The Trinity in the Book of Mormon

3 Nephi 11:22-23,26-27 [Book of Mormon]
“And again the Lord called others, and said unto them likewise: and he gave unto them power to baptize. And he said unto them: on this wise shall ye baptize; and there shall be no disputations among you. Verily I say unto you, that whoso repenteth of his sins through your words, and desireth to be baptized in my name, on this wise shall ye baptize them—behold, ye shall do down and stand in the water, and in my name shall ye baptize them. …
And then shall ye immerse them in the water, and come forth again out of the water. And after this manner shall ye baptize in my name; for behold, verily I say unto you, that the Father, and the Son and the Holy Ghost are one; and I am in the Father , and the Father in me, and the Father and I are one.”
Well there are two mixed issues here, necessarily so though because they are related in that the Trinity, the triune God is revealed in Baptism, first in the Baptism of Christ (Matt. 3, Mark 1, Luke,3. And John 1) and then in Jesus command to baptize all nations in the name of the Triune God who revealed himself in 3 persons at Christ’s Baptism.
But what is peculiar is the in depth and detailed instructions on how to baptize found in this eleventh chapter of Nephi, that necessarily contradict the clear instructions of Christ in Matthew 28 and elsewhere. Here they make Jesus Christ out to be a Baptist, and clearing up a dispute that does not appear in the western church for 15 hundred years, and doesn’t really rear its ugliest head until about the time these plates were supposedly discovered. Baptists are for the most part and American phenomenon, and they are the innovators in this as infants were baptized since the days of the apostles, indeed since Pentecost in chapter 2 of Acts, (Acts 2:38-39 “and for your children”). So it is quit peculiar that here he should require one to be able to stand, and speak to be baptized. And then he also requires immersion, where the Baptist argument despite the clear words of mark chapter 7 always like to maintain that Baptism actually means to immerse, when in fact it is used interchangeably with other words meaning wash throughout the New Testament, and is even translated “wash” in Luke 11:38.
See this is the problem I have with Baptist and American Evangelical missions with Mormons, too often it comes off as a squabble between kissing cousins. Most Baptists can’t seem to articulate the trinity any better or differently than the Mormons, they appeal to feelings and experience, (even Shawn McCraney, of “The Heart of the Matter” has the tendency to do that a bit too often for my liking, as much as I like most of his show.) and then they get in moral pissing matches to see who can twist God’s law better and bind consciences to things that God has not bound them to in his word. Witness the CD about Joseph Smith they put our a few years ago and mailed to neighborhoods all across Utah a few years ago…. Or read the articles Baptists write in the papers of Utah that harp on drinking but never get around to confessing Christ.
But then there is this language about the trinity here. Jesus Confessing to be God, confessing to be one with the Father, the Father in him, him in the father. Here, whoever wrote this book, is trying to sound Trinitarian, I believe that. Just wish Mormon’s would actually believe that. But no, I imagine today they would just twist this as they always do to mean they are one in purpose rather than essence.
But that is the point of the Great commission as Jesus does actually command baptism. The people are to be baptized into “The name’ of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” “The name” it is more than a signifier in the thought of the Bible, in Jewish thought the name of God was his being, it was his essence, the thought behind the great commission is that the father, Son, and Holy Spirit are 3 distinct persons that share an ontological unity, that is not just one of a unified purpose in the same way a football team is unified in purpose, but they are ontologically one, sharing one essence, there very being as there is only one God. Indeed of necessity there can be no more than one God. Neither can one become God, as God is eternal, which means without beginning and without end.