The Evangelizer Of All Humankind

We’re talking about the mysteries of God, of truth revealed in the New Testament—timeless truths that for some reason were not known or not understood by mankind until they became revealed. 

Last week, we introduced the truth that God is the God of all mankind. We asked ourselves: “What does it mean to me to say that God is the God of all mankind?” 

The idea that we can possess God, that we can speak for God, understand his ways, and above all have the true and correct path to God, is an idea as old as humanity itself. Every religion, denomination, cult, church, sect, faith, band of believers, religious clique believes and teaches that they have God figured out and that he is within their grasp. 

Jason said last week, and I think he’s right, that “What does it mean to you to say that God is the God of all mankind?” really is the wrong question. The real question he said, should be: “Is God in every faith? Is God in every religion, sect, cult, and church? Is my god the same as your God? Are we all looking at the same God but perhaps at different faces of God? Am I trying to sell you my God, or am I actually trying to peddle the same God to you that you already have?” 

An entire chapter from Scripture sheds light on these questions and is worth reading in full. This version is from the New Living Translation, which seems to me to give proper context and meaning for our discussion: 

In Caesarea there lived a Roman army officer named Cornelius, who was a captain of the Italian Regiment. He was a devout, God-fearing man, as was everyone in his household. He gave generously to the poor and prayed regularly to God. One afternoon about three o’clock, he had a vision in which he saw an angel of God coming toward him. “Cornelius!” the angel said.

Cornelius stared at him in terror. “What is it, sir?” he asked the angel.

And the angel replied, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have been received by God as an offering! Now send some men to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. He is staying with Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore.”

As soon as the angel was gone, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier, one of his personal attendants. He told them what had happened and sent them off to Joppa.

The next day as Cornelius’s messengers were nearing the town, Peter went up on the flat roof to pray. It was about noon, and he was hungry. But while a meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw the sky open, and something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners. In the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles, and birds. Then a voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.”

“No, Lord,” Peter declared. “I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure and unclean.”

But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.” The same vision was repeated three times. Then the sheet was suddenly pulled up to heaven.

Peter was very perplexed. What could the vision mean? Just then the men sent by Cornelius found Simon’s house. Standing outside the gate, they asked if a man named Simon Peter was staying there.

Meanwhile, as Peter was puzzling over the vision, the Holy Spirit said to him, “Three men have come looking for you. Get up, go downstairs, and go with them without hesitation. Don’t worry, for I have sent them.”

So Peter went down and said, “I’m the man you are looking for. Why have you come?”

They said, “We were sent by Cornelius, a Roman officer. He is a devout and God-fearing man, well respected by all the Jews. A holy angel instructed him to summon you to his house so that he can hear your message.” So Peter invited the men to stay for the night. The next day he went with them, accompanied by some of the brothers from Joppa.

They arrived in Caesarea the following day. Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends. As Peter entered his home, Cornelius fell at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter pulled him up and said, “Stand up! I’m a human being just like you!” So they talked together and went inside, where many others were assembled.

Peter told them, “You know it is against our laws for a Jewish man to enter a Gentile home like this or to associate with you. But God has shown me that I should no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean. So I came without objection as soon as I was sent for. Now tell me why you sent for me.”

Cornelius replied, “Four days ago I was praying in my house about this same time, three o’clock in the afternoon. Suddenly, a man in dazzling clothes was standing in front of me. He told me, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your gifts to the poor have been noticed by God! Now send messengers to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. He is staying in the home of Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore.’ So I sent for you at once, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here, waiting before God to hear the message the Lord has given you.”

Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right. This is the message of Good News for the people of Israel—that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know what happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee, after John began preaching his message of baptism. And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

“And we apostles are witnesses of all he did throughout Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him to life on the third day. Then God allowed him to appear, not to the general public, but to us whom God had chosen in advance to be his witnesses. We were those who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be the judge of all—the living and the dead. He is the one all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in him will have their sins forgiven through his name.”

Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message. The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, too. For they heard them speaking in other tongues and praising God.

