Confirmation

      I had forgotten: in my early teens that I attended and become a member of the Methodist Church. To become a member, I was required to be baptized and confirmed after catechism. I do not remember ever professing Jesus Christ as my savior! However, I do remember that the minister announced to my surprise that I was a member in good standing. I also remember people asking me, Where are your parents on this special occasion? I also remember my confused look as I thought, What is so special and why should my parents be here? I had become a "Christian" and failed to even know it nor understand how! I was deceived by some innocent but deceptive doctrine.
      No one had ever asked me, Have you been born again, or even the inaccurate, are you saved? It seems that I remember that I volunteered to be baptized, and if I was only baptized without being born again, I was nothing more than a damp sinner as my baptism was by aspersion - sprinkling.
     Not to be outdone, my Baptist Church years later immersed me in Baptism without ever asking if I was born again. I was but not to their knowledge. As I discussed yesterday on the subject of church ritual, both my baptisms had been done ritualistic, although Baptists pride themselves in being without ritual.
     Certainly if I failed to even know that I was born again, I would need some type of confirmation. However, the confirmation would be meaningless since I wasn't born again at all!
     I was recently talking with a nice Roman Catholic friend, and asked her if she had been born again. She responded that she had been baptized as a child. I tried to be nice, and told her that was much like an exorcism because of original sin. She answered, "And that's why I was later confirmed." As the Methodist confirmed me something that I was not, my thoughts were that her confirmation confirmed nothing, albeit her countenance is very Christlike. Surely, she had been born again despite her church's doctrine because she was different than most Catholics that I know.
     Many people become Christians despite false teaching and bad doctrine. Nothing anyone else can do, or even yourself, can confirm anyone's regeneration (born again). All that anyone can do is answer God's calling: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Rom 8:28), and God does the rest. Someone anointing and laying on hands does not change anything, if it's not there before!
     Confirmation is, for some, a sacrament, and others an ordinance. The difference being that a sacrament imparts divine grace whereas an ordinance is decreed, thus is obedience. Confirmation as a sacrament is the bishop imbuing the candidate with the Holy Spirit through the use of prayer, oil, and the laying on of hands. In other words, whatever had been done was not efficacious as far as regeneration because Catholic doctrine does not, according to my resources, include the necessity to be born again.
     Jesus said, "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again" (John 3:7). The only "must be" in the New Testament is a not necessary, it seems, in Roman Catholicism. Hence, confirmation is meaningless unless someone has already been born again.
     The ritual of confirmation seems to be much like Simonism:

But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one... Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. (Acts 8:9-19).

     Those passages need some explaining: Those disciples who had been baptized previously in Jesus's name had only the baptism of John for the remission of sins. They were baptized before Jesus had died, thus their baptism was not efficacious because they had yet to realize the significance of Jesus's purpose - to die for mankind. It is imperative, it seems to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (Mat 28:19), not that using those very words are necessary, but knowing that it was God who died on the cross. Jesus needed to give up the ghost (Mark 15:37) before baptism with the Holy Ghost was efficacious. Those receiving the Holy Ghost were not re-baptized, so the laying on of hands by the apostles, in actuality, was when those people were born again. Of course, it wasn't the apostles who regenerated them, but the Holy Ghost himself.
     If the laying on of hands had been merely a confirmation, it would have confirmed only that they had been baptized, not regenerated. The fact that the Holy Ghost came on them, was validation that they had just been regenerated. Therefore, the receiving of the Holy Ghost was more than a ritual but completion: they had obeyed God's decree to be baptized before Jesus even died. They believed John who foretold of Jesus. Their spiritual condition was similar to Abraham's because that took great faith!
     What went wrong then? Simon the Sorcerer thought that the laying on of hands was what caused the reception of the Holy Spirit. He thought the power lied in the people and their hands. He missed the point of  it all! Simon was baptized because he believed, but he failed to get it: It's not people who bestow the Holy Ghost but God. The apostles had only been there for the occasion as the people had failed to realize the ineffectiveness of John's Baptism because Jesus had yet to die. They could not have been baptized in the name of the Holy Ghost because Jesus had yet to give up the Ghost!
     If you will remember, when John baptized, the Holy Spirit remained only on Jesus (John 1:33). Then at his death, Jesus gave up the Ghost so that others may receive him. The laying on of hands completed John's baptism and making that baptism according to the Doctrine of Christ. We don't need John's baptism any longer because Jesus has already given up the Ghost.
     Nicodemus was surely enlightened (John 3) as to the importance of regeneration. Shortly, the disciples, likely including Nicodemus, went to Judaea and were baptized by Jesus (John 3:23) which obviously required "much water." Nicodemus surely received the Baptism of Jesus, since Jesus is God and already had the Holy Spirit. Jesus's baptism imbued with the Holy Spirit although John's did not. Those Christians in the Book of Acts were then obtaining what Nicodemus and the other disciples had obtained. After Jesus's death, the Holy Ghost of Jesus replaced Jesus, and those who were baptized after his death received the Holy Ghost. However, because it was not a re-baptism which those who had been baptized by John required, it is not baptism which provides the Holy Ghost; it is trusting Jesus for salvation.
    We see many times where Jesus said, saved by faith. It is not the ordinance of baptism which saves but the condition of a regenerated heart - one circumcised from the things of the world (Rom 2:29). Regeneration is a return to mankind's original state - a re-genesis. That happens when someone is born again, not when baptized. Again, thinking that the laying on of hands imbues the Holy Ghost is Simonism! That's what confirmation amounts to.
     Do note that those who had been faithful, already regenerated, did receive the Holy Ghost. It took personal belief and trust to receive God's Spirit. Because, Jesus has already given up the Ghost, what was missing from those disciples is not missing from Nicodemus nor us. Regenerated Christians don't need confirmation because we have the assurance of salvation. That will be tomorrow's topic.