BAPTISM AS IT IS SEEN IN THE BIBLE AND CHURCH HISTORY
Acts 2:37-38; Eph. 4:1-6
INTRODUCTION:
1.) Though I may often refer to Baptism, and briefly speak of its significance, it is not so often that I actually would have a sermon specifically dealing with this Biblical doctrine.
2.) It is a shame that a Biblical doctrine of such significance has so divided the church this past 2,000 plus years since it was founded.
3.) When we look at Christianity’s diverse attitudes about Baptism, we find some very diverse opinions on the place of baptism within the church:
A.) In fact there are probably few topics that have more divided the church more than the matter of baptism.
aa.) Is baptism to be administered by sprinkling, pouring, or immersion, or like some churches to not even be practiced at all?
ab.) Likewise, the church is further divided on the matter by questioning whether it is for adults, or for children, or for babies.
ac.) Another question that divides the Christian faith on baptism is the question of the importance of baptism, is it an essential act of obedience to receive salvation, or is it merely an outward sign of an inward grace (that has already happened in your heart)?
3.) Today in this message, my goal is to look at the original view of baptism as seen in the Inspired Word of God.
A.) I also want us to look at history in order to understand how the Biblical view of Baptism has changed through the ages.
I. HOW WAS BAPTISM VIEWED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT?
1.) The importance of baptism under John the Baptist.
A.) John the Baptist preached a baptism of repentance.
aa.) Acts 13:24
ab.) Really, if that were the only verse we looked at on John’s baptism we could interpret it whatever way we would choose to.
B.) Even though John preached a baptism of repentance, it was also a baptism with the teaching that this baptism was for the forgiveness of sin.
ba.) That is an aspect of John’s baptism that is usually not preached so much today.
baa.) Mark 1:4
bab.) Luke 3:3
C.) In fact, Scripture verifies the importance even of John’s baptism for salvation by telling us that the religious leaders had forsaken the purpose of God for their lives by rejecting John’s baptism.
ca.) Luke 7:30
2.) The Day of Pentecost emphasized baptism for forgiveness of sins, and to receive the Holy Spirit of God.
A.) The Apostle Peter stood up to preach the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
B.) At the end of Peter’s sermon, the people were convicted with guilt over their sinfulness (especially in regards to killing the Christ or Messiah).
C.) With heaviness of heart, these sin-sick individuals asked what they needed to do in order to find the forgiveness of God for their sins.
ca.) Acts 2:37
D.) Speaking with the Holy Spirit of God, Peter directed these people to “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38)
da.) Our faith in Jesus Christ becomes a saving faith only when it is obedient to the gospel of Christ in the waters of baptism.
db.) On the day of Pentecost, Peter made it very clear that two things happen in the act of baptism:
dba.) There is the forgiveness of our sins.
dbb.) The Holy Spirit of God comes to dwell within us.
3.) There are many other passages of Scripture that could be put together on the matter of salvation.
A.) From what I have seen and studied in the Word of God I would sum up the Biblical teaching on baptism as follows:
aa.) Baptism in the Word of God is without exception to be by total immersion of one who is capable of putting his faith in Jesus Christ, repenting of his sinfulness, and confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.
ab.) Likewise the purpose of baptism according to Scripture is two- fold:
aba.) It is for the forgiveness of sins, and
abb.) the Gift of the Holy Spirit of God.
II. WHY THEN ARE THERE SO MANY VIEWS TODAY ON EVERY ASPECT OF BAPTISM?
1.) Over the centuries, the teachings on baptism within the church have changed.
A.) It would be wonderful if all of Christianity agreed on this very important basic of the Christian faith.
B.) Unfortunately that is not the case.
C.) I realize that today the majority of Churches have a different view on one or more aspects of baptism than what I have just described.
ca.) To be perfectly honest the majority of churches claiming an allegiance to Jesus Christ have accepted one or more aspects on the doctrine of Baptism that are different than what is in the inspired Word of God.
cb.) We have to remember that any changes in the mode, purpose, value, or recipients of baptism from what is in the inspired Word of God has not come from the authority of God, but from the teachings of man.
C.) The teaching from God’s Word has never changed over the past 2,000 plus years since the time of Christ and his Apostles.
III. HISTORY RECORDS THE CHANGING TEACHINGS ON BAPTISM.
1.) Most churches today practice baptism of young children.