Then Peter asked, “Can anyone object to their being baptized, now that they have received the Holy Spirit just as we did?” So he gave orders for them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Afterward Cornelius asked him to stay with them for several days. (Acts 10)

The main players in the story are Peter and Cornelius, but the angel from heaven and the Holy Spirit and the Jewish leaders of the time also play roles. Cornelius was from Rome, an army officers stationed at the garrison in Palestine, but he was very religious, and his religion, apparently, was quite genuine, because his entire family (the passage says) was God-fearing. 

Genuine religion usually affects the family in a very positive way if it is truly genuine. But if it’s not genuine, usually there’s a negative effect on the family. The fact that the entire family was God-fearing is a testament to the authenticity of his religion. 

Like most religious people, Cornelius’ religious pattern and practice was based on what he did: He was generous to the poor and he prayed to God on a regular basis. We don’t know to which God he prayed. Possibly, he thought he prayed to one God but actually was heard by another God. Clearly, as the story unfolds, it was not thought to be the Jewish God of Peter and the Jewish leadership. Probably they thought that the pagan Cornelius was praying to a pagan Roman god. 

Regardless, he has a divine encounter with an angel that is unexplained and unexpected and terrifying. This is the beginning of an evangelistic path that is destined to change Cornelius and to change history. We might call this in Seventh Day Adventist terms an “evangelistic series” for Cornelius. We must see, however—and this is an important point—that evangelism is the work of the Divine. It is initiated by God. 

We think that gospel evangelism is about us knowing the way and about telling the way to others. But here we see that evangelism is God’s action, God’s purpose, and God’s initiative. It is the work neither of Cornelius nor of Peter. Both are called by God onto this path, but neither is the initiator of this evangelistic effort. What light does that shed on our concepts of evangelism? It is something to think about. 

Cornelius is given the instruction to send for Peter from Jaffa. Why doesn’t he go to Jaffa himself? Well, it’s very clear from the story: Peter has an education to be had in this endeavor as well. Caesarea, where Cornelius lives, is about 60 kilometers or 37 miles from Jaffa. This is long-distance evangelism. The angel doesn’t even say why he needs to send for Peter. Cornelius is simply told to send for Peter from Jaffa, 37 miles away, and he does that. 

The important point here is that there are two sides to evangelism: There is an evangelizer and an evangelizee. Both, it turns out, need to learn something about God. This is a critical point: Both Peter and Cornelius need to learn something about God. The irony is that they both need to learn the same thing about God. Whatever you think you know about God, whatever you want to share with others about God, be aware that they know something about God as well, and they have something to share with you as well. You and I have just as much to learn about God from them, as we have to teach them about God. Evangelism educates both sides. 

Peter, it turns out is just as primitive and pagan in his worship as Cornelius. Cornelius’ religion is based on what he does—on his prayers and his alms-giving. Peter’s religion is based on what he does not do—he doesn’t eat unclean food and he doesn’t enter the houses of Gentiles. 

Neither of these gentlemen understands true religion. Neither understands that God is the God of all mankind. 

Cornelius is about to hear the good news of salvation through grace, forgiveness, and mercy. Peter is about to hear that the good news is for everyone. Cornelius is about to learn the true religion is based on God’s grace, not on his good works. Peter is about to see that when it comes to grace, God is no respecter of persons—that God’s grace is full and free to all.

Both men need a conversion of grace. The Holy Spirit transforms both of them. It fills Cornelius and his people, and it shocks Peter into the reality of grace. Peter’s message evangelizes Cornelius and his flock and his his faithful friends; and the message that Peter has been preaching all along now changes Peter and has completely new meaning for Peter himself. 

And what was the message of grace? It is found in verse 34: That God shows no favoritism, that he accepts those who do right, that there is peace with God, that we should go about doing good, as Jesus did; and that because of grace it’s good news that God is our judge. 

This is a new paradigm for evangelism, with no emphasis on what you should or shouldn’t do. The true gospel is the gospel of grace, that salvation is of God regardless of your efforts. 

News of Peter’s visit to Cornelius comes to the attention of the Jewish leaders, and Peter is in trouble: 

Soon the news reached the apostles and other believers in Judea that the Gentiles had received the word of God. But when Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, the Jewish believers criticized him. “You entered the home of Gentiles and even ate with them!” they said.

