Justin 150 AD Chapter 61. Christian baptism I will also relate the manner in which we dedicatedourselves to God when we had been made new through Christ; lest, if we omit this, we seem to be unfair in the explanation we are making. As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and to entreat Godwith fasting, for the remission of their sins that are past, we praying and fasting with them. Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated in the same manner in which we were ourselves regenerated. For, in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our SaviourJesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they then receive the washing with water. For Christ also said, Unless you be born again, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven John 3:5 Now, that it is impossible for those who have once been born to enter into their mothers wombs, is manifest to all. And how those who have sinned and repent shall escape their sins, is declared by Esaias the prophet, as I wrote above;he thus speaks: Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from your souls; learn to do well;judge the fatherless, and plead for the widow: and come and let us reason together, says the Lord. And though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white like wool; and though they be as crimson, I will make them white as snow. But if you refuse and rebel, the sword shall devour you: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.Isaiah 1:16-20 And for this [rite] we have learned from the apostlesthis reason. Since at our birth we were born without our own knowledge or choice, by our parents coming together, and were brought up in bad habits andwicked training; in order that we may not remain the children of necessity and of ignorance, but may become the children of choice and knowledge, and may obtain in the water the remission of sinsformerly committed, there is pronounced over him who chooses to be born again, and has repented of his sins, the name of God the Father and Lord of theuniverse; he who leads to the laver the person that is to be washed calling him by this name alone. For no one can utter the name of the ineffable God; and if any one dare to say that there is a name, he raveswith a hopeless madness. And this washing is called illumination, because they who learn these things are illuminated in their understandings. And in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and in the name of the Holy Ghost, who through the prophets foretold all things about Jesus, he who is illuminated is washed. Chapter 62. Its imitation by demons And the devils, indeed, having heard this washing published by the prophet, instigated those who enter their temples, and are about to approach them with libations and burnt-offerings, also to sprinkle themselves; and they cause them also to wash themselves entirely, as they depart [from thesacrifice], before they enter into the shrines in which their images are set. And the command, too, given by the priests to those who enter and worship in thetemples, that they take off their shoes, the devils, learning what happened to the above-mentionedprophet Moses, have given in imitation of these things. For at that juncture, when Moses was ordered to go down into Egypt and lead out the people of theIsraelites who were there, and while he was tending the flocks of his maternal uncle in the land of Arabia, our Christ conversed with him under the appearance of fire from a bush, and said, Put off your shoes, and draw near and hear. And he, when he had put off his shoes and drawn near, heard that he was to go down into Egypt and lead out the people of the Israelitesthere; and he received mighty power from Christ, who spoke to him in the appearance of fire, and went down and led out the people, having done great and marvellous things; which, if you desire to know, you will learn them accurately from his writings
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 04:10:31 +0000
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