The One Baptism is Not Oneness Baptism

The ruins of Ephesus

In Ephesians 4:4-5, Paul tells us, "There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." Oneness Pentecostals appeal to these two verses to support several of their manmade doctrines, but they do so only by begging the question. It is only if one presupposes their doctrines that one can see them in this passage.

Their error in particular that I want address here is "one baptism," which, the Oneness claim, means that all valid baptisms must be done in the way they claim is seen in Acts, that is, in Jesus's name only. I have dealt with the phrase from Acts here. In this post, however, I want to address their claim that the phrase "one baptism" is intended to refer to the words said at baptisms.

In I Corinthians 1:10-17, Paul describes divisions in the church at Corinth. Apparently, members were claiming privilege based on the status of the person who baptized them. Paul rebukes such nonsense in verses 13-17: "Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power." Regardless of whose hands splashed the water, it is only by the baptism authorized by Jesus.

That is the point that Paul continues to stress in Ephesians. There is no baptism of Paul or of Apollos, but only of Jesus. There is only one kind of baptism. And, while it is the baptism authorized by Jesus, as is seen in Acts, it is into the triune God of Matthew 28:19-20. It cannot be a source of pride, because it is the same and only baptism that all Christians receive.