Then Peter told them exactly what had happened. “I was in the town of Joppa,” he said, “and while I was praying, I went into a trance and saw a vision. Something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners from the sky. And it came right down to me. When I looked inside the sheet, I saw all sorts of tame and wild animals, reptiles, and birds. And I heard a voice say, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.’

“‘No, Lord,’ I replied. ‘I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure or unclean.’

“But the voice from heaven spoke again: ‘Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.’ This happened three times before the sheet and all it contained was pulled back up to heaven.

“Just then three men who had been sent from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were staying. The Holy Spirit told me to go with them and not to worry that they were Gentiles. These six brothers here accompanied me, and we soon entered the home of the man who had sent for us. He told us how an angel had appeared to him in his home and had told him, ‘Send messengers to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. He will tell you how you and everyone in your household can be saved!’

“As I began to speak,” Peter continued, “the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as he fell on us at the beginning. Then I thought of the Lord’s words when he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?”

When the others heard this, they stopped objecting and began praising God. They said, “We can see that God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.”

Meanwhile, the believers who had been scattered during the persecution after Stephen’s death traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch of Syria. They preached the word of God, but only to Jews. (Acts 11:1-19, New Living Translation)

Here we see true evangelism, divinely inspired, Holy Spirit-driven. The mantra of evangelism is found in verse 17: “And the Lord gave these Gentiles the same gift, when we were given the what we were given when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in their way?” in other words, because of Grace, God can and will save anyone he wants. I should not, in my evangelism, stand in God’s way. 

Peter came to see that he was simply a conduit for God’s forgiveness and grace. He was not to be a blockade. In every nation, in every faith, in every denomination, God has his people: “Sheep,” he calls them, “not of this fold” (John 10:16). Their goodness is known to God. For some, it seems, he is content to leave them there, undisturbed, worshiping as they always have. Still sheep, but in a different fold. 

But for others (for reasons known only to God) he wishes them to understand more fully the concept of grace. He calls upon you and upon me to be conduits of that grace to certain people, and we learn much, it seems, from them in the process as well. Being conduits of grace not only changes others but changes us as well. As he has eloquently shared with us, Kiran was such a person, selected by God to see his grace, and he is now a channel of that grace for others. 

We can share our experiences, our religious habits, rituals and practices, our beliefs and our doctrines, but true evangelism is something else. It’s something that can only be shared by sharing grace and forgiveness and mercy. It is significant that “angel” is in the middle of “evangelism”. It’s a divine message borne by a divine messenger, one of grace and forgiveness. 

The message is not about what we do and don’t do. The message is about one thing only: The grace of God. So I’d like your thoughts about God as the God of all mankind and about what that means for evangelism. What does the story of Acts 10 teach us about it? Can you practice your church rituals and religious rituals and live by your doctrines and still have a universal God of grace? What effort does it take on your part to do evangelism and to share God’s grace? And what does it mean to you that the middle of evangelism is “angel,” the divine messenger with a divine message? Do we have an objection to sharing God? Do we want to keep God for ourselves? Why do we seek to make God in our image so much? And does this mystery of God as the God of all mankind help to inform how you can be more evangelistic? 

Donald: Don has presented an eloquent picture of the idea of evangelism and the vantage points and facets of God, and so on, but I know that some of us here have such a different understanding of evangelism. In fact, we generally didn’t even use the word evangelism alone—we talked of an “evangelism series,” a sequence of presentations defined by the corporate church given in the context not just of bringing people to God or Christ but also to see how many people would give their hearts to our particular church organization, how many believers we could make from that even evangelism series. 

We don’t do evangelism in my neighborhood because everybody’s an Adventist! I don’t know if evangelism series are still a common practice by our church. My understanding of evangelism has certainly been based upon the teaching of the organization which I have committed my life to. 

David: Is that not true of Christianity as a whole? 

Clearly there were two conversions going on in Acts 10: One of a Roman and one of a Christian. Both were being converted. What were they being converted to? 

Anonymous: The truth. I believe they were converted to the truth.

