Why Immersion?
Yeah, why? Why do some churches insist that baptism is, and can only be, immersion? Why is sprinkling or pouring not just as good? After all, they are a lot more convenient, and…Woah! Are we trying to please ourselves, or are we trying to please God? If we choose to please ourselves, then we are no more saved by baptism than is the kid playing in the kiddie pool in the summer. BUT…if our aim is to please God, and that should always be our aim, then we need to look at the Bible and see what God has told us to do and how He has told us to do it. Doesn’t that make sense to you? Okay, then let’s look at what the Bible says and the example it gives us. Please note that this article is not intended to demonstrate the necessity for baptism. We are looking only at the method to be used.
- Let’s look at the word itself. The word baptizo is a Greek word which, according to Thayer means to dip or plunge, to immerse. It carries with it the idea of something being completely submerged, with no parts not being so submerged. Vines says that, as a noun, it consists of the process of immersion, submersion, and emergence. He goes on to say that, as a verb form, baptizo is a “frequentative form of bapto, and means to dip or to overwhelm.” Thus, by definition, to be baptized, one must be submerged completely in the water.
- What about the examples given in the New Testament? Since I am sure I can explain this no better than Vines, I am going to quote him:
“In the early chapters of the four Gospels and in Acts 1:5, Acts 11:16; and Acts 19:4, it is used of the rite performed by John the Baptist who called upon people to repent that they might receive remission of sins. In Acts 22:16, it is used in the Middle Voice, in the command given to Saul of Tarsus, “arise and be baptized,” the significance of the Middle Voice being “get thyself baptized.” The experience of those who were in the Ark at the time of the Flood was a figure or type of the facts of spiritual death, burial, and resurrection, Christian baptism being an antitupon, a “corresponding type,” a “like figure.” (I Peter 3:21)
If you look at the evidences of baptism given in Acts, it is easy to see that baptism was not a simple “pouring of water” over the subjects. The story of the Ethiopian eunuch is especially illustrative in that they come to water, the eunuch asks why he can’t be baptized, and “they went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water…” (Acts 8:38-39)
Think of it this way: In Romans 6:4, we are told, “We were buried therefore with Him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we might also walk in newness of life.” So? What does that mean? Just this: If we are to be “in Christ,” we need to go through a likeness of His death, burial, and resurrection. I don’t know about you, but I personally have no desire to be buried, even for a little while, as long as I am still alive. But I need to experience something that represents that. God planned a perfect way for me to do that. In baptism, a full and complete immersion in water, I die to my old sins as they are forgiven by Jesus’ blood shed on the cross; I am then buried with Him in baptism; finally, I rise from the watery grave to walk in “newness of life,” a person who has, at that point, no sins to my credit, for they have been forgiven and washed away by Jesus Christ.
I do not know why some wish to have things their own way, and to subvert the will of God. God has no desire for any to be lost, but Jesus Himself said that many will perish (Matthew 7:13; Matthew 7:21-23). It would seem to me that, if I wish to escape being lost, I need to study the Bible and to try to do everything I can to follow the teachings therein. I also know that Man likes to have his own way. And I know that many do not agree with this teaching and will not agree with it. If you are one of those, then you must think that I am teaching error. If that is your thought, please help me by showing me, from the Bible, where I am wrong.
Posted on March 5th, 2010 by doc
Filed under: Word study, baptism | 2 Comments »
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