Defending Scriptural Baptism

I would like us to take a moment and look at scriptural baptism. Why is baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost scriptural and baptizing in Jesus name not.

The first thing I look at is that all three members of the trinity were present and took part of the Lords baptism.

Mat 3:16  And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

Mat 3:17  And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

When we are baptizing someone, we say that they are following the Lord in believers baptism. This would imply that we would include all members of the Trinity in the baptism.

Also, Matthew 28:19 is the only recorded time in the bible where Christ instructs all those who will be administering Christian baptism. This would then be assumed to be the formula by which we are to baptize.

It is here where Christ gives a specific statement on the subject of baptism. There is never an exact account of a baptism in the bible…i.e.(I baptize thee in the name of…) We are just told that they were baptized in Jesus name or in the name of the LORD Jesus Christ. Any time we are given a specific statement and it is followed with a general statement we are to apply the details of the specific.

An example of this being, if I told Makayla to go to her room, pick up her toys, pick up her shoes, and fold her cloths, and then went back 30 minutes later to find that she had not, and I told her “clean your room.” I would still expect her to do each specific task that I had first assigned her.

With this said we know that the bible does not contradict its self so why then would the apostles have written things such as “ in Jesus Name?”

Act 4:7  And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?

We can use this verse to see that when someone did something “in the name of” that they were stating who gave them the authority to do the work.

At this time we know that there were people who were claiming that they were baptizing in the name of Paul or Peter or Luke.

The statement “in Jesus name” when coupled with the fact that we know that the bible doesn’t contradict itself, and that Jesus had just addressed all of those who would be baptizing others to baptize in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, shows us that they were stating by whose authority they were baptizing rather than prescribing a phrase by which we are to baptize.