TESTIMONY OF JOHN.
The World:—Your name is John?
John:—It is.
The World:—You told us on a former occasion that you were called of God to go before Christ and prepare His way.
John:—That is correct. You will find it so recorded in John's Gospel. (John 1: 6.)
The World:—What did God command you to preach to the people?
John:—Repentance and water baptism.
The World:—You say that God sent you to baptize with water?
John:—He did. It is recorded in the scriptures: "And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." (John 1: 33.)
The World:—What did you tell the people was the object of water baptism?
John:—I told them that it was for the remission of sins. Mark and Luke bear me witness. The former says: "John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remissions of sins." (Mark 1: 4.) Luke says: "And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." (Luke 3: 3.)
The World:—After what manner did you baptize?
John:—As I was commanded by the Lord—by immersion. I took the repentant believers down to the river Jordan, and there I baptized them by immersing them in the water.
The World:—Then you do not believe in infant sprinkling?
John:—I do not. It is contrary to the teaching of Christ and His Apostles. There was but one form of baptism known to them, that was baptism by immersion for the remission of sins. On one occasion when people applied to me for baptism, I had to take them to Aenon, near to Salim, "because there was much water there." (John 3: 23.) Had I considered sprinkling just as acceptable to God as immersion, I would not have taken the people to Aenon to be baptized.
The World:—You baptized Jesus Christ?
John:—I did.
The World:—When Christ applied to you for baptism what did you say?
John:—I said, "I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?" Then Jesus said to me, "Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." (Matt. 3: 14, 15.)
The World:—You say that Christ requested you to baptize Him in order that He might fulfill all righteousness?
John:—He did. And if the Son of God, being holy, had need to be baptized with water that He might fulfill all righteousness, how much more need have mortal men, they being unholy, to be baptized? According to the words of the Savior a man cannot fulfill all righteousness if he fails to comply with the ordinance of baptism. I told the Pharisees and lawyers that they had rejected the counsel of God against themselves by not being baptized. (Luke 7: 30.) And as it was in those days, so it is today—all those who slight this command of the Lord, and refuse to be baptized by immersion for the remission of their sins, will, like the Pharisees and lawyers, reject the counsel of God against themselves.
The World:—The witness is excused. (To the Latter-day Saints.) When was the method of baptism changed?
Latter-day Saints:—In the third century after Christ, in the case of a man named Novatian. Gahan, a Catholic historian, writing of him, says: "Having embraced the faith, he continued a catechumen, till, falling dangerously ill, and his life being despaired of, he was baptized in bed, not by immersion, which was then the usual method, but by infusion, or pouring on of water."
The World:—Who is your next witness?
Latter-day Saints:—Our next witness is the Jewish ruler Nicodemus.