Part 10

We refer further to the New Testament statements where not only the mode of baptism is indicated by the language, but the fact that baptism symbolizes the birth into the world, the death, and the resurrection of the body. To Nicodemus, Jesus said: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water, and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (St. John iii:5.) When man comes forth into the world, he is born or brought out from the watery element, being first buried in it, and this constitutes his birth. To be "born of water" as a sacred ordinance would be impossible if the rite of sprinkling or pouring be the mode employed. Only complete immersion will answer the ordinance indicated in the language of Jesus to Nicodemus.

Paul also said to the Romans, "Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection." (Rom. vi:3-5.) The foregoing shows that baptism is a likeness of burial. When the body is laid lifeless in the tomb it is covered completely; it is not left partly buried and partly uncovered; and as the body comes forth in the resurrection, immortal, and free from the conditions of mortality, thus walking in "newness of life," so by the remission of sins through faith, repentance and baptism, the obedient candidate comes forth free from sin, and walks in a new life, prepared for the birth of the spirit, thus symbolizing in beautiful similarity the death and resurrection of the body. This is still farther emphasized by the language, "For if we have been planted," etc., thus using a word which implies a complete burial as in planting seeds in the earth.

Again, we quote the words of Paul to the Colossians, ii:12: "Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead." This corresponds with the statement before quoted from Romans, and also the teachings of Christ to Nicodemus.

From the Scriptures already quoted on the necessity, object and mode of baptism, we may deduce the conclusion that the ordinance established to follow and go with faith and repentance, and which constitutes the third principle of the gospel, is baptism by immersion for the remission of sins.

RECEPTION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Having shown that faith, repentance and baptism are essential to the remission of sins, let us now consider the reception of the Holy Spirit. That this should follow, and not precede, the birth of the water must be evident to every thoughtful person. It is clear that a man is not prepared for the indwelling of the Holy Ghost unless he repents of his sins and becomes freed from them by obedience to the laws of God. Some people may contend that, because Jesus stated that man must be born again, in order to see the kingdom of heaven, such a birth precedes baptism, and is synonymous with the birth of the Spirit mentioned by the Savior in the third chapter of St. John; but being born again, in order to see the kingdom, evidently shows that a man must have some light above the natural senses, sufficient to the light of Christ to make him see the kingdom of God. In other words, to secure, and we may say, consistently constitute his conversion.

This light which guides him to the truth does not, however, forego the absolute necessity of obeying the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. As proof of this we cite the conversion of Paul. He received a personal manifestation of the Savior's power, even hearing his voice and witnessing a light from heaven. Notwithstanding this, Jesus commanded him to go to Ananias, an authorized servant of Christ, who should instruct him regarding his salvation. He was therefore required to be born of water and of the Spirit. Cornelius, also, as related in the tenth chapter of Acts, saw an angel and received a manifestation of the Holy Ghost previous to baptism. Yet both men were required to obey the ordinances enjoined by the Gospel of Christ. If they rejected these requirements, undoubtedly the light they had received would have departed from them and this would have added to their condemnation.

The historical fact of the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost is not, in every instance, recorded in the Scriptures, and it is not necessary that it should be, in order to prove that the ordinance was established by the Messiah. In the matter of baptism He said to John, "Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." He made no exception of Himself, but gave the example by his own obedience. How can others be excused? To show that the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, by those having divine authority was practiced by the ancient apostles, we refer to Acts viii:14, 17: "Now, when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (for as yet He was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost."

Philip did not have the authority to lay on hands for this gift, hence Peter and John were sent from Jerusalem for the express purpose of performing this higher ordinance of the Gospel. In the nineteenth chapter of Acts is an account of Paul's visit to the city of Ephesus, where he found about twelve men who claimed to have received the same form of baptism as administered by John the Baptist. But in answer to Paul's question, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" they told him they had not so much as heard of it, and his action in re-baptizing them would strongly indicate that some imposter had counterfeited in form the true baptism. This being performed without legitimate authority, their sins were not remitted, and they were not in a condition to receive the Holy Ghost. Hence Paul baptized them; and the sixth verse says: "And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came upon them and they spake with tongues and prophesied."

An imposter can baptize in water by physical force, imitate the true form at the submission of the candidate, but the gift of the Holy Ghost cannot be given without authority from God; and while the water baptism is equally destitute of its legitimate results when not performed by authority, the imposture is not so readily detected because not usually accompanied by the same manifestation of divine power; therefore designing or ignorant men have taken pains either to deny the gift of the Holy Ghost as being essential with its ancient spiritual powers, or to tell the people that no outward ordinance was essential to confer it, thus endeavoring to dispense with this sacred ordinance.

The following references also indicate the laying on of hands as a sacred rite which would not have been adopted by the apostles unless 'commanded of God to do so: I Tim. iv:14-"Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery." II Tim. i:6-"Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands." Also showing that this ordinance was laid down as a positive doctrine, we call attention to the sixth chapter of Hebrews, first and second verses: "Therefore leaving (another translation, that of the prophet Joseph Smith, reads 'not leaving') the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God of the doctrine of baptisms and of laying on of hands."

