Baptism:
Preacher of Church Ordinance?
First Treatise

Matthew 28:18-20, "And Jesus came and spake unto them saying, All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

It is the consensus of New Testament Baptists, and they have declared with one voice that the mission to baptize referred to in the above text was given to the church. This truth is made noon day clear from the fact that not one of the apostles ever claimed to have authority to baptize independently of the church. It is not denied that the commission was given to the apostles, but it is denied that the commission was given to them as individuals. The apostles were the first members of the New Testament church (1 Cor. 12:28), and it was to the first Baptist church Christ spoke, saying, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them . . ."

The apostolic office and commission was for the duration of the life of those ordained to the office, and the apostolic office reached its terminus and cessation with the death of the apostle John around the year 96 A.D. John was the last of the apostles to die, and the doctrine of apostolic succession propagated by Romanism and given acquiescence by some pope-eyed Baptists (?), is utterly alien to the holy Scriptures. Conversely, it is incontrovertibly taught in Scripture and particularly in the last three verses of Matthew chapter 28 that the commission to baptize is age long. Thus, it is seen that the commission to baptize is perpetual, "even unto the end of the age," and necessitates the age long existence of the church, which is the exclusive means of conveying the ordinance of baptism.

The commission to baptize is an additional charge, a charge given to an authority above or superior to that of the apostolic office, and the only authority excelling that of the apostles was that of the church. Ecclesiastically speaking there is not anything on earth superior to the local church. The church has no power whatsoever to legislate a single law or ordinance, but the church was appointed by the sovereign and eternal Testator to be the executor of His will concerning all that is ecclesiastical in this present age. It was to the church, Christ said, "Teach and keep all things whatsoever I have commanded you (Matthew 28:20). The apostles recognized the authority vested in the church by its Head, Jesus Christ, and never once questioned that authority.

Christ said of the church, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). Herein is the irrevocable guarantee of age long perpetuity of the church and the exercise of its baptismal authority, for church perpetuity cannot be realized apart from the proper administration of the baptismal ordinance. The apostolic office had no such guarantee or baptismal authority, and in due season the need for official Apostleship expired and the office became extinct in the earth. Not only was the church guaranteed age long existence, but it was promised age long success. Christ said to His church, "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me . . . unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). This prophecy has been brought to fruition, not by the continuity of the apostolic office, but it is owing to the everyday presence of the Lord with His church.