A.) There is no precedent for this practice in the Bible.
aa.) It is true we hear of various households in the Bible being baptized.
aaa.) Though this is true, there is no indication from the Word of God of anyone ever receiving baptism without the ability to have faith in Jesus Christ, or to repent of their sins.
.01) Babies are not capable of having faith in Christ.
.02) Likewise a baby does not even know the concept of sin, and certainly is not capable of repenting of any sin.
2.) So why has this come about?
A.) In A.D. 250 the church in the region of Northern Africa began to practice infant baptism on newborn infants.
aa.) At that time the practice did not extend beyond Northern Africa.
ab.) My understanding is that even there it was never widely accepted or carried out.
ac.) In fact there was great opposition to this practice by the churches in other regions.
(http://www.bible.ca/cath-new-doctrines.htm)
aca.) I believe the opposition was so great that this practice had ceased after a time.
B.) Augustine seems to be really the big early influence towards infant baptism.
ba.) As I had stated the earlier move in that direction by the church in Africa had never been that accepted, or widespread.
bb.) Augustine lived from A.D. 354-430.
bc.) Augustine came to believe that children are born into this world with sin, and going right back to Adam and Eve.
bca.) To hold such a belief, the natural conclusion is that a newborn baby is also separated from God, and in that present state, should the child die would be cast into hell.
bd.) Augustine’s belief would be referred to today as “Original Sin”.
bda.) This belief brought him to the conclusion that infants should be baptized.
C.) Augustine’s view of children made Biblical baptism by immersion impractical to perform on babies, so a change had to be made from the Biblical pattern in order to accommodate that situation.
ca.) Today, any religious group that practices infant baptism does so because of this Augustinian belief that the child has been born into this world in a state of sinfulness.
D.) A.D. 753 would be the next stage in changing the doctrine of Baptism from that which is in the inspired Word of God.
da.) At that time there was a conditional allowance for sprinkling to be allowed in exceptional cases.
db.) The Roman Catholic Church started allowing baptism by either sprinkling or pouring instead of full immersion only in the instance of a person on their deathbed, with no hope of recovery to better health.
dc.) From this single allowance, the idea of baptism by a mode other than immersion started to receive acceptance in the Christian community.
dca.) I want to stress that this change came about by an ordinance of the Church; The Word of God itself has never been changed from the practice given in the New Testament Scriptures.
E.) A.D.1311 is the next date in the change of this Biblical doctrine.
ea.) The Catholic council met in Ravena, Italy and in that council proclaimed sprinkling in place of full immersion as an official doctrine for the Catholic church.
eaa.) That council declared baptism by either sprinkling, pouring, or full immersion was equally acceptable within the Catholic Church.
eab.) This date, just a little over 700 years ago changed the mode of Baptism from the mode that is taught in the New Testament Scriptures.
.01) Following the example of the Catholic church, many other religious groups began to follow the same practice.
.02) In fact today, a very large percentage of the Protestant churches have also accepted this practice as being acceptable for baptism.
F.) A.D. 1521 would be another major milestone date in regards to views on Baptism.
fa.) It was in A.D. 1521 that Martin Luther had to face the Diet of Worms council of the Roman Catholic Church.
fb.) Most look at this as a turning point in the history of Christianity, and kind of the start of the Reformation.
fba.) Luther had been challenging many of the teachings of the Catholic Church, and this eventually led to many Protesters (protestants) to the authority and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.
fbb.) Though Luther did a great deal to help the cause of Christianity, one flaw in Luther’s thinking was the idea of faith only.
.01) In fact he completely dismissed the epistle of James as “a book of straw” feeling it was contradictory to the teachings of the Apostle Paul.
.02) Martin Luther and others of the Reformation knew and taught that baptism was to be by immersion only.
.021) However, this was not an idea Luther pressed very strongly because he had come to the faith only position, so found the matter of the mode of baptism to be irrelevant.
.022) Many of the other reformers had similar views, so allowed the teachings on baptism to remain as they were being practiced, rather than to restore the church to the teachings of Scripture.
fc.) The fact that this error in doctrinal teaching was not corrected by the reformers has left it as an acceptable doctrine in the church even today.
fca.) This doctrine has eventually led to a complete faith only doctrine being preached in many churches today.
fd.) In the 500 years since Martin Luther and the reformers the “Faith Only” preaching as really blossomed considerably.
fe.) The following progression has taken place:
fea.) Over a century ago a Hymn was published called: “The Sinner’s Prayer.”