That man might duplicate in form this divine ceremony without authority and without effect, we do not deny; but we confidently assert that without this ordinance being administered by an acknowledged authority from God, the operation would be of non-effect. The undeniable facts of religious history for seventeen centuries prove that men did not receive the Holy Ghost. Where the tree is, there will the fruit be produced, unless the tree is dead; and no one will contend that the Holy Spirit is dead.

The following quotations will point out the fruits of the Holy Spirit: "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (St. John xiv:26.) "Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of Truth, is Come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He shall show you things to come." (St. John xvi:13.) "As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, 'Separate me Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them.'" (Acts xiii:2.) "Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. * * * For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another, the word of Knowledge by the same Spirit; To another, faith by the same Spirit; to another, the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to another discerning of Spirits; to another, divers kinds of tongues." ( I Cor. xii:3, 4, 8, 9, 10.) "But the fruits of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." (Gal. v:22-23.)

The same cause will ever produce the same effect; a tree is known by its fruits, and to be convinced that we need such gifts today it is only necessary to look at the spectacle of jarring "Christianity" with its many creeds. Where is the Spirit that guides into all truth, which does not contradict itself, but teaches the "common salvation" of "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all?" That brings us "to a unity of faith," and makes us one in Christ, as He prayed that His disciples and all whom the Father should give Him out of the world might be one even as I am one in the Father and the Father in me, that they may be one in us, "that the world may believe that thou hast sent me?" Where is the Spirit of prophecy? "The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy," the gifts of revelation, healings and all the glorious powers enumerated in the Scripture quotations made. Well did Isaiah say, "The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances and broken the everlasting covenant." (Isa. xxiv:5.)

Without further comment on the gifts of the Spirit, we will introduce quotations to show that the laying on of hands was practiced also for ordination to office in the Church of Christ, and for the healing of the sick, as well as to confer the gift of the Holy Ghost: "Whom they set before the apostles; and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them." (Acts vi:6.) This refers to the ordination of Stephen and six others. "As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them they sent them away." (Acts xiii:2, 3.)

The same ordinance was also had in ancient times before the coming of the Savior. Paul informs us in Gal. iii, that the Gospel was preached before unto Abraham. "And the Lord said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay thine hands upon him. And he laid his hands upon him and gave him a charge, as the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses." (Num. xxvii:18, 23.) "And Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the Spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon him." (Deut. xxxiv:9.)

It is most reasonable to conclude from the evidence presented that this practice came down from the beginning, and was before and after Christ a divine ordinance. That it was practiced for the healing of the sick is evident from the following historical and doctrinal statements made in the New Testament by the Messiah and His apostles: "They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." (Mark xvi:18.) "And He could there do no mighty work save that He laid His hands upon a few sick folk and healed them." (Mark vi:5.) "Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them, and healed them." (Luke iv:40.) "And putting His hands on him, said Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight," etc. (Acts ix:17.) "And it came to pass that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever, and of a bloody flux; to whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands on him, and healed him." (Acts xxviii:8.) "Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up," etc. (James v:14, 15.).

Although the laying on of hands is not expressly mentioned in the last quotation, it is readily seen that the sick could not be anointed without the imposition of hands.

The foregoing should be sufficient to convince all Bible believers that the laying on of hands is a sacred ordinance for the purposes specified in Holy writ, that it follows the baptism of water, and occupies its relationship in the plan of salvation as the fourth essential principle to fully establish men in the Church of Christ; the order is, faith, repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. This is the door into the sheepfold; "he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." (St. John x:1.)

PRE-EXISTENCE.

As Latter-day Saints we believe that all creation existed spiritually before the physical organism was brought into existence; "And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew." (Gen. ii:5.)

"And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing. And beast of the earth after his kind; and it was so." (Gen. i:24.) Therefore each kind, whether beast, bird or fish, as well as man, existed before it came to occupy a physical being, otherwise how could each have been created after its own kind? The spirit and the body must be the soul, as enunciated by the Lord in a revelation to the prophet Joseph Smith. (Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 88, verse 15.) "And the spirit and the body is the soul of man." Otherwise there might be an eternal fullness when the spirit and the body are separated. When Jesus was crucified He went, as stated by Peter, to preach to the spirits in prison, and did not enter into the fullness of His Father's glory until He ascended after His resurrection. This was the pattern to all men.

Without the union of the spirit and the body there is not a fullness of glory. As the spirit exists between death and the resurrection, so the spirit existed before the birth of the mortal body. God is the God and Father of the spirits of all flesh, as stated by Moses: "O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt Thou be wroth with all the congregation?" (Num. xvi:22.) "Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation." (Num. xxvii:16.) This declaration is corroborated by the apostle Paul in writing to the Hebrews: "Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?"

