Title: Playing God (4 of 4)
Series: Baptism - Burial And Resurrection
Author: Jeff Strite
Text: Acts 8:26-39
There was an antique collector passing through a small village when he saw an old man chopping wood with an ancient ax. "That's a mighty old ax you have there," he remarked. "Yep," said the villager, "it once belonged to George Washington." "George Washington??? Not really!" gasped the collector "That's hard to believe!" The old man grinned and said: "Yep! It belonged to George Washington alright. But, of course, it's had three new handles and two new heads - but this is his ax."
Now, did that ax actually belong to George Washington? No! When you change the handles 3 times and the heads twice... well, it's no longer the same ax. And over the years, people have done the same thing with Baptism. Folks have changed the handles and heads so often that it no longer looks the same. They may call it by the name "baptism" but it's not anymore.
Catholicism was the first to make changes: According to "The Catholic Biblical Encyclopaedia" (Pg. 61 Paragraph 2) "Immersion was oldest method employed. Buried in baptism. Romans 6:4.
A Roman Catholic priest named Brenner made the following statement: "For thirteen hundred years was baptism generally and regularly an immersion of the person under the water, and only in extraordinary cases a sprinkling or pouring of water; the latter was moreover, disputed as a mode of baptism, nay even forbidden" (Historical Exhibition of Administration of Baptism. Page 306.)
And a Catholic Cardinal named Gibbons, (1834-1921) stated: "For several centuries after the establishment of Christianity, baptism was usually conferred by immersion; but since the 12th Century the practice by sprinkling has prevailed in the Catholic Church, as the manner is attended with less inconvenience than baptism by immersion."
There's a couple of stories that relate what prompted the Catholic Church to begin changing the practice of baptism ...
Series: Baptism - Burial And Resurrection
Author: Jeff Strite
Text: Acts 8:26-39
There was an antique collector passing through a small village when he saw an old man chopping wood with an ancient ax. "That's a mighty old ax you have there," he remarked. "Yep," said the villager, "it once belonged to George Washington." "George Washington??? Not really!" gasped the collector "That's hard to believe!" The old man grinned and said: "Yep! It belonged to George Washington alright. But, of course, it's had three new handles and two new heads - but this is his ax."
Now, did that ax actually belong to George Washington? No! When you change the handles 3 times and the heads twice... well, it's no longer the same ax. And over the years, people have done the same thing with Baptism. Folks have changed the handles and heads so often that it no longer looks the same. They may call it by the name "baptism" but it's not anymore.
Catholicism was the first to make changes: According to "The Catholic Biblical Encyclopaedia" (Pg. 61 Paragraph 2) "Immersion was oldest method employed. Buried in baptism. Romans 6:4.
A Roman Catholic priest named Brenner made the following statement: "For thirteen hundred years was baptism generally and regularly an immersion of the person under the water, and only in extraordinary cases a sprinkling or pouring of water; the latter was moreover, disputed as a mode of baptism, nay even forbidden" (Historical Exhibition of Administration of Baptism. Page 306.)
And a Catholic Cardinal named Gibbons, (1834-1921) stated: "For several centuries after the establishment of Christianity, baptism was usually conferred by immersion; but since the 12th Century the practice by sprinkling has prevailed in the Catholic Church, as the manner is attended with less inconvenience than baptism by immersion."
There's a couple of stories that relate what prompted the Catholic Church to begin changing the practice of baptism ...
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