Baptism

Bulletin

Dan Peters
01/22/23 - Baptism

Baptism

My heart is sadden for people who are seeking for truthful answers about “baptism” on the internet. Wikipedia’s view of being “all inclusive” for all views on the subject just muddies the water. But we are living in an age when defining what a “woman” is, has become muddy/political.
Bible baptism is submersion, according to the original Greek language. There are 5 different words for pouring, and three different words for sprinkling in the NT. If God wanted us to pour or sprinkle water, he could have used any of those 8 other words. But he didn’t. God chose the word for submersion, plunge, dip, which is our word Baptism.
Baptism is a burial (Romans 6:1-3). We do not sprinkle a few pieces of dirt on a body, and leave the body on the surface. We don’t pour a cup of dirt on a body, and leave it. No, we bury that body underground, so also is baptism a burial. “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:3-4). Baptism is therefore a burial and a rising. Sprinkling or pouring does not cause a burial or a rising. Being submerged in water is a burial, and coming back up out of the water, is “raised” up. “having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” (Col. 2:12). If you were not buried in water and raised up from water, you were not baptized according to the New Testament.
Secondly, no babies were baptized in the New Testament. The households of the NT that were baptized, either “believed” (the Jailor’s, Acts 16:33, Crispus 18:8) or “feared” (Cornelius’ Acts 10:2), or “devoted themselves” (Stephanas’ 1Cor. 16:15) with their whole household. A baby cannot “believe” or “fear” or “devote” itself to minister to the saints. A person always believed before they were baptized into Christ, in the New Testament. Believing gives you the “right” to become a child of God (John 1:12). If you don’t believe, you don’t have that right. That is why you read about people believing before they were baptized. “Acts 18:8 ..and many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized.” Nowhere in the Bible is baptism a “mere” or “just” an outward sign. No. Peter said it was “for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38). Baptism means something to God, primarily. Later in Peter’s life he said, “baptism now saves you” (1Peter 3:21). Babies do not need forgiveness because they have done no wrong. We must go deeper than Wikipedia. Dan Peters