BAPTISM SAVES — A Prophetic Perspective

By Adesoji Fasanya

Image from pastorvlad.org

The year was 2008 and my interest in reading had been quickened early in the year, so here was I in the eleventh month reading through “Understanding Divine Direction” by Bishop David Oyedepo. I got to a point where the sub-heading says “Singing in the Spirit”. Completely oblivious but curious, I went to the church and I saw Pastor Ajibike who explained in detail. He asked, “Are you baptized in the Holy Ghost?” I answered in the negative, he then laid hands on me, and prayed for me but I didn’t speak the divine language. He encouraged me to go back and pray (this event happened around 6 pm). I knelt by my bunk and I prayed wholeheartedly and like a gush, I released tongues.

The ecstasy was beyond description, it was as though a child had found his best gift (even this description is short in explaining how I felt). However, I had not yet been immersed in the water of baptism (maybe by sprinkling that was customary with orthodox churches). The next month, I joined others from the church to get baptized in the river, a few distances from the church (we were yet to have a baptismal pool in the church at the time). It was an honor to have been baptized by Pastor Oluyinka Ojo at the time.

Why did I begin this article with a narration? I wanted the reader to understand that a formula of; get born again, followed by water baptism and then holy ghost baptism isn’t standard. An example is seen with Cornelius and his household in Acts 10. However, this article is not written to make a case for the formula or not, neither is it to address the use of a river or a pool (I would that the absence of neither should not necessitate the use of dirty and unhygienic water) but it is to rediscover Petrine theology as enshrined in the third chapter of his first epistle to the believers (1 Peter 3:21). This discovery is largely a prophetic perspective to water baptism and it will show the importance of being water baptized by immersion.

So, let’s begin!

1 Peter 3:18–21 (ESV)

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

Side Note: I prefer the ESV because of the scholarly input and it uses functional equivalence (Daniel B Wallace).

From the above scripture, we see Peter describe the sacrifice of Christ and his “proclamation to the spirits in prison”.

1. Kerusso

This “proclamation” is from the word “kerusso” which means to herald. The use of “kerusso” in the Second Temple Jewish period is far from just preaching as we would understand it today. The Septuagint (LXX) uses the word in association with victory. It is as though a general or king, while returning from war with spoils, someone goes ahead of him and heralds his victory. This is how Josephus used it;

“Now, when he had pitched his camp on the west side of the city, the guards that were there shot their arrows and threw javelins at them, while others ran out in companies, and attacked those in the forefront; but Herod commanded a proclamation [kerusso] to be made at the wall, that he was come for the good of the people and the preservation of the city, without any design to be revenged on his open enemies, but to grant amnesty to them, though they had been the most obstinate against him.” (Josephus, Jewish Wars 1:295).

Philo writes…

“Do you not see how they are utterly unaffected by the prizes proposed to them? They are fat, they are stout, they are sleek, they breathe hard; then they take up actions of impiety, miserable and wretched men that they are, seeking a melancholy reward, being proclaimed [kerusso] and crowned as conquerors by ungodliness. For by reason of the prosperity which was constantly flowing gently towards them, they looked upon themselves as silver or golden gods, after the fashion of adulterated money, forgetting the real and true coinage.” (Philo, Congr. 159)

The usage of the word is clear to be war and victory-oriented. This is why we must reward Peter’s view as a conquest of Jesus of some sort. The readers of his epistles didn’t think otherwise, as they were familiar with the ‘kerusso’ indicating conquest. (It is how ‘breakfast’ is associated with ‘heartbreak’ as a parlance of this decade). The next question then is; who were the enemies that Jesus vanquished?

2. Spirits in prison.

Peter introduced these foes as “spirits in prison”, which is very much clear that their imprisonment is traceable back to the days of Noah. The deluge in those days may be thought by us as just some water that destroyed the known world but in the mind of Peter (and early apostles), the water brought judgment on these “spirits” and also worked as a deliverance of 8 persons who were in the ark.

The 8 persons’ identity is not strange (they are Noah’s family) but the identity of these spirits might remain unclear to many (but it will soon be clear).

Against this backdrop, Peter wrote; “Baptism, which corresponds to this (the above thought on the deliverance of Noah and his family), now saves you…”

It goes to show that the context of ‘salvation’ cannot be ‘justification’ but deliverance. We know the word, ‘salvation’ is all-encompassing but in this context, it does not mean justification in soteriology terms but deliverance from some “spirits” whose identity we are about to unravel.