We associate in this life with our natural fathers; we see them as they are. They teach, guide and direct us by virtue of their fatherhood and their advanced experience, which qualify them to teach us and direct our footsteps in the way we should walk. So in our pre-existence did we mingle with our heavenly Father and His children, our brother and sister spirits. We knew God and partook of His influence and power. We were agents to ourselves, and when propositions affecting man's eternal welfare were placed before us, we were left to choose for ourselves and be responsible for our own course. Thus Lucifer rebelled, and drew one-third part of the heavenly host away. They were cast out, and denied a body. So keenly have they felt this curse that they seek to possess the bodies of the human family. When Jesus cast the evil spirits from the men coming out of the tombs, so eager were they to possess some physical tabernacle, that they besought Him that they might enter the herd of swine. The request was granted, and the swine, possessed of evil spirits, ran down violently into the sea.

Not only the fact of man's pre-existence, but also his power to do good and ill, seemed to be understood by the ancient apostles when they said, "Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents." (John ix:2, 3.) Jesus did not deny the possibility of sinning before birth. Why should not the spirit be just as capable of intelligent action before the birth into this world, as it is during its existence between death and the resurrection? As to that time, Jesus taught that all that were in their graves should hear His voice. (St. John v:25, 29.) When Job was in the depth of his affliction the Lord said unto him, "Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? * * * When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" (Job xxxviii:3, 4, 7.) Doubtless Job was somewhere in existence or the Almighty would never have propounded such a question. The sons of God shouted for joy, and without doubt Job was among that honored number. Solomon also gives us to understand that the spirit once dwelt in the presence of the Lord. He says: "And the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."

The subject of pre-existence is made very plain in the first chapter, 5th verse of Jeremiah: "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." Thus in his pre-existent state did Jeremiah receive his ordination to be a prophet of the Lord to the nations of the earth. If such were the case with Jeremiah, why not with thousands of the sons of God? Indeed it is evident from Paul's writings that the time of man's coming to this world is not mere chance, neither is it regulated by the arrangements of human philosophy in this world: "God that made the world * * * hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth: and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitations." (Acts xvii:24, 26.) In other words, the Father of our spirits determined when we should come and those portions of the earth where should be set the bounds of our habitation. It was no chance-work, then, that Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, the Savior, Joseph Smith, and the founders of liberty in this and other lands came to the earth in their respective times and to those countries where they played their great parts in the purposes of God and the drama of life. "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world and go to the Father." (St. John xvi:28.) "And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." (St. John xvii:5.) Jesus dwelt with the Father before He came here, so did we. Entering our temples of mortality we forget all that has passed before in our spiritual existence. This mortal state is a veil which hides the eternal past, from our recollection, and shuts off the visions of the eternal future, only as from time to time the revelations of the Holy Ghost bring "things past to our remembrance and shows us things to come."

It is probable, from some references in the Scriptures, that if our spirits were sent here unembodied, the remembrance of the past would come with us. At least, this was doubtless the case with Lucifer and his rebel host. When he tried to tempt the Savior, as recorded in Matthew, fourth chapter, he knew Him undoubtedly from their acquaintance in a pre-existent state. When the man with evil spirits met the Savior in the synagogue, the spirits cried out, "saying, let us alone. What have we to do with Thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know Thee who thou art, the Holy One of God." (Luke iv:34.) A similar testimony was borne by evil spirits possessing the men coming out of the tombs, as recorded in Matthew, viii:29. "And behold they cried out, saying, What have we to do with Thee? Jesus, thou Son of God? art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?" "And unclean spirits, when they saw Him, fell down before Him and cried saying, Thou art the Son of God." (Mark iii:11) In Luke, viii:28, we have the testimony of the historian that the devils possessing a certain man cried out, "and with a loud voice" said, "Jesus, Thou Son of God." It is not probable that these evil spirits knew Jesus because of a testimony from above, while all Judea failed to recognize in Him the Messiah, the Savior of the world. Many likely knew Him because they had been associated and acquainted with Him before the world was.

John the Revelator in Revelations, twelfth chapter, describes the war in heaven, which took place between Satan and his followers on the one hand and Michael and his angels on the other. This description refers to their spiritual existence, as do the foregoing quotations from Holy Writ. These show us clearly that man did not begin with this world, nor does he end with this earthly life. Man is eternal, and will have no end. He lived and reigned with God in the heavens. His course there largely affects his condition here, as our conduct in this life will have all to do with the glory we attain to in the world to come. Man will live on forever. He dies as to the body, lives in the spirit world, and will again take up his body, a resurrected, glorified being, prepared on certain conditions to dwell with God throughout the countless ages of eternity, to become like unto Him. Possessing all things, even as Jesus, being in the image of His Father, "thought it not robbery to be made equal with him." "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the Son of Man, that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet." (Psalms viii:4-6.)

SALVATION FOR THE DEAD.

"I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth."

We must not infer from this quotation that mere conviction of the mind to religious truths will secure salvation; for pure belief would lead men to actual works, thus constituting a living, active faith.