00B.22 Chapter 15--Why Methodists Baptize by Pouring and Baptize Babies--No. 7

XV. "Why Methodists Baptize by Pouring and Baptize Babies"

No. 7 THE FALSE AND THE TRUE IN PICTURES OR CAIN’S WAY AND ABEL’S WAY On this page will be found a picture which has been appearing in the Methodist Herald each week for more than three months. Under the picture in bold type were these words: "John the Baptist Baptizing Jesus." Also this state­ment from the editor: "This picture was found in Bible lands among the relics of early Christians. This picture so nearly conveys the idea of water baptism throughout the Bible, we are running it each week to keep before the minds of our readers the purpose of the articles, ’Why Methodists Baptize by Pouring.’ "

We do not believe that any intelligent reader of either the Methodist Herald or the Gospel Advocate will attach any great importance to this picture, as all know that it was made by some artist long after both John and Christ had gone from the earth. But in order to prevent any wrong conclusion on the part of any unthinking person, we are here giving some facts about the catacombs and about the pictures and images of Christ. If any reader wishes to verify any statement made in this article, let him consult any encyclopedia under the word "catacombs." Also let him examine the McClintock and Strong and the Schaff- Herzog encyclopedias under "Jesus Christ, Pictures and Images of." Furthermore, if he wishes to know what the scholarship of the world says in one voice was the ancient manner of baptizing, let him consult the encyclopedias, Bible dictionaries, and church histories on the word "baptism." There is no reason why anyone should be deceived on this point in this age of knowledge and of easy information. But let us study the Herald’s picture under the follow­ing headings: Pictures and Images o f Christ.

There are now in the world many famous paintings of Christ and of scenes in his life. These works of art are all well known, and their names and the names of the artists are also familiar to most people. Among these we may mention the many "Madon­nas" by as many artists, and also the "Ecce Homo," by Guido Reni; "Christ in Gethsemane," by Hoffmann; "The Cruci­fixion," by Ittenbach; "The Last Supper," by Da Vinci; "The Veil of Saint Veronica," by Murillo; "The Consoling Christ," by Plockhorst; "The Descent from the Cross," by Rubens; and there are many others. Of course, these artists all lived many centuries this side of Christ, and they painted these pictures from their own imagination of Christ and of the scenes in his life, their information coming, of course, from the Bible and from tradition.

There are many stories, pictures, and images of Christ which are wholly apocryphal, and so recognized by all well- informed people. "The Veil of Saint Veronica" is based on a fantastic story. "Saint Veronica" is said to be the woman whom Christ healed of the "issue of blood." While Christ was on the way to Golgotha, staggering and sweating under the cross, "Saint Veronica" came near and handed him her veil, upon which he wiped his face and returned it to the kind woman. And, lo, the image of his face, the impress of his features, was left upon the veil! This is the story of that picture.

It was a long time after Christ’s day before men began to draw pictures of him. Some of the earliest relics of "sacred art" are found in the catacombs, and concerning these remnants of early drawings the Encyclopedia Britan- nica says: "Pope Damasus himself displayed great zeal in adapting the catacombs to their new purpose, restoring the works of art on the walls, and renewing the epitaphs over the graves of the martyrs. In this latter work he em­ployed an engraver named Furius Philocalus, the exquisite beauty of whose characters enables the smallest fragment of his work to be recognized at a glance. This gave rise to extensive alterations in their construction and decoration, which has much lessened their value as authentic memorials of the religious art of the second and third centuries. Sub­sequent popes manifested equal ardor, with the same dam­aging results, in the repair and adornment of the catacombs, and many of the paintings covering their walls, which have been assigned to the periods of their original construction, are really the work of these later times." The oldest picture of John baptizing Jesus of which the Gospel Advocate has any knowledge was found engraved on the door of a church on the Via Ostiensis, near Rome. This door is dated A.D. 1070. The picture could not be older than the door upon which it is engraved. The encyclopedias tell us that all the early pictures of Christ represented him as very youthful. His face was smooth and girlish. He was neither Jew, Greek, nor Roman. He was an idealized, angelic being.