3. Who are these ‘Spirits’?

These spirits could not have been human spirits (whether dead or alive), this is because

a. ‘pneuma’, (Greek for the word spirit) is frequently used to refer to nonhuman spirits, whether angels or evil spirits (Matthew 12:43, Mark 1:23; 7:25, Luke 8:29; 9:42, Hebrews 12:9, Revelations 18:2). It is also used to refer to animating breath of a human being (Matthew 27:50, Acts 7:59). In Matthew 14:26, it is used for the disembodied human spirit.

b. Prison which is from the word ‘phylake’ is never used in association with disobedient human souls. Dalton in his writing, ‘Christ’s Proclamation to the Spirits’ notes “phylake is used in the New Testament for the prison in which Satan is chained. It is important to note that in both 1 & 2 Enochs (Pseudepigraphal books), the fallen angels are described expressly as being ‘in prisons’ or in equivalent terms. In 1 Enoch 14:5; 18:14, they are condemned by God to prison as they await their final judgment”.

Contemporary readers of Peter’s epistle wouldn’t have thought otherwise. The reference to the spirits in prisons was decisive. Another person who agrees with this assessment is Ramsey Michaels in his Word Biblical Commentary, Vol 49.

Now that we’ve ascertained the identity of these spirits to be fallen angels of Genesis 6 that preluded the deluge or Noah’s Flood, we can see Peter’s theology. He was comparing water baptism to Noah’s flood — Noah and his family had faith and God responded to their faithful obedience by sending the flood, water baptism ‘corresponds’, in that the believer responds by faithful obedience through water baptism. And just as by the flood, Noah and his family were delivered from the fallen angels who tormented the world at the time, water baptism saves (or delivers) from such demonic influences. This is why early baptismal formulas included a renunciation of Satan and his angels (Tertullian, 1985).

In addition, Peter was using typology in 1 Peter 3. In the Enochian gospel, the fallen angels (or Watchers as used by the author) after their judgment, appealed and asked Enoch (the biblical prophet who never died) to intercede for them (1 Enoch 6:4). God rejected the appeal and it was Enoch who went down to their prison to declare the bad news (1 Enoch 13:1–3; 14:4–5). This belief was held by many Second Temple Jews, most of whom had now converted to Christ but their framework of thought was still with them. Peter began to retell these events in the light of Jesus Christ as the one who went down to hell to deliver the news of their doom and tell of his victory over them. Just like in Paul’s theology, Jesus was the second Adam; in Peter’s thought, Jesus was the second Enoch who never died and the true conqueror of fallen angels.

Against that backdrop, Peter says; that water baptism is an appeal to God for a good conscience. The word ‘appeal’ (eperotema in Greek) is best understood as a ‘pledge’ while ‘conscience’ (suneidesis) in context and other Greek literature, does not refer to the inner voice of what is right and wrong but refers to the disposition of one’s loyalties (William et al., 2000).

So, while water baptism does not produce salvation (relating to justification), it corresponds to being delivered from demonic forces and it is a pledge to God that our loyalties lie with him and not with malevolent, anti-Christ forces present in the universe. While we are not justified by water baptism, it is an expression of oath or allegiance to Christ and this oath shields us from the harrowing influences of demonic forces. This public allegiance is of necessity because by it we renounce willful and unwilful association with anti-Christ forces.

In conclusion, early believers would often reply to the question of ‘Is water baptism necessary?’ with these words; “with water baptism; the issue is not on whether it is done or not but despising it”. This is because, in despising water baptism, you despise your oath and allegiance to Christ, our Savior.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Christ’s Proclamation to the Spirits by Dalton

Daniel B Wallace on “Pope Francis, The Lord’s Prayer, and Bible Translations”. https://danielbwallace.com/tag/functional-equivalence

On the Crown 3 by Tertullian (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1985)

William F. Arndt, F.W. Gingrich, Frederick W. Danker and Walter Bauer, A Greek-Englich Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000).

Word Biblical Commentary Vol 4 by J Ramsey Michaels; Dallas: Word, Incorporated (1998).

Flavius Josephus, Jewish Wars Book 1:295

Philo, De congressu 159

Reversing Hermon by Michael Heiser (2017)