Immersion 101
We basically all have been raised in the Christian Church/ Churches of Christ. And being that we all have been brought up this way, we all like to think we know how to answer the questions that arise from the outside non-Christian community. Well, neither do I. Today we’ll get in to the subject of immersion.
Baptism, or immersion, can be considered as a positive command. Why do we consider it a positive command??? Well, for starters, it is something that God has commanded us to do. Now, being that we love to serve God, this is a positive thing, for he has commanded us to do it! The Scriptures have given us the word, and it should be clear. We should read and be convinced.
We consider baptism, or immersion, to be just as important as faith…just as important as repentance…we could even go as far as to say it is even more important as good works. Not only this, but we do not believe that there is anything special about the water. It is symbolization, not an idolatry of water. The water does not save us; but Christ Jesus’ blood does, and that is what the water represents. We believe baptism, or immersion, is an act of obedience commanded by Christ in order to receive salvation.
Christ walked about sixty miles so that John the Baptist could baptize, or immerse, him in the Jordan River. At first, John said, “You should be baptizing me, not me you!” But John came into agreement with Him, and John baptized, or immersed, Him. When Jesus came straight up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Him from the skies. With a loud and majestic voice, God said to Him, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!” (Matthew 3:13-17) Christ also commanded His apostles to baptize all people of all nations, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. (Matthew 28:19) All through the book of the Acts of the Apostles it is shown that wherever men came to Christ, they were always saved, convinced, and baptized…or immersed. (Acts 2:38; Acts 8:12-38; Acts 9:18; Acts 10:48; Acts 16:15-33; and Acts 19:5)
Lets talk a little bit about the subjects of baptism…or immersion. All believers are subject to baptism…or immersion. Christ Himself said, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” (Mark 16:16) Doesn’t that sound just so plain and simple??? I find it odd that, in this world, we are so confused over a small passage of scripture that has been clearly stated the way that it should be stated. No person is commanded to be baptized unless he is capable of being taught. If you are unable to learn, then you’ve got a problem. When you are capable of learning the Word of God, then you are able to understand it. To be baptized…or immersed…you should have to be able to understand the Word of God. We are not aware of any account in the Bible of infants ever being baptized. Now, personally, I don’t see anything wrong with baptizing an infant. It doesn’t accomplish anything, but if it makes you feel better, that’s your prerogative. What we must understand is that infants don’t have the knowledge and understanding to recognize that Jesus Christ is the Son of God! I mean, come on! What infant do you know of that can open their mouths and plainly say that they believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God??? None that I know of! Like I said before, you can baptize infants all you want, but you must understand that it isn’t doing any good, and you must immerse them when they fully recognize that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and that they would like to accept Him as their personal Lord and Savior. That’s the only way it works! But, on the contrary, if you can find a passage of scripture that says anything about baptizing infants, please let me know!!! Go home and study the verses that I rambled off before, and you will see that any man or woman that was ever baptized…or immersed…had an understanding of how the Holy Spirit works in our lives. Any of those men or women are capable of receiving gospel truths.
The nature of baptism…or immersion…makes it impossible for it to apply to infants, inasmuch as it is declared in 1 Peter 3:21 to be the “answer of a good conscience towards God,” and the infant has no conscience in the transaction.
Infant baptism…or immersion…was not introduced until over one hundred years after the death of the last apostle. Therefore it is without Scriptural authority.
Now, lets talk about the actual action of baptism…or immersion. The meaning of the word in the dictionary should determine this. The Greeks had, and still have, a word for immerse, a word for sprinkle, and a word for pour. Now, already in what I have said, it should be clear that there is a difference in all of these texts. Lets see, shall we? Baptizo means to dip or immerse, rantizo means to sprinkle, and cheo means to pour. This is what these words mean in Greek today, and this is what they meant back when Christ was on this earth. Now, if Christ had wanted the disciples to go forth and sprinkle, He would have used the word for sprinkle. If He’d wanted them to pour, He would have used cheo, which meant pour. Even if He ‘d wanted them to use water, regardless of how to use it, He would have used the word hudraino, which means water. But, He wanted them to practice immersion, so He used the word baptizo.
