NAME

The Greek term onoma takes on a very important place in the N.T. (a) Sometimes, by a figure known a metonymy, the name stands for the person himself. To trust in the Lord's name is to trust the Lord (Mt. 12:21). When one blasphemes God's name (Rev. 13:6), he has blasphemed God. (b) The term "name" is employed to stress the concept of authority. When a man cast out demons in Jesus' name, he was doing that act by the Lord's authority. To be immersed "in the name of Jesus Christ" (Acts 2:38) is to be immersed by Jesus' authority. Note also that, according to this passage, a baptism "for the remission of sins" is the only baptism authorized by the Savior. One is not to teach or practice anything in religion that is not authorized (either generically or specifically) by the authority of Christ (Col. 3:17). (c) Whenever the term "name" is used with the Greek preposition eis, i.e., "into the name," the sense is to become the possession of or to come into fellowship with the object of that name (1 Cor. 1:13, 15). Accordingly, when one is "baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the of the Holy Spirit" (Mt. 28:19), he becomes the possession of the Godhead and enters into full fellowship with the sacred three. There is no specific name (or names) that must be invoked audibly at the time of one's immersion. To use the expression "in the name of" describes what is being done, not what is being said.