C-J: I’ve always had a problem with evangelism. Maybe it’s because I was brought up in a country where there is separation of church and state but often the church has been influential in politics and in deciding who becomes leaders and self righteousness in terms of who is oppressed. I’ve always believed that God needs people, in this reading, right where they are, and that the revelation of God for me is that energy and consciousness—the awareness of something greater than ourselves, and intuitively to know the difference between right and wrong and the sensitivity to humanity.

I also believe in looking at the fruit, where there are people in faith communities that do harm to children, to social structures, to political structures in terms of inciting dissidence, and physically doing harm to others. I have a problem with that. Calvinism lit people on fire on a cross and watched them burn, or drowned them, or…. There are a lot of different ways that Christians under the Calvinist belief system… anything that deviated did great harm. I have a problem with that. I think revelation comes through God. We use the word words “Holy Spirit” but I think there are many belief systems that exemplify a respect for the earth and for others.

Robin: I think they were being converted from thinking of tradition first, to recognizing the voice of God or the Holy Spirit, to recognizing that tradition, above all, is not the way of God. Tradition is influenced too much by mankind. I think there are some traditions that are fine—I’m not saying that we need to throw out all traditions—but we need, as Scripture tells us, to hold our traditions up to what is expressed in the Bible.

C-J: If we look at the 300 years before the establishment of the Roman Catholic Church, the whole process is what we see in Acts 10. How does that work when you’re working in communities, when you’re living among Greeks (a pantheon of gods), when you’re living with Romans (a pantheon of gods)? What really matters? Is it the rituals? Or is it an understanding that there’s got to be more than just this temporal realm. 

Through that 300 years of trying to figure it out (and in my personal opinion, the Catholic Church had a long way to go in terms of worshipping idols, which is the first commandment: “Thou shall have no other gods before me.”) And there’s wisdom in that, because you’re forced to see God in all things. When you walk out the door, you have fresh air, etc. 

I just think, if we look at the example of Christianity, it’s supposed to be inclusive, without judgment. And the fruit is supposed to be love and charity. Of those who are given much, much as expected—in their almsgiving, in their contributions. Kindness is always free.

Reinhard: We know Cornelius and his household believed in the God of the Jews, because we can see that God responded to his prayer. He did not seem surprised to get a response, though he was maybe a little bit scared when the angel appeared in front of him! Jesus said that he had never seen such faith as that of another Centurion whose servant he healed. So I think it was not all that uncommon for non-Jews to believe in the Jewish God, though without practicing the rituals. God sends the Holy Spirit to work on those who come to believe in him. 

The message God shared with the Centurion through Peter was intended to fine-tune, to direct, their worship. I think God wanted to “straighten out” their erroneous beliefs because they were good men who believed in him, so God taught them about sharing his love, which is what he wants to see in man. 

In this modern day we have a myriad religions and sects and denominations and so on. I think God doesn’t want a single religious institution. He wants a panoply of competing religions all seeking him. Christians have our standard belief in Jesus Christ—his birth, death and resurrection, and the Holy Spirit—despite our differences in ritual and so on. 

A single denomination controlling all the people who believe in God creates apostasy. Look what happened to the Catholic Church! It was once the only church in the world but then came schisms and Martin Luther and the Reformation. God still works through His Spirit today for all of us, whatever church membership we have. 

I believe it is alright to feel comfortable in our own religions and hold true to what we believe.

C-J: I think about my relationship with God when I got myself into a very bad place. It wasn’t about what I believed; it was my relationship. I realized God was real, that it wasn’t something I hoped was real or I was taught was real or a text that had the truth or the rituals had to be done a certain way. But when God healed me, I realized it was a real relationship, not something that was in my head, that I saw the work that God did in me. 

I knew there was a connection to this energy, this entity, that was constantly teaching me what made something right or wrong; not just the end result going well or not, but that God is always tempering us to be humble and loving and to be a good student, that we would have a heart, a teachable spirit. 