Paul said in Romans 6:4 and Colossians 2:12 that we are buried with Christ in baptism. Now, should we be so foolish as to say that Paul was mistaken??? If the word baptize means to sprinkle, which it doesn’t, but this is one of those “if” scenarios, then it would be ok to put the word sprinkle in for the word baptize. Now, lets try an example…Colossians 2:12. It doesn’t work! Buried with Christ in sprinkling??? I’m sorry, but I don’t think so! If it doesn’t work for this scripture in the New Testament, then it can’t work in any of the other examples in the New Testament. The concept of sprinkling should therefore be dropped!
On the other hand, however, the word “baptize” means to immerse, as we already know. Lets now substitute for a moment the word immerse in for the word baptize, and see how it comes out… Lets use Colossians 2:12 again. Buried with Christ in immersion…hmmm… Now that seems to make perfect sense! You can test it on every passage of Scripture in the New Testament this way, and I’ll guarantee you that it will work this way every time!!! You will find that it works everywhere; there is not one single exception!
Now we are going to get into the technical part of this study where we can find out what baptism, sprinkling, and pouring all require and what each represent in the New Testament. Here we will also find that immersion prevails over sprinkling or pouring. This is the part where the list of Scriptures I’ve passed out to you comes in. Please refer to that list and try to take some small notes on how this little idea works. I’ll try not to go too fast, so you can keep up, and understand. It might get a little confusing.
All of these Scriptures talk about something that baptism requires. In Acts 8:36, the Bible talks about water and how it is obviously an essential part of baptism. In John 3:23, the Bible talks about how much water is needed for this ritual. It says basically that a lot of water is needed. In Acts 8:39 and Mark 1:9, it talks about the physicality of actually going to the water. In Acts 8:38, it talks about going down into the water. In Matthew 3:16 and Acts 8:39, it says that there takes place a “coming up out of the water.” In John 3:5, it talks about baptism being a form of birth. In Romans 6:4, it talks about how there is a form of resurrection. In Colossians 2:12 there is a mentioning of a form of burial. In Romans 6:5, it talks about a form of planting. And last but not least, in Hebrews 10:22, it mentions a form of a washing of the body. Now, take notice that all of the Scriptures are from the New Testament. All of the things mentioned in these verses are REQUIRED for Christian baptism. I want you to look over these and study these, when you get home and have a chance.
Now lets see something else. Lets see what immersion requires compared to baptism, and lets see what sprinkling requires compared to baptism. Then we’ll see which one more closely resembles baptism…immersion, or sprinkling. (You can rearrange this list so that it makes more sense to you. I’ve labeled all the sentences with the proper initial.)
Immersion requires: Sprinkling requires:
(I) Water------------------------yes
(S) Water------------------------yes
(I) Much water-------------------yes
(S) Much water--------------------no
(I) Going to water---------------yes
(S) Going to water---------------yes
(I) Going into the water---------yes
(S) Going into the water----------no
(I) Coming out of the water------yes
(S) Coming out of the Water-------no
(I) Form of birth----------------yes
(S) Form of birth-----------------no
(I) Form of burial---------------yes
(S) Form of burial----------------no
(I) Form of resurrection---------yes
(S) Form of resurrection----------no
(I) Form of planting-------------yes
(S) Form of planting--------------no
(I) Washing of the body----------yes
(S) Washing of the body-----------no
So, having said this much, we can see that the only two things that immersion and sprinkling have in common is that there is water required, and that you must go to it. Otherwise, there are no similarities whatsoever. Now, we can also see that immersion sounds to be more like baptism than sprinkling does.
To wrap things up today, we’ll briefly talk about the design of baptism, before we dismiss. There is always an introductory. “Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19) There is also always a test of obedience. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” (Mark 16:16) The design of baptism is made for the remission of sins. “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” (Acts 2:38) And, finally, the design of baptism is always symbolical of the resurrection of Christ in Romans 6:3-5 and symbolical of a birth. “Born of the water and of the Spirit.” (John 3:5)
If you feel like there is something missing in your life, don’t be afraid to come forward in our time of invitation today. If you feel like you’ve got that little light, and you want to let it shine, now is the time. You can be born again of the water and the Spirit, all you have to do is take it, because that is what it is there for…the taking.
