46: Baptism: Calling On His Name

What does it mean to “call on His name,” and what does it have to do with baptism? In Acts 22:16, Ananias tells Saul to “be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on His name.” But is this about saying a prayer, or is something deeper happening?

In this episode, we explore how Peter connects baptism with an appeal to God for a good conscience (1 Peter 3:21) and what this means for salvation. We’ll also dive into the translation challenges of the Greek word eperotema and how different Bible versions shape our understanding of baptism.

Is baptism the true sinner’s prayer? Join us as we examine Scripture, challenge assumptions, and uncover the powerful role of baptism in responding to the gospel.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to the Ready for Eternity
podcast, a podcast and blog dedicated to
inquisitive Bible students exploring
biblical truths that might not be fully
explored in typical
sermons or Bible studies.

(00:20):
My name is Eddie Lawrence.
Ananias told Saul, "Rise and be baptized
and wash away your sins, calling on His
name." What does it mean to call on God's
name? That's what we're going to be
talking about in this episode.

(00:44):
When Ananias said to Saul, "And now why
do you wait? Rise and be baptized and
wash away your sins, calling on His
name." Acts 22, 16. What did he mean by
calling on his name, and what does that
have to do with baptism?
Does this mean that during baptism we're

(01:07):
to call out to God in prayer?
Peter had something similar to say.
Baptism, which corresponds to this, now
saves you not as a removal of dirt from
the body, but as an appeal to God for a
good conscience through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 3, 21.

(01:32):
So Peter is talking about appealing to
God, and he links it with baptism, and he
says specifically that immersion is
involved in our salvation.
As the King James puts it, "Baptism doth
also now save us." We can be sure that
Peter is talking about an immersion in

(01:54):
actual water because he makes it clear
that this isn't a bath to
remove dirt from our body.
Instead, he says it's a request or an
appeal to God for a good conscience.
This is calling on His name.
The English word "appeal" in this verse

(02:15):
translates the Greek word "eperotema."
Bdag, which is one of the most respected
Greek dictionaries, defines this word as
a formal request or an appeal. Likewise,
Thayer's lexicon says
"eperotema" means a demand.

(02:36):
Translators most often render this word
in 1 Peter 3, 21 as appeal, but it can
also be translated as demand or request.
Some popular Bible translations also use
the words "pledge," "answer,"
"interrogation," and "question." Out of

(02:57):
these four options, translators most
frequently choose the word "pledge." The
doctrinal implication is that baptism is
a pledge we make to God to keep our
conscience clear now that He saved us.
The assumption here is that salvation
goes before baptism.

(03:19):
So here's the question. Is "pledge" the
correct word to use in
our English translations?
The New Testament employs the word
"eperotema" only once
here in 1 Peter 3, 21.
Therefore, translators struggle with its
definition because they can't see it used

(03:40):
in context anywhere
else in the New Testament.
The scholarly debate about how best to
translate "eperotema" is both complex and
full of technical, mathematical
considerations which can be very nuanced.
This has left the translation of this

(04:01):
word somewhat open to interpretation.
Now this can be problematic because each
translator must wrestle with their own
doctrinal convictions and biases when
translating this word.
John Walton made a
very astute observation.
We must never forget that translation is

(04:21):
the most basic act of interpretation.
One cannot convey words meaningfully from
a source language to a target language
without first determining what they think
the text means to say.
Word choices matter. How translators
render "eperotema" affects our
conclusions about the passage.

(04:43):
Let's see how the various translation
committees chose to interpret this word.
As I'm recording this, I'm looking at a
table that shows how English-language
Bibles have translated this Greek word.
If you happen to be playing this
recording on a video platform like
YouTube or Let's Church or Rumble, etc.,

(05:06):
look up at your screen.
I've got the chart displayed.
If you're listening to this on an
audio-only platform, you're at a little
bit of a disadvantage, but you can go to
my blog and see the chart there. Let me
see if I can describe it for those who
are only listening and not watching.
There are three columns in this table.

