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 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 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 operi operato, because you see ex operi 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 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.

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.