The Bible reader should recognize that baptism is not a Baptist doctrine, but a New Testament doctrine. Believer’s immersion is a doctrine taught consistently throughout the entire New Testament.
According to Matt. 28:19 the first act of discipleship for new disciples is believers baptism. The Bible reader should note that the above is the obedient application of Christ’s disciples according to Acts 2:41 where Luke records, “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized...” The biblical pattern set forth by Christ, and the application of the disciples, is that after one receives the truth of the gospel, shortly thereafter that one obediently follows the Lord in baptism. This pattern is consistently repeated in the New Testament.
Who Is A Candidate For Baptism?
There is a lot of confusion and outright deceit concerning who is a proper candidate for baptism. The Scriptures are quite clear when speaking about the doctrine of baptism. The one prerequisite to baptism, according to Philip (Acts 8:36,37), recorded under inspiration by Luke, was “if thou believest.” Therefore, according to Acts 8:36, 37 as well as the harmonious teaching of the NT, baptism is permitted only after personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately, the Scriptures are ignored by many religions, cults, and even some evangelicals in this matter of Scriptural baptism. Many religions perform infant baptism. This is clearly a contradiction of the Word of God. No infant is capable of placing his/her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, personally. Nowhere in Scripture is taught that the new birth is attained through the act of baptism. The fact of the matter is that the Lord has gone out of His way to make it clear in the Scriptures that baptism has nothing to do with the salvation of one’s soul (John 3:36; 6:47; Rom. 4:5; Eph. 2:8,9; Titus 3:5; et al.). Some do not understand the nature of the grace of God whereby one is saved, so they attempt to combine grace and works. However, the Bible does not allow for the mixture of grace and works (Rom. 11:6). Often times, those that ignore the Bible’s plain teaching on who is a proper candidate for baptism, also confuse the mode of baptism as well.
What Is The Biblical Mode Of Baptism?
There are three primary modes of baptism that are practiced by various religious groups: Pouring, Sprinkling, and Immersing. Therefore, which one is biblical? If the Bible reader looks to the contextual and exegetical usage of the word “baptism” in the Bible then the biblical mode is clearly immersing. There are two reasons for this view.
First, one must look to the meaning of the Greek word from which “baptize” is translated. It is a transliteration of the Greek word (bap-tid'-zo), which means literally “to dip, to immerse.” There is a word for “pouring” in the Greek language (ka-ta-kheh-o), and there is also a Greek word for “sprinkling” (hran-tid-zo). However, neither of these two words are used. The Lord chose to use bapti,zw which means immerse, and thus is the only biblical mode of baptism. One cannot change the meaning of words just to fit his own preference. One cannot say that the word “in” means “out” or that the word “up” means “down” on certain occasions in the Bible without completely denying all logic and common sense. And yet, some try to say that baptize which is a transliteration of the word bapti,zw which clearly means immerse, does not mean immerse or submerge. They say it could mean pour or sprinkle. They are wrong! It does not mean pour or sprinkle it means immerse. The Holy Spirit could have led the writers to use the words katace,w (pour) or r`anti,zw (sprinkle) that were available to them, but the fact is the Holy Spirit did no such thing. Therefore, baptize means immerse. Secondly, immersion is a beautiful illustration of what Christ accomplished for the believer. The believer’s baptism is a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 6:3-6). Pouring and sprinkling do not picture the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
Further biblical evidence that baptism is specifically immersion is the contextual language consistently used in many of the baptismal passages. Matt. 3:6 clearly shows some coming to John the Baptist to be baptized “of him in Jordan.” These were immersed “in” the Jordan river. In the same passage is the record of Christ’s baptism by John. The Scripture tells the reader, “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water...” Evidently, Jesus went down into the water of the Jordan river. In reference to the Ethiopian Eunuch’s baptism, as already mentioned, Acts 8:38 records that he and Philip “went down both into the water...and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water...” Again the Bible reader can plainly see that they went down into the water and then came up out of the water. It is clear that baptism is immersion exegetically and contextually
