Baptism

There has been a lot of discussion and disagreement in Christian circles about what baptism is and what it is for and when it is needed.

Let me start with what it is. The dictionary definition is: "a ceremonial immersion in water, or application of water, as an initiatory rite or sacrament of the Christian church." Some churches teach that there is a baptism of the spirit, also. If you look at the ancient Greek, however, the word for baptism, baptisma, actually means to be overwhelmed, or fully immersed in a liquid. Certainly you could be overwhelmed by a spirit, but if you look at Acts chapter 10, Peter gets a chance to use the 'Gentile' key on his keyring, and the Gentiles received the gift of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Peter asked the Messianic Jews that were with him, "Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?" If being baptized in the spirit were the desired outcome, well, they've already been overwhelmed by the Spirit. Personally, I think that God wanted all of these Christian Jews to know that He was ready to accept Gentiles--He had already shown that to Peter, but there were others with him that might have thought that Peter had just lost his mind... The point is, that these men received the Holy Ghost and then got baptized in water. Usually we do it the other way around, but if being baptized in spirit were what Jesus had commanded, then Peter was wasting his time getting these men wet for nothing.

So, talking about water baptism, is it full immersion, partial immersion, or having water applied to the individual? Again, the Ancient Greek word referred to immersion. It has been said that this word was used for many different things. That is true, however, all of them involved immersion. It was used in reference to dying garments (immersing a garment in a liquid dye--not tie-dyeing), or washing (taking a bath, not a shower). Actually there are other words for applying a liquid to something or someone, 'ekcheo' for pouring, and 'rantizo' for sprinkling. One of the objections people have its that Jesus, our perfect example, was baptized in the Jordan river, and, in many places, the Jordan isn't deep enough to immerse a person. That is also true; but, in many places it is deep enough... John 3:23 says that, "And John also was baptizing at Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized." How much water does it take to apply a little bit of water to a person? What if you were going to baptize a lot of people? How much would you need? Well, if all you are doing is applying a few drops to each person, you can 'baptize' a whole lot of people from just a puddle. If you are baptizing by full immersion, then you need to find a part of the Jordan where it is deep, where there is much water--which is what John the Baptist did.

What is it for? The book of Romans has been referred to as 'the book of salvation.' In chapter six, Apostle Paul talks about the necessity of baptism. The act of baptism is symbolic of taking on the death of Christ, allowing us to be born again, and to live a new life in Christ. Jesus said, in Mark 16:16, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned." Some people get hung up on the fact that he didn't say that if you weren't baptized that you would be damned. I can't imagine why anyone who didn't believe would get baptized (unless, of course, their parents took them to church as a baby... but I mean, why would you choose to get baptized if you didn't believe the gospel?); I also don't think anyone who truly believed would refuse to get baptized. Some people say, well, what if you believed, but got hit by a truck before you could get baptized? Well, I don't know what church you grew up in; my church doesn't get much traffic between the altar and the baptismal tank. But, in all seriousness, do you really think that God would ordain a plan of salvation and then not keep those that were legitimately seeking to follow that plan? We could look at it the other way: If you believe that all that is required for salvation is to believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, what if you are out on the street sharing with someone, and they believe in their heart, but, as they open up their mouth to confess Jesus as Lord of their life, a truck jumps the curb and kills them? It seems to me that's considerably more likely to occur than a truck drive through the church and kill someone who is preparing for baptism. Yes, I realize that a lot of churches don't baptize people right away, but those are churches that don't believe that baptism is essential to salvation. After all, if something were absolutely necessary to get to Heaven, you wouldn't put it off until you had fifty people, or only do it once a year. When you understand the necessity of baptism, you do it right away.

There is more to be said about when baptism is to be performed. Referring once again to Mark 16:16, Jesus said, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved..." Which would suggest that belief is a prerequisite for baptism. Some churches baptize infants, some churches won't baptize until the age of accountability (usually reckoned as twelve), some churches will only baptize adults. Going with the idea that belief is a prerequisite for a moment, an infant cannot believe. At what age can someone believe? I think twelve is an arbitrary number. Some kids are quite capable of believing and understanding younger than twelve, some aren't until they are older. It seems to me that if a child wants to get baptized, then they should be (and I don't mean if someone pushes them into getting baptized); if later on in life, they feel that they didn't really understand, then they can be re-baptized. Let's look at this from another angle: Can you get credit (or blame) for something that you did (or that you allowed to be done to you) out of sheer ignorance? Only if the ignorance was willful (as in, I know the Bible has the plan of salvation in it, but I refuse to read it because I don't want to be held responsible--sorry, pal, it doesn't work that way). Does a baby have any understanding at all of its own baptism? Let's be honest about it: baptizing babies is something that it done to make the parents feel better, it has nothing to do with that child's salvation.

There is much more that I could say about baptism, but this has already gotten to be one of my longest posts ever (if not the longest post), so I will stop now, and blog about baptism more in a future post.