THE MENNONITE BROTHERHOOD IN RUSSIA (1789 - 1910), P. M. Friesen, 1911

a baptism of the Spirit is absolutely necessary; of this baptism of the Spirit water baptism is an external symbol, a likeness, and serves to attest the need for a baptism of the Spirit which, however, would remain incomprehensible to our minds without some symbol or likeness. And John the Baptist, too, always connects water baptism with the baptism of the spirit when he says: ’I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I .... He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.’ Matthew 3:11. Thus Christ also testified of John’s baptism as belonging together with the baptism of the Spirit: “John baptized you with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit,’ Acts 1:5. And when John had baptized Jesus in the Jordan, He was immediately also baptized from on high with the Holy Spirit by God the Father, an example of the pattern and form of the word ‘baptism,’ the same fashion in which the baptism of the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples of Jesus on the first day of Pentecost of the New Testament, according to Acts 2:1-4. And in accordance with Baptism by Immersion 307 this example all true believers and disciples of Christ must be incorporated into God’s church; only then are they acknowledged by Christ as born-again children of God. 106 3. ‘‘Since it has already been demonstrated on the basis of the teaching of John the apostle, that both baptisms, water and spirit baptism, belong together, since water baptism is a symbol of the baptism of the Spirit, and since the true Christian church has also practiced water baptism in the form of spirit baptism since it was founded, a fact which also accords with John’s language at his baptism, 'I baptize you with 107 water,’ so naturally both must be practiced in one and the same form. This truth, that he, too, although in the Jordan because of circumstances and opportunity, applied water onto the person baptized is plainly evident from John’s words at the baptism, otherwise he would have said, ‘I baptize you in the water!’ Therefore, if we grant the Spirit of Christ a little more room in our hearts than our acquired concepts of nature permit, He testifies clearly in the words of John that he does not move the person baptized, but the water of baptism, which he has conveyed upon the person. And Paul teaches, among other things, in II. Cor. 10:4-6, *. . . take every thought captive to obey Christ.’ And after Christ had consecrated His disciples for apostleship and commissioned them through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, He also instructed them through the Spirit, according to John 16:12-15, to practice water baptism in the same form in which they had received the baptism of the Spirit. This, however, still accorded with the pattern and form of John’s baptism, if we really believe that John practiced what he preached. And this was really in order since the apostles were to go into