come to prepare the way of the Lord. The people of Israel awaited their Messiah, under the heavy hand of Rome.

John's baptism was a unique, prophetic and transitional rite to prepare Israel for the arrival of Messiah. It was the hinge between the old covenant and the new covenant.

It was preparatory to "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." (Mark 1:3; Isa 40:3) "I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me--- (Matt 3:11)

It was a call to national repentance---not just individual but corporate for national Israel to come back to covenant faithfulness. This repentance is not a ritual act of removing sin, but the outward sign of an inward turning. It was acknowledging Israels unfaithfulness and preparing morally and spiritually for the kingdom.

It was not like Jewish washings which were repeated for ritual purity and self-administered. John's baptism was administered by the prophet and was a once-for-all prophetic symbol functioning like a prophetic sign act as seen in Ezekiel's and Jeremiah's enacted messages that visibly represented God's word.

It identified the remnant faithful within Israel that Isaiah foresaw. It was identifying with the repentant people of God awaiting the Messiah's cleansing. Those who underwent the baptism had repented of covenant unfaithfulness, those who did not were counting on their own righteousness and national heritage.

The baptism of John in meaning was repentance brought forgiveness not the water, and baptism was the public sign. It functioned as a covenant renewal ceremony, a symbolic cleansing. a recommitment to obedience as God prepares to act in redemptive history. It was transitional. Bridging the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

The Christian baptism is the outward sign of repentance and of being in the New Covenant community.

 

[BillyBob65]

To fully understand John's baptism, we must ground it in its historic aspects. For four hundred years no prophetic voice had been heard in Israel. The last had been Malachi voicing God's displeasure with his covenant people, Their polluted offerings and constant profaning of the covenant. In the last chapter a messenger is announced who would come to prepare the way of the Lord. The people of Israel awaited their Messiah, under the heavy hand of Rome.

John's baptism was a unique, prophetic and transitional rite to prepare Israel for the arrival of Messiah. It was the hinge between the old covenant and the new covenant.

It was preparatory to "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." (Mark 1:3; Isa 40:3) "I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me--- (Matt 3:11)

It was a call to national repentance---not just individual but corporate for national Israel to come back to covenant faithfulness. This repentance is not a ritual act of removing sin, but the outward sign of an inward turning. It was acknowledging Israels unfaithfulness and preparing morally and spiritually for the kingdom.

It was not like Jewish washings which were repeated for ritual purity and self-administered. John's baptism was administered by the prophet and was a once-for-all prophetic symbol functioning like a prophetic sign act as seen in Ezekiel's and Jeremiah's enacted messages that visibly represented God's word.

It identified the remnant faithful within Israel that Isaiah foresaw. It was identifying with the repentant people of God awaiting the Messiah's cleansing. Those who underwent the baptism had repented of covenant unfaithfulness, those who did not were counting on their own righteousness and national heritage.

The baptism of John in meaning was repentance brought forgiveness not the water, and baptism was the public sign. It functioned as a covenant renewal ceremony, a symbolic cleansing. a recommitment to obedience as God prepares to act in redemptive history. It was transitional. Bridging the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

The Christian baptism is the outward sign of repentance and of being in the New Covenant community.

Interesting it seems to me that scriptures say that they were baptized in water for the remission of sin to enter into a state of repentance. I guess we both need to look up scripture to validate our remarks.

Question , You keep speaking of baptism is a public sign can you please quote me the scripture book chapter and verse where it is recorded as such or is this another opinion I just have to take your word for?

 

[Arial]

Interesting it seems to me that scriptures say that they were baptized in water for the remission of sin to enter into a state of repentance. I guess we both need to look up scripture to validate our remarks.

What one thinks something means or is saying is not a valid argument or position from which to continue a discussion. What the Bible means---what God and the writer mean are what is valid. And since it was written across thousands of years and within varying cultures and history, that is something vital to ascertaining what the meaning is. It is an interpretive hermeneutic tool. One has to contemplate the original audience to see what it would mean when they heard it.

I gave the historic background that is in the OT from the Prophets. And this is something those hearing John the Baptist would be very aware of. They understood him perfectly. John the Baptist was the last OT prophet. His audience understood from their own history of the OT that God was about to act. And Micah shows the ax, so to speak, at the root of the tree. Severe judgment pending for their breaking of the covenant. They knew it was a call to repentance of the many ways they had broken that covenant and return to covenant faithfulness. So, when they went into that water (and they knew what it represented) they had already repented.

So, I don't need to look up isolated "proof text" passages torn from ALL contexts, to validate what I have said. I already validated it.

Question , You keep speaking of baptism is a public sign can you please quote me the scripture book chapter and verse where it is recorded as such or is this another opinion I just have to take your word for?

You don't have to take my word for anything. Do your own work, just as I did. The Bible is a whole, not direct quotes that you ask for in order to believe something. And it is one story from beginning to end. The story of redemption as it plays out in history. It is not a book of isolated sayings. You asking for such is a "fool's errand".

Gen 17:11 Every male among you must be circumcised. 11You are to circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and this will be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.
Col 2:11-12 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Scripture compares them as covenant signs.