Last week’s article considered the importance of baptism and introduced a common statement, “I’ve already been baptized.” It concluded with a look at two things that do not affect the validity of baptism: who performed the baptism, and where it was done. Now let’s begin examining some questions that make a real difference between Biblical baptism and the various baptisms practiced in the religious world.
First, someone might assure us, “I’ve already been baptized – my parents had me baptized as a baby.” This would probably mean water was sprinkled or poured in him. The Greek Orthodox church understands the meaning of the words baptisma (immersion) and baptizo (immerse). Along with other branches of the Orthodox Catholic Church, it actually immerses infants. Most advocates of infant baptism in our area, however, practice “affusion” (sprinkling or pouring).
Biblical baptism is immersion, a burial in water (Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12), which matches perfectly with the New Testament term baptisma (immersion). Perfectly good Greek words were available to the Bible writers for sprinkle (rhantizo) and pour (cheo). Obviously neither sprinkle nor pour means immerse. To say, “I was baptized by sprinkling” would be like saying “I walked to town by swimming.” The two simply are not the same! Neither sprinkling nor pouring is baptism.
Proper subjects for baptism in the New Testament are people who need their sins washed away (Acts 22:16); they are people who believe the gospel of Christ (Mark 16:16), have repented of their sins (Acts 2:38), and have confessed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (Acts 8:37). Infants cannot believe or confess Christ, and they have no sins of which to be forgiven or cleansed. Clearly, infant “baptism” is not the one baptism of Ephesians 4:5).
Joe Slater
More next week . . .
