ACTS 22

16 And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.

And how is this One Yahweh-Name apostolically and Scripturally invoked? Answer: In the way illustrated by Paul in his own person (Acts 22:16): by the believing sinner, in obedience to the command of the Spirit, being immersed into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit-the One Name of Deity-manifestation-the Eternal Father manifested through the Flesh Veil by Holy Spirit-the Christship of Deity.

Bro Thomas - The Ambassador of the Coming Age April, 1869

... there is a precise and definite point of time at which a sinner's disposition and faith are granted to him for a change of mind or heart, and for remission; and this is in the act of obedience. Ananias said to Saul "Arise, be baptized and wash away thy sins, attaching thyself* to the name of the Lord" (Acts xxii. 16). In the act of doing this, in rising from the water, Saul's state of heart was granted to him for repentance, and his belief of the truth was counted to him for remission of sins -- both in the act which effected his attachment to the name.

[* epikalesamenos, calling upon, invoking the name; and hence attaching oneself to the name].

Eureka - The Name

Ought a Person Being Immersed to Orally "Call on the Name of the Lord?"

Jesus is the only

"name given among men whereby we must be saved."-(Acts 4:12.)

How do we enter into this name? Not by cabalistic invocation, but by an act prescribed:

"As many of you as have been baptized into (the name of) Christ, have put on Christ."-(Gal. 3:27.)

For a believer to be immersed is for that believer to call upon (or take upon himself) the name of the Lord. This truly involves a prior "confession with the mouth;" that is to say, the subject before immersion must have acknowledged the truth of Christ, by word of mouth, or (if dumb or absent) by writing or other sign.

But there is nothing in the Scriptures to require this confession to be made ritualistically, as a part of the ceremony of immersion. In all the cases recorded, the subjects are represented as passive in the hands of the operator, which a dead man ought to be.

In no case does anything in the shape of a speech, or even utterance appear, except in the case of Christ, and that was in the way of natural reply to John's scruples about immersing the sinless one.

In the case of Philip (Acts 8:37), the statement was part of the preceding conversation, and not of the ceremony. The direction to the apostles was to "baptize into" (ets) the name of the Lord."

Baptism is the door of entrance. Submission here is "calling on the name of the Lord." Action is better than speech. The custom among the ecclesias is to ask the individual if he believe in the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ," to which an affirmative "Yes," constitutes that "confession of the mouth" required.

The Christadelphian, Dec 1870