Church Fathers and Baptism

Well, Justin Martyr is a very important figure.

He's one of the apostolic fathers.

As you can see from his dates, he's quite early, born in the early beginning of the second century.

Well, in his dialogue with Trifle, who's actually a Jew, chapter 13, he speaks of

baptism, but you'll notice he refers to it as repentance.

For Isaiah did not send you to a bath there to wash away murder and other sins,

which is interesting, which not even all the water of the sea were sufficient to purge.

So notice he says that this water cannot purge you of your sins.

It cannot even purge the water, excuse me, it can't even purge the sins of a of a murderer, for example.

But as might have been expected, this was that saving bath of the olden time, which followed those who

repented and who no longer were purified by the blood of goats and of sheep or by the

ashes of a heifer or by the offerings of fine flour, but by faith through the blood of Christ and

through his death, who died for this very reason, as Isaiah himself said.

So, and then he goes on and he quotes from Isaiah 53, but if you notice here, he's equating

the saving bath with with repentance.

In the 14th chapter, Justin goes on to say, by reason therefore of this laver of repentance, notice

it's the laver of repentance, so he's he's using the word repentance as a

bath or a laver, and knowledge of God which has been ordained on account of the transgression of God's people,

as Isaiah cries, we have believed and testify that that very baptism which he announced is alone able to

purify those who have repented, and this is the water of life.

So what Justin does here is he goes he goes back and forth with this idea of repentance and baptism,

but he focuses on this idea that baptism is actually that laver that

cleans us, and so here he is showing how baptism can be used differently.

You know, even in the history of the church, you have the baptism by blood, which was usually used of martyrs, so

martyrs in the early church who were did not get water baptized, if they were arrested and

martyred and killed, the Christians would say they were baptized by blood.

And then of course you have what later is called baptism of desire, so you get Thomas Aquinas in the 13th

century picks up on this idea that even people who never got an opportunity to be baptized by water,

they are still accounted as saved by God because of their desire, their baptismal

desire.

So it's very clear that Justin Martyr here is equating this language of water and

baptismal water as repentance from sin.

And if we go to the next slide, I want to show you how Cyril of Jerusalem, we're now in the fourth

century, his catechetical lecture, he's speaking here of Cornelius in the book of Acts.

Peter came and the spirit was poured out upon them that believed, notice that, that believed, and they

spoke with other tongues and prophesied, and after the grace of the spirit, the scripture says that Peter

commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, Acts 10 48, in order that, notice

this, this is Cyril of Jerusalem, in order that the soul having been born

again by faith, notice the past tense, the body also might by the water

partake of the grace.

So notice according to Cyril of Jerusalem in the book of Acts chapter 10,

Cornelius is already born again, but he's born again by faith, and then later he

says the body then later will partake of, the body will partake of the water.

And so according to Cyril of Jerusalem's own exegesis of Acts 10,

Cornelius was already born again.

He was already saved and regenerated.

Cyril of Jerusalem goes on to say, neither does he that is baptized with water but not found worthy of the spirit

receives the grace and perfection.

And so somebody could be baptized in water, but if he's not worthy of the Holy Spirit, he receives the

grace in perfection.

In other words, he doesn't receive that if he's just merely baptized in water.

If he's not worthy of the spirit, if he's not regenerated by the Holy Spirit, there is no perfection

here.

So what Cyril is saying here is that just because you're baptized, if you're not regenerated by

the spirit, if you are not found worthy by the Holy Spirit, you're not going to get this grace.

And so what this does is it shows us that Cyril of Jerusalem is actually

opposing ex opere operato, because you see ex opere operato means the

very act itself does what it's supposed to do.

So Adolf Hitler, for example, was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church as an infant.

So according to Roman Catholic doctrine, when Adolf Hitler was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church,

he received the mark of Christ, because they believe that baptism leaves an indelible mark on everybody.

Every Christian or every Roman Catholic who's been baptized receives an indelible mark.

This is why, for example, Jeremiah, this is why priests that are defrocked, that are removed from the

priesthood, because they received the sacrament of of

ordination, because they received the sacrament of being appointed or

ordained, they have the power, they still have the authority

to transubstantiate bread into the body of Christ, even though they've been defrocked.

Why?

Because that mark that they receive by holy orders, the sacrament of holy orders,

that mark cannot be removed.

It cannot be erased.

It's indelible.

And so this is one of the fears of the Roman Catholic Church, is that these defrocked priests blaspheme the body of Christ

by defaming it, by doing something considered

irreverent.

But that authority, they still possess the authority to transubstantiate bread.

Yes, go ahead.

That kind of sounds like the anti -lordship position, free grace, that just says, you know, if you believed in

Jesus, prayed the prayer essentially, assented to the facts, then you could become an atheist, walk away from the

faith, and you're still sealed, essentially.

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

And then again, Serial of Jerusalem, this is in this prologue, paragraph four, it

says, a long notice is allowed you—those are those who want to receive baptism—you have 40 days for

repentance, you have full opportunity both to put off and wash, and to put on and enter.

But if you persist in an evil purpose, the speaker is blameless, that is the officiant that baptizes.

But you must not look for the grace, for the water will receive you, but the spirit will not accept you.

If anyone is conscious of this wound, let him take the self.

If any has fallen, let him arise.

Let there be no Simon Magus among you.

No hypocrisy, no idle curiosity about the matter.

So notice he's saying, look, you can go through the actions, you can go through the motions, you can go into the

water, but he basically says here, you're not going to receive anything out of it, because if

the Holy Spirit does not accept you, baptism is meaningless.

So what does this say about all these children in the Lutheran, in the Roman Catholic,

and in the Eastern Orthodox, all these children who receive baptism, who know they know

nothing about what they're doing?

And so the way Cyril is talking about here, it's clear that he's implying that the candidate knows what

they're doing, that there's an understanding of the importance of this ordinance or this sacrament.

And so to our Lutheran friends, I quote here one of the great Lutheran theologians, Johanna

Earhart, one of the most notable theologians, when

therefore they are baptized, who have already been regenerated through the Word

as a spiritual seed, they have no need of regeneration through baptism, but in them,

baptism is a confirmation and sealing of regeneration.

So there, Earhart basically has taken the words out of our mouth, Jeremiah.

He's saying exactly what you and I have just said.

So this is a Lutheran theologian who does believe in baptism regeneration, but he understands that there are

those who have already been regenerated through the Word, and the example is Cornelius again.

Notice he says they don't need regeneration through baptism because they're already regenerated.

So in this particular case, baptism is a confirmation, a sealing, and to that we would say a hearty

amen.

That is exactly our position.

So we have a great Lutheran theologian here who actually agrees with us.