(05:29):
The left column shows which English word
the various translation committees have
chosen to translate this Greek word. The
middle column is the translation, which
would be like King James, New King James,
New American Standard, etc.
The right column shows the count of how

(05:50):
many English translations chose a
particular English word to
translate this Greek word.
Big picture, this table is showing how 67
different English Bible translations
chose to translate this Greek word.

(06:12):
Some translations, including the King
James and New King James,
chose the words answer or response.
The American Standard version and Young's
Literal Translation were the only two
translations that chose the words
interrogation or question.
A number of translations used either the

(06:33):
words appeal, ask, request, or demand.
Those would include versions such as the
New American Standard, the New Revised
Standard, the English
Standard Version, and so on.
That represents 25
different translations.
And then finally we have 13 translations

(06:54):
whose committees chose
the words pledge or promise.
And a few of those would be the Christian
Standard Bible, the Holman Christian
Standard Bible, and the NIV.
As you can see, or not see, depending on
how you're listening, the weight of

(07:15):
scholarship is definitely not in favor of
translating using the
words pledge or promise.
The translation committees of 25 Bible
translations chose the words appeal or
request specifically.
So while there are 13 different

(07:35):
translations that think pledge or promise
is the best word to use, there were 36
translation committees who disagreed.
Considering how the various translation
teams rendered the word, and keeping in
mind how B. Dagg and Thayer defined the
word, it seems that

(07:56):
appeal is the better choice.
The words request or appeal also
dovetails with Ananias's linking of
baptism and calling on his name.
Peter furthers our
understanding of the role of baptism.
Paul in his writings compares immersion
to death, burial, and resurrection

(08:18):
(Romans 6), but Peter adds another
dimension by saying that baptism is an
appeal or a request to God. Peter says
that baptism is a request or appeal to
God for a good conscience. Like Ananias

(08:39):
in Acts 22, verse 16, Peter is
communicating that it is during baptism
that the Holy Spirit
washes away our sins.
Peter also emphasizes the effect of
having our sins washed away.
He says it results in a good conscience.
Our conscience can only be clear if we

(09:02):
know we've been forgiven.
A similar thought is expressed by the
author of Hebrews. Let us draw near to
God with a sincere heart and with the
full assurance that faith brings, having
our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a
guilty conscience, and having our bodies
washed with pure water. Hebrews 10.22.

(09:25):
Peter and the Hebrew writer both affirm
that cleansing
produces a clear conscience.
They both connect immersion with the
cleansing work that the Holy Spirit is
doing upon our hearts.
The visible washing, baptism, reflects
what the Holy Spirit is doing

(09:47):
within us at the same moment.
Baptism ties a bow on our conversion.
Baptism is our formal request to God to
do for us what He has promised.
In the act of immersion, we are
responding to the Gospel call.

(10:08):
You see, baptism is the sinner's prayer.
Baptism is how we call on His name.
Consider this.
In the normal case, until we are baptized
in water, we have not appealed to God for

(10:29):
a good conscience. We haven't asked Him
to forgive us, according to 1 Peter 3.21.
Until we are immersed in water, we have
not called on His name.
Until we have been baptized, we have not
been set free from sin,
according to Romans 6.7.
Until our immersion, we have

(10:50):
not received the Holy Spirit.
Until we are baptized, we have not put on
Christ. (Galatians 3.27) Until our
immersion in water, we have not been
united with Christ. (Romans 6.5) Until we
are baptized in water, we have not had

(11:12):
our hearts circumcised by the Holy
Spirit.
(Romans 2.29 And Colossians 2.11-12)
Until we are baptized, we have not been
born again. (John 3.3-8) And until we
have been immersed, we have not been

(11:32):
added to the church. (Acts 2.41) Now you
may have noticed that I said, "In the
normal case, we have not done these
things until we've been immersed."
I say in the normal case, because God
sometimes makes exceptions.

(11:53):
We'll talk about those
exceptions in the next episode.
Thanks for listening to the podcast. We
hope this episode has deepened your
understanding of Scripture. If you found
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studies, visit our website at
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(12:16):
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