“Peace has in it confidence in the Lord: that He directs all things, provides all things, and that He leads to a good end.” - Arcana Caelestia §8455
Kempton New Church

Week 3
Day 1

    Listen:

Baptism and Confession of Faith

Then Jesus, being baptized, came up straightaway out of the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and coming upon Him. Matthew 3:16

The Sacrament of Baptism

John answered, saying to all, I indeed baptize you with water, but there comes One stronger than I, the strap of whose shoes I am not worthy to loose; He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (Luke 3:16)

AE 475:20 This (Luke 3:16) means that John only inaugurated them into knowledges from the Word respecting the Lord, and thus prepared them to receive Him, but that the Lord Himself regenerates man by means of Divine truth and Divine good proceeding from Him. For John represented the like as Elijah, namely, the Word. “The waters” with which John baptized signified introductory truths, which are knowledges from the Word respecting the Lord. “The Holy Spirit” signifies Divine truth proceeding from the Lord, and “fire” signifies Divine good proceeding from Him; and “baptism” signifies regeneration by the Lord by means of Divine truths from the Word.

AR 378 The meaning [of these words] is, that the Lord washes or purifies man by the Divine truth and the Divine good, and that John represented this by his baptism; for the “Holy Spirit” is the Divine truth, “fire” is the Divine good, and “water” is the representative of both; for “water” signifies the truth of the Word, which becomes good by a life according to it.

TCR 144 “To baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire” means to regenerate by the Divine truth that belongs to faith and the Divine good that belongs to charity. The same is meant by these words of the Lord:

Unless a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:5).

“Water,” here as elsewhere in the Word, signifies truth in the natural or external man, and “spirit” signifies truth from good in the spiritual or internal man.

AC 9818 ... “To be born of water” denotes by means of truth; and “to be born of the spirit” denotes the consequent life from the Lord, which is called spiritual life.

NJHD 202 Baptism was instituted to be a sign that a man is of the church, and as a memorial that he is to be regenerated; for the washing of baptism is nothing else than spiritual washing, which is regeneration.

NJHD 203 All regeneration is effected by the Lord, through the truths of faith, and a life according to them. Baptism therefore testifies that the man is of the church, and that he can be regenerated: for in the church the Lord is acknowledged, who alone regenerates, and there also is the Word, which contains the truths of faith, by which regeneration is effected.

NJHD 207 Let those therefore who are baptized know, that baptism itself does not give faith nor salvation, but it testifies that they may receive faith and be saved, if they are regenerated.

INVITATION TO THE NEW CHURCH 45 The correspondences by which the Word as to each and all of its parts has been written, possess such power and strength that it may be called the power and strength of the Divine Omnipotence. For through these correspondences, the natural acts conjointly with the spiritual, and the spiritual with the natural—thus the all of heaven with the all of the world. Thence it is that the two sacraments are correspondences of spiritual with natural things; thence is their strength and power.

Questions
  1. How might the words of John the Baptist be related to the baptism of an infant by a minister in the New Church today? How might this be different for an adult baptism?
  2. The Lord said that a man must be born of water and the spirit to enter into the kingdom of God. How does this relate to what the Heavenly Doctrine teaches about the salvation of gentiles, those not baptized?
  3. Notice that NJHD says, “Let those therefore who are baptized know that baptism itself does not give faith nor salvation.” What might the inclusion of the words “who are baptized” imply?
  4. Just how powerful is the sacrament of baptism, and why?
  5. Can man regenerate in this world without being baptized? The question is not whether he can be saved, but whether he can be regenerated. We are taught in TCR 571 that if a man enters into reformation in this world he can be regenerated after he dies.
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