#78 The First Apology of Justin - Part 14
By Justin Martyr, from The Ante-Nicene Fathers
Chapter 61 - Christian Baptism
I will also describe how we dedicated ourselves to God when we had been made new through Christ, in case we seem unfair in the explanation we are making.
All who are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and to ask God with fasting for the forgiveness of their past sins, while we pray and fast with them.
Then they are brought by us to where there is water and are reborn in the same way that we ourselves were reborn. For in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Savior Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they receive the washing with water.
Christ also said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." That it is impossible for those who have once been born to enter into their mothers' wombs is obvious to everyone.
How those who have sinned and repent shall escape their sins is declared by the prophet Isaiah, as I wrote above; he speaks thus: "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it."
For this rite we have learned from the apostles this reason: Since at our birth we were born without our own knowledge or choice, by our parents coming together, and were brought up in bad habits and wicked training, in order that we may not remain children of necessity and of ignorance but may become children of choice and knowledge, and may obtain in the water the forgiveness of sins formerly committed.
Over the person who chooses to be born again and has repented of their sins is pronounced the name of God the Father and Lord of the universe. The one who leads the person to be washed to the water calls him or her by this name alone. For no one can utter the name of the inexpressible God; and if anyone dares to say that there is a name, they rave with hopeless madness.
This washing is called illumination, because those who learn these things are illuminated in their understandings. And in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and in the name of the Holy Spirit, who through the prophets foretold all things about Jesus, the person who is illuminated is washed.
Chapter 62 - Its Imitation by Demons
The demons, having heard about this washing proclaimed by the prophet, caused those who enter their temples and are about to approach them with drink offerings and burnt offerings to also sprinkle themselves. They cause them to wash themselves completely as they leave the sacrifice before they enter the shrines where their images are set.
The command given by the priests to those who enter and worship in the temples, that they take off their shoes, the demons gave in imitation of what happened to the prophet Moses mentioned above.
At that time, when Moses was ordered to go down into Egypt and lead out the people of the Israelites who were there, while he was tending the flocks of his mother's uncle in the land of Arabia, our Christ spoke to him from a bush in the appearance of fire and said, "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."
When he had taken off his shoes and come near, he heard that he was to go down into Egypt and lead out the Israelites there. He received mighty power from Christ, who spoke to him in the appearance of fire, and went down and led out the people, having done great and marvelous things. If you wish to know about these, you will learn them accurately from his writings.