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Podcast
Water Baptism
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Hi, I'm Dave DeWitt, and today I'd like to talk a bit about the history and significance
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of water baptism. First, a word about the origin of baptism. If you take a course on
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religion at a public university, and no one should ever do that, they'll probably tell
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you Christians adopted baptism from pagan rituals, but early Christians avoided anything
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that even looked like a pagan ritual. If we look into the Old Testament, we find many
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commands for the use of water for purification. The Old Testament believers had regular ceremonial
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washings. For example, the high priest was to wash himself on the Day of Atonement. Washing
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with water was necessary after being cured of a skin disease. After touching a dead person
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or a dead animal, the command for to wash was given 28 times in Leviticus. For a long
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time, many scholars believed that John's baptism, and hence Christian baptism, came from the
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Jewish ritual of baptizing Gentile converts or proselytes into Judaism. The biggest problem
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with that view is the origin of baptism. There's no evidence in that particular view from history
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because the baptism used by the Jews is recorded almost 100 years after Christian baptism. So,
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probably they both got it from John the Baptist. So the question still remains as to where John
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got the idea of baptizing converts. As far as anyone knows, it was invented by John. He may
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have received it as a revelation from God or developed it from the Old Testament washings.
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Nonetheless, the first clear text for water baptism is Mark 1, 4, and 5. Mark wrote,
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quote, John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching the baptism of repentance for the
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forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea was going out to him and all the people of
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Jerusalem and they were being baptized by John in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.
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Therefore, it is reasonable to suppose that John put together the things he knew about Old
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Testament cleansing, then added the message of repentance. There seems to be three uses of water
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baptism in the New Testament. First is John's call to repentance. It seems to also be the same
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reason for baptism that Peter had. On the day of Pentecost, Peter said, repent and each of you be
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baptized in the name of Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Second use of baptism is for identification.
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When Jesus came to John for baptism, it confused John. Jesus was baptized not because he repented.
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Jesus didn't have any change of mind about anything, but he identified with John's ministry.
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After his resurrection, Jesus gave his disciples what we often call the Great Commission.
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Go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing him in the name of the Father,
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Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching him to observe all that I command you and long with you,
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even to the end of the age. It's possible that Jesus was telling the apostles to dip
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or immerse converts in water in the name of each person of the Trinity. In that case,
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there are three commands here, go, baptize, and teach. It's also possible he was telling
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the apostles to dip or immerse their disciples into the teaching of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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Then it would read, as you go, baptize or be baptizing, and that is teach.
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Baptism then would be a metaphor, not an ordinance for the church. But since it seems that the
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apostles practiced baptism of all their converts, we can assume it should be done, whether or not
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it's part of the Great Commission. A third use of baptism was a testimony of faith after
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salvation. This seems to be the view of the apostle Paul. Paul himself was baptized after
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he was saved in Acts 9.18. Luke wrote about this with the Philippian jailer. He says,
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after he brought them out, he said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said,
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believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll be saved, you and your household. And they spoke the
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word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his household. And they took them that very
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hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized. He and all of his
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household. And that's from Acts 16.30-33. Even Peter was willing to baptize Gentile converts
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in Caesarea after they were saved. When Paul encountered the 12 uninformed disciples in
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Ephesus, he asked them, into what then were you baptized? And they said, into John's baptism.
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Paul said, and this is interesting because it's Paul's explanation of John's baptism. Paul said,
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John baptized with the water of repentance, telling people to believe in him who was
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coming after him, that is in Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of
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the Lord Jesus. It's the only instance in the New Testament of re-baptism. The 12 men were
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believers in the Old Testament since. They became believers through John the Baptist
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before the church age began in Acts 2, so they had not yet received the Holy Spirit.
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These men were re-baptized not because they believed their first baptism was illegitimate,
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but because since then the Holy Spirit had come, thus beginning the church age.
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So baptism here seems to be connected to becoming a part of the church, that is the church age.
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At any rate, it is baptism after salvation. So there seem to be three uses of baptism. Number
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one, an indication of repentance, meaning of changing your mind about Jesus. Number two,
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an identification with Jesus and the ministry of the apostles. And number three, as a testimony
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of having placed our faith in Jesus. From the catacomb drawings, we can determine that the
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church developed pouring and sprinkling as a form of baptism. But the issue came to the forefront
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after the Reformation of the 1500s. Luther and Zwingli held to infant baptism as a means of
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faith leading to salvation. At the same time, a group called the Anabaptists, meaning re-baptizers,
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totally rejected the concept of infant baptism held by Luther and Zwingli and the Roman Catholics.
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The Anabaptists re-baptized believers formerly baptized as infants,
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most by the Roman Catholic Church, but only when they were old enough to participate or to
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articulate their faith. They thought that since the infants cannot confess their faith,
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they are not really baptized and they are still in need of salvation by faith.
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The Anabaptists believed that infant baptism can be a cause of people going to hell,
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thinking they're right with God because they were baptized as infants.
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The issue became more significant than those who should be baptized. The real issue was
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how should the church define faith? If an infant can have faith, as Luther believed,
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then faith was disconnected from reason. If, as in the Anabaptists taught, faith was a function
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of understanding, then infants should not be baptized. The Anabaptists were severely persecuted,
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but as the Reformation developed, the Baptists, Mennonites, Amish, Churches of Christ, Pentecostals,
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Charismatics, and most of the independent Bible churches, Bible college, and independent Bible
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seminaries held to a view similar to the Anabaptists concerning believer baptism and infant
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baptism. In the mid-1500s, John Calvin and the covenant theologians saw baptism as a replacement
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for Old Testament circumcision. This would, of course, include infants. In general, the more
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liturgical covenant Amoyal churches, such as the Eastern Orthodox, the Roman Catholics, the
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Protestants, Lutheran, Presbyterians, Reformed, Anglicans, and Episcopal churches believed baptism
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should be done by a clergy of the church or its designated representatives, should include
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infants, may be done by sprinkling, is directly related to a person's salvation, is an essential
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part of becoming a member of their specific church. In general, the more Bible preaching
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dispensational premillennial churches, such as the Baptists, Brethren, Pentecostals, Assemblies of God,
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independent Bible churches, believe that baptism can be done by any believer, should include those
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who can articulate their faith, not infants, should be done by immersion in water, pouring
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is considered possible but not sprinkling, as a testimony of one's faith, not bringing about one's
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salvation, and may or may not involve local church membership. So it seems to me that several
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conclusions can be made about the subject of water baptism. Number one, water baptism is an
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acceptable Christian practice taught by nearly every Christian leader all through the centuries.
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Number two, water baptism must be distinguished from salvation, may be used as an expression of
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our faith, but mechanical acts don't accomplish salvation. Three, the word for baptism, baptizo,
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means to dip or immerse. Four, there is no instance of sprinkling or baptizing children in the Bible,
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for those that make a case for that point, to a family baptism, but there's no indication that
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there were infants. Number five was, water baptism for believers is followed by the example of the
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apostles in the New Testament church, who baptized all believers in Jesus Christ. There's no mention
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of any unbaptized believers in the New Testament church. Now many say, what about the thief on the
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cross? Well, the answer is he was a believer in the Old Testament sense, but he was not part of the
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church, which began 40 days later, as required in Acts 2. Well, thanks for listening. If you're
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interested in a printed copy of this material, it's available on our website relationalconcepts.org.
