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A History of Christian Doctrine #3 - Online Christian Library

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Liberalism and Neo-Orthodoxy<br />

and orientated to the name <strong>of</strong> Jesus Christ as this<br />

goal. In faith, love and baptism the <strong>Christian</strong> moves<br />

towards the name <strong>of</strong> Jesus Christ, towards Jesus<br />

Christ Himself. . . .<br />

When the community baptises, and when its candidates<br />

are baptised, they are on the way into that<br />

strong tower [Proverbs 18:10], on the way to the One<br />

who enters Jerusalem, the Lord, their Creator,<br />

Reconciler and Redeemer. One might also think here<br />

<strong>of</strong> the virgins who go to meet the Bridegroom with<br />

their lamps. . . . Baptism is a going forth to Jesus<br />

Christ.<br />

Barth explained that the wording <strong>of</strong> Matthew 28:19<br />

actually points to Jesus Christ and His saving work. For<br />

him, the three titles do not refer to three names but to the<br />

one name <strong>of</strong> God. They signify God’s redemptive work in<br />

Jesus Christ in light <strong>of</strong> the past (salvation history, the plan<br />

<strong>of</strong> God through the ages), the present (Christ’s act <strong>of</strong><br />

atonement as applied to the believer), and the future (the<br />

ongoing work <strong>of</strong> God in the individual and in the<br />

world): 203<br />

Mt. 28:19 . . . is an extension <strong>of</strong> the christological<br />

formulae <strong>of</strong> Acts and Paul. . . .<br />

The apostles are to baptise them, not into three<br />

names, but into one name expounded in three different<br />

ways. . . .<br />

If the mention <strong>of</strong> Father, Son and Holy Ghost is to<br />

be regarded as an enumeration, it is the enumeration<br />

<strong>of</strong> the dimensions <strong>of</strong> the one name <strong>of</strong> God, i.e., <strong>of</strong> His<br />

one work and word, <strong>of</strong> His one act <strong>of</strong> salvation and<br />

177

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