The Laying On of Hands at Baptism

ONE day several years ago I was conversing with a missionary of the Brethren Church in Kobe, Japan. We were comparing our respective beliefs when suddenly he asked me a simple enough question but one I had never thought of and couldn't answer. "You claim to follow all the practices of the apostolic church," he said; "why, then, don't you practice the laying on of hands at baptism as the New Testament tells us the apostles did?"

-Department of Religion, Pacific Union College at the time this article was written

ONE day several years ago I was conversing with a missionary of the Brethren Church in Kobe, Japan. We were comparing our respective beliefs when suddenly he asked me a simple enough question but one I had never thought of and couldn't answer. "You claim to follow all the practices of the apostolic church," he said; "why, then, don't you practice the laying on of hands at baptism as the New Testament tells us the apostles did?"

In Hebrews 6:2, immediately after referring to "baptism," the writer lists the "laying on of hands" as one of the foundation principles of the early church. Acts 1:5 relates that Jesus, shortly before His ascension, stated to His disciples that John used to baptize with water, but before many days were passed they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit. According to Acts 8:17; 9:17; and 19:6, it seems to have been the clear practice of the early church after Pentecost to associate the laying on of hands with the baptismal service in order to signify the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In fact, the experience recorded in Acts 8: 14-17 seems to imply that Peter and John considered the believers in Samaria to be seriously lacking in their Christian development because they had not taken part in such a service. "Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost."

It is interesting that the Spirit of Prophecy has nothing to say either in support of or contrary to the performance of this rite. Ellen G. White merely records the facts as presented in the Scriptures. However, in commenting upon the experience recorded in Acts 19:6, Mrs. White states:

With deep interest and grateful, wondering joy the brethren listened to Paul's words. By faith they grasped the wonderful truth of Christ's atoning sacrifice and received Him as their Redeemer. They were then baptized in the name of Jesus, and as Paul "laid his hands upon them," they received also the baptism of the Holy Spirit, by which they were enabled to speak the languages o£ other nations, and to prophesy. ... If the followers of Christ were but earnest seekers after wisdom, they would be led into rich fields of truth, as yet wholly unknown to them. He who will give himself fully to God will be guided by the divine hand. . . . There are today many as ignorant of the Holy Spirit's work upon the heart as were those believers in Ephesus; yet no truth is more clearly taught in the word of God.—The Acts of the Apostles, pp. 283, 284.

It is because many Seventh-day Adventist young people with whom I have come in contact in my classroom could easily be described as being "ignorant of the Holy Spirit's work upon the heart" even though they are believers, that I am convinced that a return to the New Testament practice is essential in our church today. Our young people and our converts need to be impressed in a holy and solemn way with the fact that God bestows upon us, as He did upon Christ at His baptism, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Also, in a time when the church is expecting a new outpouring of the Spirit, as at Pentecost, it seems to me that such an emphasis would in a signal way make our people aware of the bestowal of Christ's great and precious gift to the church.

The practice of laying on of hands associated with baptism continued into the time of the development of the Catholic Church as attested to in the patristic writings. However, even as baptism was gradually changed by the church, this rite associated with it gradually changed from its original simple form until it has become the confirmation ceremony of the Roman Catholic and other related communions. Most Protestants have rejected its current form as mere empty ceremonialism, although several Protestant groups, including the Brethren Church, have attempted to reintroduce the significance of the New Testament practice.

Calvin is said to have acknowledged that the custom of praying for converts to be filled with the Spirit was derived from the apostles, and stated in his Commentaries, in the comments on Hebrews 6:2, "Where fore the pure institution at this day ought to be retained, but the superstition ought to be removed."

Acts 8:14-17 seems to indicate a precedent for believers who have already been baptized taking part in a special service of laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Spirit, with remarkable manifestation following. I cannot help wondering whether such a practice instituted in our churches today, in order to bring us fully into line with our own claim that we are following New Testament practice, might not also serve to bring our church not only a new insight into the beauty and significance of the spiritual gifts but also some of the power that we know is to be manifested in a remarkable way among God's people in these last moments of time.


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-Department of Religion, Pacific Union College at the time this article was written

January 1969

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