W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest

I hope you are already dead to your notions and ideas, which are frequently erroneous because of wrong
teaching; what people say is nothing; what God says will judge you and me in the last day.
Second. “Was not Jesus Himself immersed in the river Jordan?” Let Him answer. Matthew, Mark and Luke all
tell us about the trouble He got into with the scribes and Pharisees when He came into the holy campus, (E. V.,
temple), and drove out those animals which they had there to sell to the people for sacrifices, much to the
desecration and pollution of that sacred place. Then they demanded of Him His authority for exercising the
privileges which belonged only to the high priest. You will find if you will read all of these three records, that
He referred them to the baptism of John for His authority, showing plainly that he was thereby inducted into the
office of high priest. Now if you know how the high priest was anointed you know how John baptized Jesus. I
know you remember this item in the Old Testament, where it, says that Moses poured the oil on the head of
Aaron.
Consequently we know that John poured the water on the head of Jesus. This all of the ancient statuary
corroborates, which, without an exception, represents Jesus standing and John pouring the water on His head.
Third. King James' Translation was made by forty-seven scholarly members of the Anglican Church, who had
been baptized by triune immersion, which came into use as early as the third century and had not passed out
when the translation took place in 1611. Therefore that translation constantly leans to immersion, because it was
the mind of the translators, therefore it has given currency to a popular superstition in favor of immersion. Many
people think it says our Savior went down into the water. It does say He came up out of the water, which is
simply a wrong translation, and if you will look in the Revised or any other translation, you will find it
corrected, simply reading, “He came up from the water,” only implying that He was at it and not in it.
Fourth. Let us hear the testimony of John himself. He tells us how he baptized Jesus and all the balance. John
was the brightest and the best preacher of the Gospel the world had ever seen. Besides, this is not simply the
word of the blessed Baptist but the infallible Word of God. Matthew 3:11, “I indeed baptize you with water unto
repentance ... But He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire.” Here he tells us all how he baptized the
people. You know he uses the same word baptize to tell us that he did with water what Jesus was going to do
with the Holy Ghost and fire. You know that on the day of Pentecost, when Jesus baptized the disciples in
fulfillment of this prophecy of John, He poured on them His Spirit and fire fell on them. If you will let the Lord
save you from all your prejudices and superstitions, so you can take John at his word and believe him without a
doubt, you will know once and forever that John did to the people with water the very thing that Jesus did with
the Holy Ghost and fire. Yes, but, you say, why then did he baptize them in the river? That does not change the
question of the action he performed. If they were standing in the river waist deep it is certain that John poured
the water on them, because he says so, and we know his word is true. All of that statement “in the river,” was
simply put down there by King James' translators, who had received the triune immersion and had it in mind.
All the statements in the original are merely local, and perfectly correctly translated, “in the river” or “at the
Jordan,” just as we say Cincinnati is on the Ohio River, and not in it.
I have been to the Jordan three times and given special attention to the very place where John held his meetings
and Israel crossed over. The last time I was there, pursuant to their request, I immersed the three “Texas boys” in
the Jordan. We four and our guide and escort hunted in vain for a good place, and of course took the best we
could get. It was so muddy, as it always is, that we could not see an inch below the surface, and our guide,
Shukrey Hishmeh, born in Jerusalem and educated for a guide, who has been escorting travelers all over that
country for the last twenty years, feeling his responsibility in case that some of us should get drowned, did his
best to dissuade the young men, telling them that he had seen men drowned right there. But they, fearless of the
water, as they are splendid swimmers, somewhat condoled his fears by relieving him of all responsibility, and
assuming it themselves, as a guide is responsible for his people, like a railroad company.
Finally we selected the best place we could get, and I waded down in black mud nearly to my knees, and
endeavored to find a foothold. Our guide said the river was about fifteen feet deep. As I could not find any
bench on the bank, and it was so steep, I had both my guide and our armed escort come in and hold me, lest my
feet should slide and I be drowned. The current is so swift and the river has so much fall that a man cannot stand
in it; besides it is so deep that it would be over the head of the tallest giant on the globe. So I cheerfully and