The 4th most frequently asked question is this: "Why should I be baptized by immersion if I have already been christened as a child in a Christian church?" Last week, I shared the biblical basis for believer's baptism. This week, allow me to respond to the question, "Fine, but why must I be immersed? Isn't sprinkling acceptable?"
Surely most people know by now that our English word baptism comes from the Greek term baptidzo which literally means "to immerse" or "to submerge." Nevertheless, skeptics occasionally point to Acts 3: 41, "So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about 3,000 were added to them." I've actually read calculations of how many people Peter would needed to have dunked every minute to achieve this number. "It's physically impossible," deniers insist. "It couldn't have been done!"
I always laugh. A few years ago in Africa, another team leader and I baptized over 200 people in a slippery, slimy elephant watering hole. Even with all the difficulties of slipping and sliding on the banks of the pond, we accomplished the feat in only one hour. This would suggest that 12 apostles could immerse 1200 new believers in one hour. Three thousand new converts would have required slightly less than three hours. And for all we know, other church leaders were baptizing as well. What's more, just because 3,000 were added to the church in one day does not require that all of them were baptized in one day. Perhaps they were baptized in the Jordan River over several days. When you know what the word baptism literally means, it seems rather lame to appeal to strange calculations based on details that aren't recorded.
The biblical priority of immersion is also reflected in texts like these:
- Romans 6:4 compares baptism to being buried; dying to the old life and being raised to walk in a new life. Being buried and then raised indicates that Paul had immersion- not sprinkling- in his mind as he wrote.
- Acts 8:38 describes the baptism of a eunuch from Ethiopia by Philip. "Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him."
- Matthew 3:16 describes the baptism of Jesus Christ by John the Baptist. "And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water..."
- John 3:23 explains that John the Baptist tended to baptize in an area named Aenon, because there was lots of water there. Had sprinkling been the custom, the amount of water would never have been a consideration.
Churches that practice baptism by sprinkling commonly equate the symbol with the coming of the Holy Spirit. Hence, they suggest, sprinkling is more fitting. It's a nice thought, but the New Testament actually has a specific word for sprinkling. That word, rhantizo, is never employed in relationship to the Spirit. Think about it: we are filled with the Spirit, saturated with the Spirit, inhabited by the Spirit. No doubt, that's why the word for immersion is used to explain how the Spirit comes into our lives- baptidzo. On Pentecost, the believers were baptized in the Spirit!
In a church and a culture where so much has changed over the last 2,000 years, I find it especially meaningful when we can do something exactly like the apostles did it. Our preaching looks and sounds different. Our singing is accompanied by instruments that did not exist in the first century. Our Bibles aren't scrolls any longer; they are produced in the codex form. And at least in my church, our language is English rather than Greek or Aramaic. But when it comes to baptism, it thrills me to do it just like the apostles did it. We are buried with Christ in baptism that we may be raised to walk in newness of life.
Selah.
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