John G Lake and Archibald Fairley over de wedergeboorte door de drievoudige onderdompeling

In het boek “The Complete Collection of His Life Teachings” van John G. Lake staat dat gesprek vermeld.
John G. Lake (1870 – 1935) en Archibald Fairley (1872 - 1939) hadden in het begin van de 20ste eeuw dat diepe gesprek. 

Dat gesprek over de drievoudige doop en wat de wedergeboorte nu echt is.
Dit gesprek geeft naar onze mening de diepste werkelijkheid en waarheid van de wedergeboorte weer.
Vandaar dat wij het gesprek hier onverkort weergeven.

[De oorspronkelijke tekst staat hieronder in het Engels].

John G. Lake (center) and Campaign Workers

Het begint zo.

Dr. John G. Lake wilde alle mogelijke verlichting door de Geest van God ontvangen over het onderwerp van de drievoudige doop.
Daarom vroeg hij om het voorrecht van een gesprek met de door God gezalfde profeet van de Heer, broeder Archibald Fairley.
Dat gesprek verliep als volgt.

Dr. John G. Lake: “Broeder, de algemene opvatting over het onderwerp van de doop is de éénmalige onderdompeling. 

Toen Jezus zei: "Doop hen in de naam van de Vader, de Zoon en de Heilige Geest", zien mensen niet wat het Grieks werkelijk aangeeft, namelijk dat het een herhaling van onderdompelingen moest zijn.

In plaats daarvan passen ze het eenvoudigweg op een aparte manier toe, alsof Jezus tot een menigte mensen sprak en dat ieder gedoopt moest worden. 

Wilt u mij uw uitleg geven over hoe het Grieks aangeeft dat het een herhaling van onderdompelingen is?”

Archibald Fairly antwoordde als volgt. 

“De Geest van de Heer geeft mij de volgende uitleg hierover. 

Allereerst is het doel van christelijke onderdompeling dat we in deze handeling de dood van onze Heer Jezus Christus binnengaan. 

Zijn drievoudige natuur was een weerspiegeling van de Goddelijke natuur. 

God de Vader, God de Zoon en God de Heilige Geest, die Zijn drievoudige menselijke natuur in bezit nam nadat deze onderworpen was.

Deze onderdompeling in de naam van de Vader, de Zoon en de Heilige Geest was een drievoudige onderdompeling en symboliseert de dood van de natuurlijke geest, de zetel van het Goddelijke bewustzijn; opdat deze de woonplaats van de Vader in Geest zou worden.

Dat wij daarin onze menselijke ziel, de zetel van het zelfbewustzijn, dood achten; opdat deze de zetel van het Christusbewustzijn zou worden.
En dat wij op dezelfde wijze ons lichaam, de zetel van het natuurlijke bewustzijn, dood achten; opdat dit het centrum van het Heilige Geestbewustzijn zou worden, de tempel van de goddelijke Geest. 

Zo werd de Goddelijke natuur geopenbaard in de Godmens, die Zijn menselijke natuur bedekte nadat Hij zich wijdde, de wijding door de onderdompeling in de Jordaan.

Daarom betekent Mattheüs 29:19 dit: hen dopen in de natuur van de Vader, de Zoon en de Heilige Geest. 

De handeling van onderdompeling is de handeling waarbij ik mijn menselijke natuur dood acht, mijn geest dood voor de werking van de menselijke geest en open voor de werking van de goddelijke Geest; en het vlees, mijn ziel, dood voor de werking van het zelfleven en open voor de werking van het Jezusleven; en mijn lichaam werkelijk dood, eerst in geloof en uiteindelijk in feite, voor de kracht van het bloed als bepalende factor voor gezondheid en open voor de kracht van de Heilige Geest in het vlees.

Dus bepaal ik de gezondheid van mijn lichaam niet door het bewijs van gezond bloed, maar door de kracht van de Heilige Geest die in mij werkt zoals Hij in Christus werkte om Hem uit de doden op te wekken en Hem boven alle overheden en machten op de troon bij God te plaatsen”.

Hieronder de oorspronkelijke tekst in het Engels uit het eerder genoemde boek.

Met de toestemming van de uitgever overgenomen. 

Recently I had the great pleasure of visiting with Dr. Kolvoord, the eminent Dutch scholar and authority on technical interpretations of Scripture, a scholar of scholars and teacher of teachers.
Dr. Kolvoord has been a Baptist all his life, practicing single immersion.
My beloved friend and brother in Christ, Archibald Fairley, in discussing with him the subject of baptism in the great commission of Matthew 28:19-20, asked him to analyze the words "baptizing them" from the Greek, saying to him, "I believe you will find, as I have, that the words mean to immerse repeatedly," for the Greek word used is not the word "bapto," to immerse, but "baptizo," to immerse repeatedly.

