3 Nephi 11:16-28

11:16-28 - All the people went individually to feel the nail marks in Jesus's hands and feet and the spear wound in his side "and when they had all gone forth and had witnessed for themselves, they did cry out with one according, saying: Hosanna! Blessed be the name of the Most High God! And they did fall down at the feet of Jesus, and did worship him." The IM teaches "The word Hosanna is a transliteration of a Hebrew word of supplication which means in essence 'Oh, grant salvation.' Evidently the people were asking the Savior to teach them the way to salvation; thus it is not surprising that he immediately teaches them the basic principles and ordinances of the gospel." That's an interesting insight that is new to me, and it's true, Jesus goes right into giving Nephi "power that ye shall baptize this people when I am again ascended into heaven." This is also interesting because as HN reminds us "we learn in Helaman 14-15 that these people had already been baptized. The church was among them. Anyone who joined the church had to be baptized by Nephi, and they were there. But we're told that they must also repent; they must be spotless, because he's coming back to meet them tomorrow. They have to be washed all over again after they have been baptized. He says, I'm coming back; I'm going to clean you up. If there's anybody sick among you we have to straighten that all up before we begin." In the HN Book of Mormon lecture series that I'm listening to, he goes to Egypt to uncover some sort of artifact or something like that and we have a substitute teacher by the name of John Welch, and while I love HN's insights and overwhelming knowledge, I really like the teaching style of John Welch (JW from now on.) I can't seem to find his lecture transcripts because that would be awesome so I'm just going to have to improvise, but he seems to think that what Jesus does among the Nephites here is a covenant-making ritual. It's really quite interesting actually and makes a lot of sense, though it's way to over my head to really understand most of it. Speaking specifically about the rebaptism of these Nephites in the "Articles of Faith" James E. Talmage taught "The baptism instituted by Christ among the Nephites, was very largely a 're-baptism;' for as we have already seen, the doctrine of baptism had been taught and practiced among the people from the time of Lehi; and surely, Nephi, the first to whom the Savior gave authority to baptize after His departure, had been previously baptized, for he and his co-laborers in the ministry had been most zealous in declaring the necessity of baptism. Yet in this case also, there had probably arisen much impropriety in the manner, and perhaps in the spirit, of administering the ordinance; for the Savior in giving minute direction concerning the form of baptism, reproved them for the spirit of contention and disputation that had previous existed among them regarding the ordinance. Therefore, the baptism of these people was made valid by an authoritative administration after the manner prescribed of God. Incidentally, our attention is arrested by the fact that in these cases of re-baptism among the Nephites, the same ritual was used as in first baptism, and this by explicit instructions of the Lord, coupled with an impressive warning against disputation. Why should the priests in this day seek to alter the form to suit the case of a candidate who has formerly been baptized?" The concept of rebaptism is honestly something I had never heard of until I got to that part of the Articles of Faith book, but it's apparently happened here in this very instance. From what I get, Elder Talmage is saying that because the Lord came out and specifically taught them about how to perform the ordinance in detail, then chastened them for arguing about it previously, we can deduce that perhaps the rebaptism was commanded because it was either previously performed incorrectly or even in the spirit is not done in the way which would make the covenant binding. The Lord is very specific about the words usage, the method, and the purpose, following "I'm going to teach you how to do it," he says "and there shall be no disputations among you," there will be no more fighting about it, just do it this way and this way only. He is exceptionally specific that those who desire to be baptized must "repenteth of his sins through your words, and desireth to be baptized in my name." We must want it and show that we want it by repenting. Then the person with the authority "shall go down and stand in the water, and in my name shall ye baptize them." That's pretty specific. He gives them the exact words "which ye shall say, calling them by name, saying: Having authority given me of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." I'm pretty sure that that's almost exactly how we do it today, it's been a while since I've been to a baptism, but I think that's almost it exactly, maybe a couple of different words, but pretty much the same thing. He says "and then shall ye immerse them in the water, and come forth again out of the water." Baptism by immersion, no other way. Now the purpose, "for behold, verily I say unto you, that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one; and I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and the Father and I are one." This is kind of a confusing verse because it would seem that Jesus has shifted his message from baptism to his personal relationship with the Father, that we've already established in previous text. But HN thinks that that is not the point of Jesus's saying this, he says that Jesus really means that by being baptized "you're going to be one with us and with each other, exactly as we are one. That comes in later. The 14th through 17th chapters of John deal entirely with that- how we can be one, how they are one, etc. This, of course, had been the subject of the greatest of all controversies in the Christian world- how God can be absolutely one, and how he could have a son, and how there can be others and yet be one. There's nothing more 'one' here than Christ the way he appears in the in Book of Mormon, who is the center of everything. But as he says, this is the very thing people argue about. They're going to argue about it, but you're not going to argue about this." We are baptized to become one with God, that's what I think HN is suggesting here. The IM teaches "There appears to have been some contention among the Nephites concerning the manner of baptism. The Lord clarified how the ordinance should be performed. President Boyd K. Packer explained the significance of baptism and cautioned that we should not alter this sacred ordinance: 'Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins if the first ordinance. Baptism must be by immersion, for it is symbolic of bother the coming forth from temporal death, from the grave, and the cleansing required for redemption from spiritual death... Under the plan, baptism is not just for entrance into the Church of Jesus Christ. It begins a spiritual rebirth that may eventually lead back into the presence of God. If we really understood what baptism signifies, we could never consider it trivial nor alter the form of this sacred ordinance... Through the sacrament we renew the covenant.'" I've been thinking about this a lot lately, why the act of being baptized is important. Why not just say "ok yeah, I'm going to follow Jesus," and be done with it? What do we actually have to get wet, make that physical commitment, why can't we just make a mental or spiritual commitment on our own. In the Articles of Faith, Elder Talmage gives an excellent exposition teaching that "The special purpose of baptism is to afford admission to the Church of Christ with remission of sins. What need of more words to prove the worth of this divinely appointed ordinance? What gift could be offered the human race greater than a ready means of obtaining forgiveness for transgression? Justice forbids the granting of universal and unconditional pardon for sins committed, except through obedience to ordained law; but means simple and effecting are provided, whereby the penitent sinner may enter into a covenant with God, sealing that covenant with the sign that commands recognition in heaven, that he will submit himself to the laws of God; thus he places himself within the reach of Mercy, under whose protecting influence he may win eternal life." I love that, it's so very simple and profound. We cannot be universally forgiven, but we can be forgiven if we accept the Savior and come to Him with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Being baptized shows that we are willing to follow him and do our best to keep his commandments, he asks us for an outward sign that we are ready and willing to take that on, and really if you think about it, he could say "crawl on your belly over shards of glass through the desert of Arizona in the summer," and really even that wouldn't be that much to ask to be forgiven of our sins and to be now be subjects to mercy instead of justice, and in comparison, that's nothing compared to what he suffered for us. But he doesn't ask us to do anything like that, he asks us to go down into the water and be dunked for less than 2 seconds, that's really not that big of a deal, that's not even a fraction of effort that we should be expected to do, but Jesus is merciful to us and he loves us, so this is his way.