As far as we can...
Illustration
As far as we can know, the baptism of the twelve in Ephesus, administered by Paul, would have been physically identical with the baptism they had already received. What then was the difference that made re-baptism important? John's baptism was one of repentance. Paul's baptism, however, was "in the name of the Lord Jesus" and affirmed by the presence of the Holy Spirit. In other words, John's baptism centered on moral and spiritual excellence, while Paul's baptism centered on a new relationship with God. This profound difference was not in the act of baptism itself, but in the meaning of baptism for the recipient. It is possible to become a meaningless form. Adolf Hitler was baptized, as was Al Capone. Joseph Stalin, too, is said to have been baptized. Perhaps what the late George Buttrick wrote of rituals can apply, in some measure, to baptism itself: "It is a sobering fact that whenever religious ritual has flourished, gathering its cults and its priesthood in ostentation, ethnic and prayer alike have suffered eclipse. It is an equally sobering fact that every religious revival has broken the shackles of forms" (Prayer, Abingdon, 1942, p. 230).
-- Bristow
-- Bristow
