Can Women Baptise Men?

Brandon, my words "depends on where she is doing the preaching", is to show that ONLY when she is present in an all woman gathering can she then "preach/teach", since the Bible forbids that she does this when men are present. This is not the same as sharing the Gospel with someone.

 

Ichthus,

I know, so why bring it up on this thread? Was it an attempt at Scriptural support for your view? Or was it a meaningless point? I would never argue that making disciples entails being a pastor/deacon. But are you trying to say that even Priscilla was wrong in instructing men like Apollos? That last question is somewhat OT so you need not answer it, however, I doubt you'll answer anything I've said today.

Still waiting for many things (like a response to my FIRST post of the day).

BJ

 

Read church history and you will quickly find out that it was common for people to be baptized naked and women did baptize women. Also, think about what people wore in those days and the change of clothes they did not have.

 

Thanks for the info. GB.

I did forget to respond to this yesterday: Ichthus said, "I have also said that there is very clear evidence showing that ALL baptisims carried out in the NT are by men ONLY. On this alone I stand, and will NOT be drawn into speculative theology. We have to deal with the facts from Scripture."

I show in my first post that your conclusion does not hold from the evidence you claim.

You stand on the fact that there are no examples of women baptizing in the NT, but then speculate (something you claim that you will not be drawn into) as to why.

You cannot take the evidence that there are no examples of women baptizing in the NT and reach the conclusion that this is because they should not without theological speculation.

I addressed your arguments in my first post yesterday and will continue to wait for something substantial from you.

Is the authority to baptize from Christ, is it different from the authority to share the gospel, and is the authority to baptize based on whether or not there are descriptive examples of specific persons or groups of people baptizing in the NT?

BJ

 

Personally, I think this is a wonderful idea.

 

Is the Great Commission for men only, or for all Christians?

Joseph Botwinick </font>[/QUOTE]Once you answer this simple question, I believe you will have your answer to the baptism question.

 

What Joseph said

 

The Great commission commands all believers to preach the Gospel and baptizing them. The Great Commission applies to all believers without regard to gender.

While there is scripture can be intepreted to forbid women from pastoring, there is no biblical ban on women preaching or baptizing. In fact, there is no scriptural requisite that says only pastors can baptize.

 

Amen to that! That is sort of what I was going to say. I do see this as a message to the church, not people as individuals. Yes, all individual Christians can play their part but that does not mean that everyone is going to baptize.

 

I agree Dr. Bob. And if a local Church did choose to let a woman baptize, although culturally, some might not be comfortable with it (Probably including myself), Biblically, there would be nothing wrong with it.

Joseph Botwinick

 

So none of us are allowed to preach the Gospel, since none of us are original disciples, nor are we establishing churches?

 

I don't think that Dr. Bob was saying we couldn't all spread the Gospel.

We all have our part in the Body of Christ. Therefore, I believe we all have a part in spreading the message of Jesus Christ whether male, female, young or old. However, I do not see that a woman should baptize but under the umbrella of the church she has a part in bringing folks to Christ.

Let's say a mother leads her son or daughter to Christ. The son or daughter wants to be baptized and the pastor baptizes them. I think the mother played a part in the overall work of the church and helped carry out the Great Commission.

 

Why not? She has a part in spreading the Gospel, doesn't she? Don't get me wrong, I think if a church sets regulations for baptizing, and you're part of that church, you should adhere to the regulations set by the church. So, if the SBC says that only pastors can baptize, and only men can be pastors, then I have an aboligation to adhere to that as a member of the SBC. However, if my non-SBC neighbor got baptized by a woman, or by someone who wasn't a pastor, that doesn't mean that my neighbor's baptism was unscriptural. It just means it wasn't in conformity to SBC practices. Since my neighbor isn't SBC, it's a nonissue.

OTOH, what if, on a camping trip, a person gets saved by a camp counsellor who happens to be female. The person wants to get baptized right away and not wait, so they go to the nearby river, and the female counsellor baptizes the person. Several months later, that person joins a Baptist congregation. Does that person need to get baptized again? No, because the baptism fulfills the Distinctive of a believer's baptism.

 

Wasn't Priscilla always working with her husband Aquila?

Unless I am missing it, I don't see a single reference to Priscilla that doesn't also mention Aquila, which strongly indicates they worked together.

 

OTOH, what if, on a camping trip, a person gets saved by a camp counsellor who happens to be female. The person wants to get baptized right away and not wait, so they go to the nearby river, and the female counsellor baptizes the person. Several months later, that person joins a Baptist congregation. Does that person need to get baptized again? No, because the baptism fulfills the Distinctive of a believer's baptism. </font>[/QUOTE]The female camp counselor should approach a male leader for him to baptize the kid.

 

And that is based on what Scripture?

Joseph Botwinick

 

Personally, I am very uncomfortable with the idea of a woman bapitzing. It seems that after the church was established, baptizing would be done by recognized church leaders such as pastors or elders even though it's not explicitly stated. I think it's just a logical conclusion when you look at the requirements for church leaders and they are the ones teaching.

 

We have to decide what we do at our local church but we cannot be dogmatic where Scripture is silent. I believe the burden of proof lies with those who would forbid women from baptizing. Since when should your opinion of what is fitting be binding on other Christians? I think a great thing is for men to baptize men and women to baptize women. I haven't adopted that policy at my church because I'm not going to raise a fight over something that doesn't matter one way or the other. But I really don't like the authoritarianism of some.

 

So am I. However, it's not scripturally forbidden. We as Baptists have liberty to regulate baptismal customs and rites in our congregation, but, scripturally, a woman baptizing is not unscriptural.