46: Baptism: Calling On His Name

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Bible students exploring biblical truths that might not be fully explored in typical sermons or Bible studies.

My name is Eddie Lawrence. Ananias told Saul, rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.

What does it mean to call on God's name? That's what we're going to be talking about in this episode.

When Ananias said to Saul, and now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.

Acts 22 16. What did he mean by calling on his name and what does that have to do with baptism?

Does this mean that during baptism or to call out to God in prayer?

Peter had something similar to say. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

1st Peter 3 21. So Peter is talking about appealing to God and he links it with baptism and he says specifically that immersion is involved in our salvation.

As the King James puts it, baptism doth also now save us.

We can be sure that Peter is talking about an immersion in actual water because he makes it clear that this isn't a bath to remove dirt from our body.

Instead, he says it's a request or an appeal to God for a good conscience.

This is calling on his name. The English word appeal in this verse translates the

Greek word epirotema. BDAG, which is one of the most respected

Greek dictionaries, defines this word as a formal request or an appeal.

Likewise, Thayer's Lexicon says epirotema means a demand.

Translators most often render this word in 1st Peter 3 21 as appeal, but it can also be translated as demand or request.

Some popular Bible translations also use the words pledge, answer, interrogation, and question.

Out of these four options, translators most frequently choose the word pledge.

The doctrinal implication is that baptism is a pledge we make to God to keep our conscience clear now that he saved us.

The assumption here is that salvation goes before baptism.

So here's the question, is pledge the correct word to use in our

English translations? The New Testament employs the word epirotema only once here in 1st

Peter 3 21. Therefore, translators struggle with its definition because they can't see it used in context anywhere else in the

New Testament. The scholarly debate about how best to translate epirotema is both complex and full of technical grammatical considerations which can be very nuanced.

This has left the translation of this word somewhat open to interpretation. Now this can be problematic because each translator must wrestle with their own doctrinal convictions and biases when translating this word.

John Walton made a very astute observation. We must never forget that translation is the most basic act of interpretation.

One cannot convey words meaningfully from a source language to a target language without first determining what they think the text means to say.

Word choices matter. How translators render epirotema affects our conclusions about the passage.

Let's see how the various translation committees chose to interpret this word.

As I'm recording this, I'm looking at a table that shows how

English language Bibles have translated this Greek word. If you happen to be playing this recording on a video platform like YouTube or Let's Church or Rumble, etc.,

look up at your screen. I've got the chart displayed. If you're listening to this on an audio -only platform, you're at a little bit of a disadvantage, but you can go to my blog and see the chart there.

Let me see if I can describe it for those who are only listening and not watching.

There are three columns in this table. The left column shows which

English word the various translation committees have chosen to translate this

Greek word. The middle column is the translation, which would be like King James, New King James, New American Standard, etc.

The right column shows the count of how many English translations chose a particular

English word to translate this Greek word. Big picture, this table is showing how 67 different English Bible translations chose to translate this

Greek word. Nine translations, including the King James and New King James, chose the words answer or response.

The American Standard Version and Young's Literal Translation were the only two translations that chose the words interrogation or question.

A number of translations used either the words appeal, ask, request, or demand.

Those would include versions such as the New American Standard, the New Revised Standard, the

English Standard Version, and so on. That represents 25 different translations.

And then finally, we have 13 translations whose committees chose the words pledge or promise, and a few of those would be the

Christian Standard Bible, the Holman Christian Standard Bible, and the NIV.

As you can see, or not see depending on how you're listening, the weight of scholarship is definitely not in favor of translating using the words pledge or promise.

The translation committees of 25 Bible translations chose the words appeal or request specifically.

So while there are 13 different translations that think pledge or promise is the best word to use, there were 36 translation committees who disagreed.

Considering how the various translation teams rendered the word, and keeping in mind how

BDAG and Thayer defined the word, it seems that appeal is the better choice.

The words request or appeal also dovetails with Ananias' linking of baptism and calling on his name.

Peter furthers our understanding of the role of baptism. Paul, in his writings, compares immersion to death, burial, and resurrection,

Romans chapter 6. But Peter adds another dimension by saying that baptism is an appeal or a request to God.

Peter says that baptism is a request or appeal to God for a good conscience.

Like Ananias in Acts chapter 22 verse 16, Peter's communicating that it is during baptism that the

Holy Spirit washes away our sins. Peter also emphasizes the effect of having our sins washed away.

He says it results in a good conscience. Our conscience can only be clear if we know we've been forgiven.

A similar thought is expressed by the author of Hebrews. Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water,

Hebrews 10 22. Peter and the Hebrew writer both affirm that cleansing produces a clear conscience.

They both connect immersion with the cleansing work that the Holy Spirit is doing upon our hearts.

The visible washing, baptism, reflects what the Holy Spirit is doing within us at the same moment.

Baptism ties a bow on our conversion. Baptism is our formal request to God to do for us what he has promised.

In the act of immersion, we are responding to the gospel call. You see, baptism is the sinner's prayer.

Baptism is how we call on his name. Consider this.

In the normal case, until we are baptized in water, we have not appealed to God for a good conscience.

We haven't asked him to forgive us, according to 1st Peter 3 21. Until we are immersed in water, we have not called on his name.

Until we've been baptized, we have not been set free from sin, according to Romans chapter 6 verse 7.

Until our immersion, we have not received the Holy Spirit, Acts 2 38.

Until we are baptized, we have not put on Christ, Galatians 3 27.

Until our immersion in water, we have not been united with Christ, Romans 6 5.

Until we're baptized in water, we have not had our hearts circumcised by the

Holy Spirit, Romans 2 29 and Colossians chapter 2 verses 11 and 12.

Until we are baptized, we have not been born again, John chapter 3 verses 3 through 8.

And until we have been immersed, we have not been added to the church,

Acts chapter 2 verse 41. Now you may have noticed that I said in the normal case, we have not done these things until we've been immersed.

I say in the normal case because God sometimes makes exceptions.

We'll talk about those exceptions in the next episode. Thanks for listening to the podcast.

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