And that relationship has remained true for 40 plus years. I can interrupt it to study other things but during that process I always sense God in the midst. And that’s different. I don’t need the Bible. I choose the Bible because I think it has a lot of good things in it, but I also read other things and engage with other people with different belief systems. I think the common denominator is this relationship. It’s something that can’t be seen or touched but really has an impact on their life

Jay: Cornelius is described in the beginning as a God fearing man because he seeks to commune with God on a regular basis (he seeks goodness continuously) and he seems to be trying to minister to those less fortunate than himself. He is active in his ministering and giving to the poor. So what does he need? What does he need to be evangelized into? If he is seeking goodness continuously and treating his fellow man well, why is God bugging him? 

There seems to be something that maybe Cornelius doesn’t need but—as you read the story more—it seems as if his community might be in need of something. The idea that the ministry of Christ is about forgiveness will be very beneficial for the community in which Cornelius resides. 

So in the sense of God being the God of all mankind, I think that that’s extraordinarily evident. It seems that God is with Cornelius. Cornelius knows of Judaism and of the Christianity that was beginning to develop since the crucifixion, but he seems not to need any of that, to be doing what we’ve been called to do. 

So God is there, God is utilizing him, and yet there seems to be something like a truth. I think it’s the concept of forgiveness, or maybe grace, from which Cornelius’ community—his family, the people with whom he has influence—may get great benefit. 

There’s no doubt there’s a quid pro quo—Cornelius and his circle of influence is getting something (the idea of forgiveness, of grace) and Peter is getting is the revelation, that God is the God of all mankind. But when those two things come together, the best evangelism emerges.

David: I agree with most of that except I’m not so sure about the community aspect. The phrase “God-fearing” applies to both Cornelius and Peter. The lesson they were both learning was to turn away from fearing God and towards loving God for the grace that he freely gives. Peter was afraid of eating the wrong foods because he was afraid of God’s punishment, even though God said there was no need to be! Cornelius was clearly afraid of not doing the right thing. Both were given the message: “Don’t fear me.” There is nothing to fear from God, in fact there is everything to be grateful for, everything to love in him; in particular, forgiveness, mercy, and all the other things that are part and parcel of grace. 

Michael: I like Jason’s point. Maybe we’re reading the story wrong; Maybe this wasn’t evangelism of Cornelius and his family but rather it was actually evangelism by God to Peter and the Jewish leaders through Cornelius. Maybe it is the other way around from what it seems!

Dewan: When I read Acts 10 I noticed that there was a paradigm shift in church identity forever, because church was still Jewish. Many Christians thought the receiving of the Holy Spirit was dependent upon the act of water baptism. But baptism by the Holy Spirit is an inner spiritual regeneration that works in Gentiles too.

Don: Well stated.

Jay: Responding to Michael: It was definitely a learning moment, evangelism for the early Christian church. But new insight is brought to Cornelius too., I think the story is trying to demonstrate that through their baptism by fire, their speaking in tongues. There is some kind of enlightenment that they get from the exchange that takes place also.

Kiran: What does “God-fearing” Gentile mean? It is analyzed here. Many people take it to mean a Gentile person who submitted to the laws of the Jewish religion, but were not circumcised and who worshiped in the synagogue along with Jews. Archaeological evidence from synagogues appears to show that there was no class of “Gentile God-fearer” worshiping alongside Jews in Diaspora synagogues.” Actually, the evidence suggests that they might be pagans, but God-fearing in the sense means they were “right with God,” whatever that means. 

Maybe Luke meant that these were almost converts into Judaism but might be actually pagan worshipers, and that is much more controversial and difficult to believe. 

The beauty of it is that through his religion, Cornelius was able to see the real God who cares about him. And Peter was another person who had that connection with the real God. They were brought together and they were able to recognize the same God within each other. I think that’s the beauty of this thing.

Jay: I agree. It is a very good example of God utilizing people from what appear to be very different religious backgrounds and organizations in order to grow both of them. Sitting down and talking with people who have a view of God that is different from my view of God, so that we can both grow from those kinds of situations, is definitely not evangelism as we traditionally think of and practice it. 

Typically the lens through which we would view this story is the lens of not being judgmental and accepting people. But really the lens is that because God is the God of all mankind he utilizes all mankind to minister to all of mankind, whether across religions or not.