.01) My understanding is that the hymn had never received great acceptance at the time of its writing.
feb.) By the 1950’s the “faith only doctrine” had developed into “Call on the name of the Lord for salvation”.
.01) Those who have been big in this will misquote passages such as: Acts 2:21 “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”, and also from Rom.10:9 “ If you declare with your mouth,
“Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
.02) The problem with these quotes is that neither one of them addresses a plan of salvation.
.021) The context of these passages show that the writer is not answering the question “What must I do to be saved?”
.022) No in both of these passages, the author is pointing out that the Jewish people were looking for the Christ, and willing to serve him.
.023) These were passages pointing out that the Jewish people had to come to recognize Jesus as the Christ. If they could do that they could come to salvation.
fec.) Most recently in the development of the faith only doctrine was the child evangelization movement around 1970.
.01) That movement made big efforts to evangelize children, and so with that the “Call on the name of the Lord” teachings of the 1950s had to be further simplified into what has now become the sinner’s prayer that many churches will practice.
.02) Again, as with the other changes this one came about by man, and not the Word of God.
G.) A.D.1611
ga.) The next big change in the baptismal views came with the publishing of the King James Bible in 1611.
gb.) At that time there had been many translations of the Scriptures, and just as now it could be confusing when there are many versions of Scripture being used.
gc.) Because of this, King James authorized the publishing of an official Bible which would be the standard for English speaking churches.
gd.) Because the issue of baptism had become so intense the translators decided that rather than to translate the word in the English language, that it would be less controversial
among churches to just give an English spelling to the Greek word and introduce it into the English language.
H.) More and more churches began to accept the idea of baptism as sprinkling.
ha.) Though gaining more and more in popularity, it was a doctrine that never reached into Scotland until after the Reformation, and some of the reformation leaders.
I.) A.D. 1643.
ia.) From Scotland this doctrine made its way into England, and so became a matter that had to be dealt with by the Church of England.
ib.) In England the matter came to a head in A.D. 1643.
ic.) In a special vote to deal with the matter the leadership of the Church of England cast their votes on the matter.
id.) The results of that vote ended with 24 voting to retain the Biblical practice of baptism by Immersion, and an additional 24 voting to accept sprinkling or pouring as a legitimate form of baptism.
ida.) The chairman of the board, a Dr. Lightfoot cast the deciding vote that the church would adopt the practice of sprinkling as an official form of baptism.
idb.) With that vote 371 years ago The Church of England (now a.k.a. Anglican Church, Episcopalian, etc.) officially adopted sprinkling as the acceptable mode of baptism within the church.
IV. THE QUESTION FOR US IS WHERE DO WE GO WITH THIS?
1.) I would see this as an area of supreme importance.
A.) For 2,000 years man has altered the teachings on Baptism.
aa.) It is very sad that in the course of history that man has sought to introduce his opinions in place of the word of God.
ab.) When we are speaking of the salvation of our souls it is too great of an issue to depend on the opinions and teachings of man.
ac.) God’s Word is very clear on the danger of altering what is in the word of God.
aca.) The very closing of the Book of Revelation gives us warning on changing the teachings of Scripture.
.01) Revelation 22:18-19
2.) Our only solution is to trust in the Lord and the Word of God.
A.) We cannot rely on the opinions and teachings of man.
B.) We need to go back in our teachings on Baptism and on all other teachings of the Church to the inspired Word of God.
C.) When God’s Word speaks, we must listen to His Word as our final and total authority.
ca.) The thoughts and opinions of man, no matter how good his intentions cannot be placed in a position above what God has already given to the church in His Word.
CONCLUSION:
1.) God’s Word is very clear on baptism.
A.) It is by immersion only.
B.) It is for those who are capable of faith in Jesus Christ.
C.) It is for those who have repented of their sins.
D.) It is for the forgiveness of sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit of God.
2.) Don’t substitute the Word of God for the opinions of man.
3.) Don’t let the teachings of man keep you from an eternity with Jesus Christ.
4.) If Jesus Christ has called to your heart today, don’t turn him away. Don’t merely believe with you head. Faith that is true will express itself in obedience to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
A.) This is done as we are buried in death in the waters of baptism, and raised to a newness of life from the water into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.
