Dunk em good.

A mexican pastor in Zaragoza, Coahuila made a similar comment during a sermon. He said that if any part of the person's body does not go under or that if a hand or foot comes out before the baptism is complete then it is no good and would have to be redone. I have looked and have not found anything in scripture that would address this. So I am assuming that it comes from an obscure verse in 2nd Traditions chapter 3.

I my opinion, since water baptism is symbolic of the Lord's baptism (Holy Spirit), then it (water baptism) is not effectual in the salvation process. Therefore, I don't understand the issue and I believe people are making an issue of something that is immaterial. But then, us baptists are pretty good at that .

 

No....that smacks a bit of rules-focused to me...

 

Never would I have even thought to do that.

 

Early on in Baptist ministry, and not a lot of experience at dunking, I advised this one, rather large, lady. To hold her hands joined in front of her and I would place my hand on her back. A quick move backward would have it, but please don't try to help me. The water is all we need.

I brought her back and she panicked. Before long I was standing in the baptistry pool holding two legs straight up in air. I can't give a time, but I held her there long enough to ask the congregation if I should hold her there.........

No, we didn't do it again. She did rise up from the water. Could be why I smile at each new baptism, however.

Cheers,

Jim

 

The book of Hesitations does say we're supposed to hold 'em under until they say "tithe."

 

Gotta make sure we hold the wheel chair bound folks who have respiratory problems under at least long enough to say they were dunked.

 

The last 3 posts were so good that I had trouble deciding which one was best, but I think Jim's wins the prize. I laughed out loud at the thought of those legs sticking up in the air. :laugh:

 

baptism is symbolic and therefore we need to be careful what we impose on it. There are some who come to know Christ but have severe health issues that does not allow for submersion. What is important is the picture it represents, having said that we also need to be careful not to allow unnecessary deviation from complete submersion.

 

Interesting. If the church doesn't hold strictly to immersion, then it would probably be legalistic to rebaptize the person.

Even if they hold to immersion, baptism is still about attitude more than it is about action. If the person was dunked, and ad the intent of baptizing was there, then it's probably unnesessary. One could truly split hairs over how much of the head is necessary, What if you dunk the person, and every part of them gets wet instead of a small patch of hair? What if they turn sideways accidentally, and part of their ear didn't get wet, what if their forehead was dry? Insisting on redunking could lead to legalism.

 

I agree that the pastor shouldn't have felt guilty about leaving something dry.

We had a lady who refused to get baptized after salvation because she was deathly afraid of water. She would shower rather than take a bath because she was afraid of drowning.

The Lord worked in her heart and she came literally trembling forward in the invitation and said she wanted to be baptized. So for 3 weekends with no water in the tank we took her up to the baptistry so she could get used to being there. The last time, we had water to her knees. She got used to it and when the big day came in front of her family, church members and invited friends she came down into the water. She was too afraid to go backwards in the water like we usually do it so we just squatted together. The water came into my waders. She got everything wet except the top of her head. She touched her hair, discovered it was dry and in front of everyone looked up at me and said, "do I have to do that again?"

I reached down into the water cupped some water in my hand and dropped it on her head. We both started laughing.

Then she said, "If I am going to do this, I'll do it right" and went into the water again so that everything got baptized. We both teared up and then realized that the whole church was standing and clapping. the only standing ovation we have ever had in our church.

 

This is a 40-year-old story.

The night my 9-year-old son was baptized, an elderly couple, both 5-by-5 times, were also baptized.

They went down into the water together, and both let out a whoop. Man oh man, we thought the Spirit is moving.

The husband was put under first, and everything went okay.

The wife, who was wearing a shower cap, did fine on the way down. But as the pastor pulled her up from the water, the force of the water pushed the shower cap back. She was as bald as a peach! There was an audible gasp from the congregation. Even so, we felt that the Spirit had moved.

Afterward, my son explained the whoops from the couple. "Dad, the water was ice cold. It about took my breath away. That's why they hollered."