Then, at a much later period, the artists began represent­ing Christ as having a brown, pointed beard, and long, brown, curly hair. The critics can tell the age of a picture by the way Christ is portrayed. The picture that the Methodist Herald is using shows Christ to have the pointed, chin beard! It is not, therefore, one of the pictures of the earliest age of art. It is a Roman Catholic production. The Picture Has Marks of Modern Origin. A close examination of this picture will reveal marks that prove it to be of an origin much later than the New Testament. It

A FALSEHOOD IN PICTURE This is the picture that the Methodist Herald hats been running for three months. It is Cain’s way. Read this article. is not true to the Scripture record in any point. Look at the raiment of John. He has on the robe of a modern priest, or the tunic that was worn in Christ’s day, but the New Testament tells us that he did not dress as others of his day dressed. It says he had "his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins." (Matthew 3:4.) Notice also that John has a staff in his hand, with a cross at the upper end and some sort of banner or streamer attached to it. Of course, everybody knows that the cross had n o religious meaning at all in the days of John the Baptist. Christ had not then glorified the cross by his death. The cross and the "sign of the cross" did not begin to be regarded with superstitious reverence until after the days of Constantine. After he saw his vision of the cross in the sky and the Latin words, "In hoc signo vinces," the Roman Catholics began to put crosses upon their church buildings, to wear crosses around their necks, and to make the sign of the cross in prayer, etc.

A REAL PHOTOGRAPH This baptizing is in the river Jordan at the place where Christ was baptized. Read this article.

It is not at all surprising that a Roman Catholic who was not allowed to read the Bible would represent baptism according as his church practiced it, and that he would picture John with a cross in his hand. But what shall we say of a Methodist editor who claims that the picture is true to the divine record? The Picture Is Contradicted by the River Jordan. This picture represents Jordan as a small, shallow stream. It is not more than two or three feet wide. The hands of the people or angels (the Bible says nothing about angels being present) on either side are extended nearly across the stream. At least the wing of the angel on the shore extends out to John. The water is not deep enough to cover Christ’s foot. Now, the river is still on the earth and still rushes madly from Huleh to the Dead Sea. It is about sixty miles from its head in the "waters of Merom" to its mouth in the Dead Sea by air line. It has a fall of about thirteen hundred feet in this distance, which makes it very swift. It is from one hundred and fifty feet to one hundred and eighty feet in width, and is from three to thirty-five feet in depth at the place where Christ was baptized. It is a living, concrete contradiction of this picture. In his book, "Out of Doors in the Holy Land," Dr. Henry Van Dyke (Presbyterian) gives us these beautiful words: "No, it was not because the Jordan was beautiful that John the Baptist chose it as the scene of his preaching and minis­try, but because it was wild and rude, an emblem of violent and sudden change, of irrevocable parting, of death itself, and because in its one gift of copious and unfailing water he found the necessary element for his deep baptism of re­pentance, in which the sinful past of the crowd who followed him was to be symbolically immersed and buried and washed away." The Picture Is Contradicted by the Meaning of the Word "Baptize." The word "baptize" means to dip, plunge, immerse, submerge, etc., and it does not, never did, and never will mean either sprinkle or pour. By no manner of torturing can it be made to mean sprinkle or pour.The record says John baptized Jesus. Then any picture that represents John as doing something else is a falsehood in picture, manufactured to sustain a doctrine that came from the Pope. The Picture Is Contradicted b y All Church Histories. All standard or recognized histories in the world tell us that baptism as practiced by the early church was immer­sion. Let the editor of the Herald cite an exception. Pour­ing was not practiced until many centuries after Christ. This picture was made after that practice was authorized by the Pope; hence, it is not a true representation of a Bible scene. The Picture Is Contradicted b y Scholars. Bible Dic­tionaries, and Encyclopedias. What Dr. Van Dyke says about John’s baptism is in substance what all scholars say. All authorities that we have agree in saying that John, Christ, and the apostles practiced immersion. The reader may consult these authorities for himself. So Editor Swift’s picture is shown to be Biblically, his­torically, geographically, and topographically a falsehood. On the page opposite this "pouring" picture we give a photograph of a Methodist preacher baptizing his Sunday- school superintendent in the river Jordan at the very place where John baptized Jesus. This Methodist preacher is Mr. U. L. Ennis, and the man he is baptizing is Mr. Jonathan Sleeman. Both these men live (or did in 1923), at Frassburg, Maryland. This baptizing took place on July 23, 1923. It was witnessed by Brother N. B. Hardeman, of Henderson, Tennessee, who "snapped" the picture with a kodak, and Brother Ira A. Douthitt, of Paducah, Kentucky. Brother Douthitt let us have this picture for the Gospel Advocate. He tells all about this baptizing in his book, "My Trip Abroad," which book can be purchased from Brother Douthitt for fifty cents. He lives at 801 North Twenty- Fourth Street, Paducah, Kentucky.

Editor Swift promises to continue his articles, and the picture, indefinitely, but we will probably not give any more attention to his editorials until he begins to tell why he baptizes babies. Then we shall try his strength on that point.