TJieodore W. Jennings, Jr. The Meaning of ... - Quarterly Review

his baptism to the experience of Christians. Some members of the
primitive church appear to hold a connection between
Spirit-anointing and ecstatic utterances. Some Scripture passages
make it clear that the gift of the Spirit following baptism is linked to
the historical tradition in Judaism of anointing with aromatic oil. 5
The reception of the "mark" or "seal" of the Holy Spirit following
baptism became an important motif for the congregations influenced
by Paul. The apostle writes in Eph. 1:13: "When you. . .had
believed, [you] marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit."
Thus Fuller thinks:
The connection of the sealing with baptism is therefore
unmistakable. In baptism, as by an instrument, thefaithful receive
the mark of God, the stamp of his eschatological worship?
As the Pentecostal experience came under increasing scrutiny and
finally under ecclesiastical control, the imposition of hands with
prayers for the coming of the Spirit and the use of anointing oil
gained liturgical favor. Toward the end of the century, the writer of
I John indirectly indicates the prominence of chrism:
As for you, the anointing that you received from him abides in you,
and so you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing
teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it
has taught you, abide in him. (I John 2:27)
Biblical evidence indicates that the New Testament Church
probably knew nothing of two separate rites. While there was no
universal sequential uniformity, a unified initiation rite included
some reflection of the two-fold threshold of Jesus' baptism: 1) water
baptism, probably by immersion as indicated by the paschal
language of Paul; 7
and 2) any or all of anointing, sealing, and
laying-on-of-hands with prayers for the gift and power of the Holy
Spirit. Paul wrote instructing the faithful at Corinth to remember the
benefits of this unified rite: "You were washed, you were
sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
and in the Spirit of our God" (I Cor. 6:11).
The integration and then the disintegration of these two in foci in
Christian sacramental liturgy is a fascinating story. The historical
picture is essential for the United Methodist Church to understand
24 QUARTERLY REVIEW/SPRING 1993