What Identifies A Christian As A Baptist?

Noah and his family was saved from the world that was destroyed!

 

The point is that they were saved Physically from the world that was destroyed.

The water had nothing to do with the spiritual salvation.

That is the basis of Peter's example.

 

Let me just go ahead and lay out the difference in the physical baptism and the spiritual baptism.

Physical Baptism

We are standing in a pool of water, river, pond, creek, Church baptistry, it doesn't matter.

We are lowered into the water, immersion in the water, baptized into Christ, buried with Him in baptism by faith.

We are raised out of the water symbolizing the resurrection of Christ, we are born a new creation in Christ with our sins forgiven.

All of this done in the physical representing our union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.

Spiritual Baptism

The exact same thing but the union with Christ is in the spiritual realm the very moment we accept Christ as our Savior. With the physical water baptism being performed as a confession of what has taken place in our hearts and soul. It is our public confession of being a new creation in Christ. Joined with Him spiritually in His death, burial, and resurrection.

 

The three baptisms.
* Water
* With the Holy Spirit.
* The fire unquenchable.

Luke 3:16-17, John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.

 

So now you are judging me by what you think I mean.

If I never said it and then say that I don't believe it, it is not my so-called "stance."

Baptist: "a member or adherent of an evangelical Protestant denomination marked by congregational polity and baptism by immersion of believers only" (Definition of BAPTIST)

Stop the "inferring." You cannot honestly discuss with someone by your "inferrences" about what they think. What is happening is that you are prevaricating about what I believe, not actually interacting honestly with what I do believe.

For the definition of the term "baptize" in Scripture, that it means only immersion:

"βαπτίζω dip, immerse" (Gingrich shorter lexicon).

"strictly dip, immerse in water" (Friberg lexicon).

"properly, to dip repeatedly, to immerge, submerge" (Thayer's Lexicon).

"to dip in or under water" (LS classical Greek lexicon).

 

Glory Hallelujah! Someone finally gets it!

 

The two are the same exact event; the great tribulation/the time of Jacob's trouble.

 

No. They are not the same events.

 

O S A R

 

ASV

No. "It was an act of repentance/profession. The only way for those Jews of 'that generation' to be delivered [saved] from the wrath to come and avoid bringing the curses/plagues of Lev 26/Dt 28 upon themselves and their progeny was to repent and profess Christ as LORD, and water baptism was an integral part of that profession."

 

You think I made that up??

"According to the Baptists immersion, followed by emersion, is the essential thing in the symbolism of baptism. A surrender of this would be equivalent to giving up baptism itself. The real baptismal idea, they say, is expressed in the going down into, and the coming up out of, the water" (Systematic Theology, by L. Berkhof--not a Baptist--p. 628).

"Probably the majority of those who hold to believer's baptism utilized immersion exclusively, however, and are generally identified as Baptists" (Millard Erickson, a Baptist theologian, in Christian theology, 2nd ed., p. 1106).

"The Mode of Baptism. This is immersion, and immersion only. This appears from the following considerations: A. The command to baptize is a command to immerse.--We show this: (a) from the meaning of the original word βαπτίζω [baptizo] . That this is to immerse, appears: First,--from the usage of Greek writers--including the church Fathers, when they do not speak of the Christian rite, and the authors of the Greek version of the Old Testament" (Augustus Strong, a Baptist theologian, in Systematic Theology, p. 933).

"As Baptists, we endeavor to maintain purity of doctrine in the church, and we are dogmatic in our stand. Our insistence on scriptural baptism has been a 'thorn in the flesh' to other denominations, and a distinguishing and distinctive mark of Baptists from the beginning of our history" (Bruce Cummons, Baptist historian, Our Baptist Heritage, p. 6).

 

I have no clue as to the meaning of your acronym O S A R.

 

M R snakes

M R not snakes

O S A R, C D B D Is?

 

Can't we all just get along? Yes, let's all just cast away all of our biblical convictions, and then we can all get along and be happy. In fact, let's throw away everything but our soteriology. That would be great! (Sarcasm alert.)

 

Folks, you can stand for your convictions (baptism by immersion in this case), and still get along with people who don't agree with you. I have a friend who is a United Methodist pastor from a far country who pastored in our town. We used to meet at a local coffee shop for prayer and fellowship, and sometimes he would stop by my office for the same thing if his boy was here for a music lesson. You know what? He knew very plainly my stand on baptism as a Baptist, and yet we were still friends. It is not, "Either you drop your conviction or we can't be friends," but, "We can disagree on doctrine that is not fundamental and still be friends!"

Alas, he has moved on to get more training, but I still pray for him and love him and his family.