W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest
W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest
W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest
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souls. It is bad enough for the poor heathen to go into the Ganges and the Jumna to have their sins washed away.<br />
Our hearts break in sympathy as we contemplate them. Then let us not lose sight of the heathen at home, who,<br />
amid the clear light of this Gospel land are so manipulated and deluded by Satan through unconverted preachers,<br />
who are pursuing that business, as many have frankly confessed to me in debate, for a living, like they would<br />
pursue any other employment. It is fearful to contemplate I have been a preacher in my humble way for fiftythree<br />
years. If it would so turn out that I have to go to Hell, I would rather exchange places with the gambler or<br />
the drunkard. Rely upon it, the preacher's Hell is the most awful in all the dismal realms of Satan's dark<br />
pandemonium. A preacher in Hell, forever tormented by the people whom he had led thither, eternally<br />
anathematizing him and lashing him with are brands, as the instrument of their own damnation, how awful!<br />
Again you may ask, were not the people immersed at the house of Cornelius, when Peter opened wide the door<br />
of the Gospel Church to the Gentile world? While he was preaching, you remember the Holy Ghost fell on his<br />
congregation and they had a wonderful shouting time. Some were converted and others sanctified, especially the<br />
latter, as they received the Holy Ghost. Peter said, Acts 10:47, “Whether is any one able to forbid the water that<br />
these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Ghost as well as me?” and he commanded that they<br />
should be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Here we have a clear, notable case in favor of effusion. Why?<br />
Because Peter speaks of moving the water to the people, instead of moving the people away to the water. In this<br />
passage we have kolusai hudor, in which hudor, water, is the subject and kolusai the verb, depending on it for its<br />
subject. If it had been immersion, as that was a private house, of course it would have been necessary to go<br />
away to the water. That city is on the sea, which would have been very convenient for immersion. But he says<br />
nothing about going to the water but does speak of moving the water to them. There is no doubt but that the<br />
baptism was administered right there in the house of Cornelius where the Holy Ghost had fallen on the people.<br />
Again, was not Saul of Tarsus immersed? The Scripture certainly favors the conclusion that he received the<br />
ordinance by effusion. He had been three days prostrate on the floor, crying to God for mercy. I have twice<br />
visited the house of Judas on Straight Street in Damascus. There is no immersion water in the house. It is in the<br />
center of that great city. Ananias said to him, “anastas baptisai.” Literally translated, it reads, “standing up, be<br />
baptized.” Ana means up; stas, standing. Paul had been prostrate on the floor three days and nights crying to<br />
God for <strong>His</strong> mercy. Suddenly the wonderful transition out of darkness into light, out of death into life, out of<br />
condemnation into glorious emancipation, supervenes; and meanwhile his blind eyes are miraculously healed<br />
and his soul flooded with the Holy Ghost. Then Ananias says, “standing up, be baptized.” All the facts and<br />
environments involve the conclusion that he rose to his feet and Ananias poured the limpid rill on his head, in<br />
the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.<br />
Were not the people immersed in Enon where there was “much water”? Enon is a Chaldaic word in the plural<br />
number and means “springs.” Polahudata is the Greek which is translated, E. V., “much water.” The real<br />
meaning of it is, “many waters,” as both the noun and the adjective are in the plural number, hence the<br />
conclusion is that it was a region well supplied with springs. The argument for immersion breaks down of its<br />
own weight because the vast crowds who attended John's meetings needed vastly more water for the people and<br />
the animals to drink and for culinary purposes than was required for immersion. John's meetings anywhere<br />
would need a good supply of water, if he did not baptize at all.<br />
When Nebuchadnezzar spent those seven years roaming ad libitum among the beasts of the field, while his body<br />
was “wet with the dew of heaven,” Dan. 4:33. In the providence of God, through the Septuagint Version of the<br />
Old Testament we have a clear testimony to effusion as a definition of “apto,” which is there translated “wet.”<br />
The Greek ebaphee literally was “baptize with the dews of heaven.” We know that he was not immersed in the<br />
dews of heaven, but they descended on him.<br />
We frankly admit that triune immersion was the prevailing baptism in the long roll of the Dark Ages, extending<br />
from the fourth to the fourteenth century. They not only practiced immersion but gave it to them in a state of<br />
utter nudity without a stitch of apparel on their bodies, arguing that there was no authority for baptizing the<br />
clothes. They also practiced along with it a lot of superstitious ceremonies. The single immersion is quite<br />
modern, beginning in New England when Rodger Williams and Ezekiel Holiman reciprocally immersed each<br />
other.