“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” ([Matthew xxviii, 19]).
The apostles did not baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, but in the name of Christ alone.
“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ” ([Acts ii, 38]).
“They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus” ([viii, 16]).
“He commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord” ([x, 48]).
“They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus” ([xix, 5]).
Concerning this Greg says: “That this definite form of baptism proceeded from Jesus, is opposed by the fact that such an allocation of the Father, Son, and Spirit, does not elsewhere appear, except as a form of salutation in the epistles; while as a definite form of baptism it is nowhere met with throughout the New Testament. Moreover, it was not the form used, and could scarcely, therefore, have been the form commanded; for in the apostolic epistles, and even in the Acts, the form always is ‘baptizing into Christ Jesus,’ or, ‘into the name of the Lord Jesus’” (Creed of Christendom, p. 191).
This ecclesiastical formula was not adopted by the church until late in the second century, and then, not for baptism, but for admission into the church. In regard to this the Rev. Dr. Hooykaas says: “Baptism into the name of God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit, means baptism into the confession of or faith in these three, and is a short epitome of Christian doctrine of which Jesus certainly never dreamed; nay, it is obvious from all accounts that, even in the apostolic age, it was as yet quite unknown; and the still later age which drew up the words by no means intended them as a baptismal formula, but rather as a statement of the conditions of admission into the community. In making the utterance of these words, instead of the imposition of these conditions, the first act of admission into the community of Christ, the Church has confounded words with things” (Bible for Learners, vol. iii, pp. 472, 473).