Kiran: I too had a problem with our mode of evangelism. When I became a new convert, my friend who brought me into Christianity would take me to slums and orphanages to hold Sabbath schools. When I came to America, I would go to retreats every four months where the preacher would constantly focus on bringing one person a week or month so you would end up with 12 or 52 converts a year. 

Being an introvert, it was very difficult for me to do that, but I went against my nature and spent a lot of energy trying to do it. For my friend Dion, an extrovert, it was so easy. I found a book: Introverts In the Church: Finding Our Place In an Extroverted Culture and realized that most evangelism is extrovert oriented. And yet, when I stopped going to people, they started coming to me! We would just talk, not necessarily about the Bible, and we would come to an understanding about the pain we share, the guilt we share, and the way God leads us through different situations. 

This is the evangelism I have. I completely agree that evangelism helps both people to grow. Still, even now, at retreats every second sermon is all about going out there and getting people. That’s why I don’t want to go to retreats anymore. It’s depressing!

Donald: Thank you, Kiran. This conversation is meaningful on a few different levels, but how is it relevant to you and me today? The community I live in is primarily Adventist so the idea of discovering somebody having a new perspective on God is not a likely thing to have happen. I can find different levels of Adventism, from very conservative to very open minded, but that that’s not relevant to this conversation. 

When I had the good fortune of taking photography students to Africa, the first four or five times we went on safari. But I realized we were missing a huge experience, so the last half a dozen times we intentionally focused on finding large communities of urban and village East Africans living traditional East African lives. 

We also focused on the Maasai, and then we went into a Muslim community. We did all this for the purpose of understanding, not for the purpose of evangelism—not to try to have them see things our way, but to have a back and forth—a much healthier way to approach sharing the Word of God, and sharing what God means to you, and what God means to me. And then as you listen to each other, you acquire a greater understanding that goes beyond your singular understanding. 

I don’t know how that fits into proselytizing and achieving target numbers. I have no problem meeting with any faith group, but telling somebody else they need to change from their faith group to my faith group is where things get really difficult.

Bryan: To me, evangelism has always been a battle between introvert and extrovert. If you’re not an extrovert willing to stand out on the street corner and talk to people then you’re not an evangelist and you cannot be an evangelist. It seems to me that formal evangelism is often very good at taking God out of the picture. By that, I mean it’s all about getting people to believe the way you believe. 

As an Adventist, my faith belief is not from evangelism—it’s from having grown up in a church. But evangelism has always meant that you’re supposed to go out and get people to believe the way you believe. I’ve never been really comfortable with that. It seems to me that if we let God lead in our discussions and our interactions with people of different faiths, then we are letting God talk to people’s hearts and let them decide. Lat God tell them what’s important and what is not important, versus us trying to get them to believe in our doctrine and our view of what’s right and wrong based on our belief system. 

So I appreciate what Kiran said. Introverts can evangelize but it’s a lot quieter process. Let’s let God to the talking instead. 

Carolyn: Is there anybody who would be baptized without having a religious group to be baptized into?

Donald: I attended Willow Creek, a large community church in Chicago, for a number of years. They’d say that baptism was going to be in (say) two weeks. They had a large pond in front of the church that they did baptisms in. Names were not recored. The baptized were given a white towel and you’re baptized into the relationship with Christ. It was not a relationship to the church. Certainly, we tend to think that baptism is done by the corporate church and within the church. But that was one example that was quite unique, that I’ve witnessed.

David: Baptism is another one of those things that’s used to evoke fear: If you’re not baptized, according to some religions, you’re not going to make it to heaven.* I think this issue of fearing God is addressed in Acts 10. Baptism belongs to the smorgasbord of things you can or can’t do that are ultimately irrelevant to God and serve only to evoke fear in people.

Don: Peter does make the comment that John baptized with water but that Jesus said he would baptize with the Holy Spirit.

* * *

*Postscript: Among the many “horrible and awfu’” things Robert Burns’ Tam O’Shanter noted on the “haly table” (holy table, altar) at a Devil’s dance were “Twa, span-lang, wee unchristened bairns” (two unchristened babies as small as your hand). The horror lies in “unchristened.”