Water baptism

The following incident, which happened to brother Luigi Francescon (1866-1964), confirms that all those who have believed in the Gospel must undergo water baptism.

In December 1891, while brother Luigi Francescon was in the United States of America (where he had emigrated in 1890), he was born again. He became a member of the Italian Presbyterian Church at Chicago, which did not administer baptism by immersion. In that Church, Luigi Francescon was first ordained deacon, then elder and secretary of the Community to collaborate with pastor Filippo Grilli, who had been sent from Italy by the Evangelization Committee of the Waldensian Church.

At the beginning of 1894, while Luigi Francescon was in his room meditating upon the following verse written in the epistle of Paul to the Colossians “…… buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead” (Colossians 2:12 – NKJV), he heard a voice saying to him clearly: ‘You have not obeyed this commandment of mine!’ The voice said to him those words twice.

He went to the pastor and the other believers to tell them that experience but all of them opposed his words.

However, God opened brother Luigi’s mind that he might understand that he had to be baptized by immersion. So several years later, he was baptized by immersion in obedience to what the Scripture says, which the divine voice had confirmed to him. He underwent water baptism in 1903: Luigi Francescon was baptized in a lake. After his baptism, he resigned his office of elder and left the Presbyterian Church

Informations taken from Cristiani Oggi [Christians Today], 1988, Roma, Italy, n° 23, pages 2-4

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