Dr. Kolvoord examined it in the literal Greek, then in the classical.
At the conclusion he said to Brother Fairley, "I am amazed. You are right."
And Brother Fairley said,
"Now Brother, you have seen the truth. How about it?"
So we rejoice that the illumination of the Holy Ghost makes clear to the spirit many things that the profoundest minds have failed to see and though the unilluminated still continue to practice baptism by single immersion, some even by sprinkling, again we rejoice that God through the Holy Ghost is establishing worldwide, a real kingdom triune baptism into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost — three immersions, constituting one baptism. Amen.

A Conversation
Desiring all possible light on this subject by the Spirit of God, I asked for the privilege of a conversation with the God-anointed prophet of the Lord, Brother Archibald Fairley, which was as follows:
Question
Dr. Lake: Brother, the common understanding of the subject of baptism is single immersion. When Jesus said, "Baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" people fail to see what the Greek really indicates, that it was to be a repetition of immersions. Instead, they simply apply it in a separate manner as though Jesus was speaking to a multitude of people and that each was to be baptized. Won't you let me have your explanation of how the Greek shows that to be a repetition of immersions?

God's Answer Given By The Holy Ghost In The Spirit Of Prophecy
Fairley: The Spirit of the Lord gives me this.
First of all, the purpose of Christian immersion is that in the act we enter into the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
His threefold nature was a reflex of the God-nature. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, taking possession of His threefold human nature after it was subjected.
This immersion into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, was a threefold immersion and typifies the death of the natural spirit, the seat of God-consciousness; that it may become the abode of the Father in Spirit. That in it we reckon our human soul, the seat of self-consciousness, dead; that it may become the seat of Christ-consciousness.
And that we, in like manner, judge our body, the seat of animal-consciousness, dead; that it may become the center of Holy Ghost consciousness, the temple of the divine Spirit.
Thus, the God-nature was revealed in the God-man, covering His human nature after He made consecration, the consecration of the immersion in the Jordan.
Therefore, Matthew 29:19 means this: Baptizing them into the nature of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

The act of immersion is that act whereby I reckon my human nature dead, my spirit dead to the working of the human spirit and open to the working of the divine Spirit; and the flesh, my soul, dead to the working of the self-life and open to the working of the Jesus life; and my body really dead, first in faith and finally in fact, to the power of the blood as the factor that determines health and open to the power of the Holy Ghost in the flesh.
So I determine the health of my body, not by the evidence of healthy blood, but by the power of the Holy Ghost working in me as He worked in the Christ to raise Him from the dead, and set Him above all principalities and powers on the throne with God.
The great fight in the future, and this side of the glory scene, will be for the possession of the body.
Not, I believe that this body will be glorified, but that the flesh will be the scene of conflict.
That the sons of the Most High, who are to take the kingdom, the inner kingdom first, must walk by faith and not by sight.
Must take their stand in His health, not as they feel it, not the evidence of their five senses, but must believe the record of God's Word.
Since they have made a threefold consecration in the way before mentioned, their life is truly hid with Christ in God.

In Christ in God, in the victorious Christ, the man on the throne, in the place of dominion, where the forces of the enemy are under His feet. This is the victory, even our faith. The overcomer must begin to walk by faith and not by sight.
He must reckon upon the life that now is in his Lord, in his head, and not what his five senses bring to him of life or the emotion of life through the blood.

Dr. Lake: Brother Fairley, what causes the differences of opinion and various interpretations of the same Scripture?
Fairley: Every man who interprets Scripture is biased by his size in God, by his experience in the God-life.
Dr. Lake : In my judgment, that is what causes discussion on the subject of triune immersion.
Really, the persons who see only single immersion have not got the size in God, or illumination of the Spirit sufficient to use the depth and power of God's Word to see what God teaches.
Fairley: They believe in the death that occurs in a moment or a day, but not a death that begins now and never ends until the revelation of Christ in the air.
The immersion spoken of in Matthew 28:19 is that act that begins by the subjection of my life to God and ends in my being part of the ruling God in the age to come.
The best figure to use to cover our relationship with the Christ, is the figure of the bride and bridegroom.
The bride has lived her simple, carefree life from babyhood, but from the moment she becomes known to the world by her other name, she professes that she is one in nature with her bridegroom, one in everything in him.
Thus, throughout the New Testament the words, "in the name of," the Holy Ghost speaking to those who desire to be the bride class, really means into the name, or rather, into the nature of the Christ, of God's Anointed, of the man Jesus, who at the Jordan offered Himself unto all the will of God and became the Christ, or God's Anointed.

The bride is the wife of God's Anointed.
Therefore, she is of the anointed class, the offered-up class, the poured-out class.
She enters from the moment of her betrothal, of her offering herself up in a true immersion into the nature of her Lord, sharing His burden, which He now has on the throne for a lost world.
The effect of this sharing His burden is that His nature displaces her nature and bit by bit the passion of His love for man possesses her and her life is poured out for the lost world.

Used With permission
John G. Lake, “The Complete Collection of His Life Teachings” (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1999), 587–590. Used with permission. All rights reserved.