For those of you who missed yesterday’s sermon, we discussed the two signs of circumcision and baptism from Colossians 2:11-12.
In the sermon I talked about how tempted we are as 21st Christians to ignore the sign of baptism in particular. We do this by ignoring the importance of baptism, thinking that because baptism doesn’t save it must not be all that important. We do this by ignoring the instructions for baptism, it should be for believers, by immersion, and into the church. And we do this when we ignore the intent of baptism, it is the local church affirming the believer’s profession of faith (much like the U.S. Government affirms your citizenship when they give you a passport).
In our Sunday evening service we had a vibrant Q&A discussion about baptism. A number of questions were asked about certain types of baptism (e.g., baptism in the Jordan River, baptism on the mission field, baptism outside of the church, etc.). I did my best to answer these wonderful questions last night, but as I reflected on my answers later last night and this morning I remembered something that would have been helpful to share.
Many theologians ask two key questions when dealing with specific baptism questions: was it a true or false baptism? and was it a regular or irregular baptism? Let me explain:
True or False Baptism
What constitutes a true baptism? First, the baptized individual must be a genuine believer (Acts 2:41). Baptism is a public profession of faith, so if the individual being baptized is not a true believer he or she has not been truly baptized. Second, the baptism must be by immersion. Again, many other denominational traditions would disagree with us, but this is central to what we believe as baptists. The word baptism means to dunk or plunge into water. Third, the baptism must be Trinitarian. Jesus clearly commands us to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:18-20). Now, things can get a little sticky here. We could insist that when the individual was baptized the baptizer said “in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” as he was plunging the baptizee into the water. But I don’t think Jesus’ point was a verbal formula that we repeat like an incantation. I think His point was genuine baptisms are administered by those with genuine belief in the nature of God. Or, to put it another way, in order for a baptism to be true, it must be a baptism by a true church.
Our Mormon friends, for example, agree with us that baptism is for believers and by immersion. But because of their heretical views about the Trinity and the nature of Christ (among other things), we would reject them as a true church. Therefore, someone coming for membership at PBC who had been baptized into the Mormon church would need to be truly baptized at PBC since his baptism was a false baptism.
In sum, true baptisms are for believers, by immersion and in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Any baptism that falls outside these bounds should be considered a false baptism. Individuals pursuing membership at PBC (or sister baptist churches, if they’re thinking clearly about baptism) should be denied membership until they are truly baptized.
Regular or Irregular Baptism
To complicate matters a bit further, distinguishing between true and false baptism is not enough. It’s also helpful to distinguish between regular and irregular baptism. Here we’re thinking primarily about where an individual was baptized. A regular baptism is a baptism into a local church. With the exception of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8, this is the clear pattern of the New Testament. Everywhere else we see baptism we see it either explicitly or implicitly into a local church. So a regular baptism would be a baptism that occurred with your local church. The point is not whether you were baptized in a church building, but were you baptized with the people who make up a local church.
What then is an irregular baptism? In our day there’s a host of examples:
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- A husband and wife being baptized together in the Jordan River
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- A husband and wife being baptized together in the Jordan River
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- A new convert on the mission field being baptized in a pond by the missionary who led him to Jesus
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- A new convert on the mission field being baptized in a pond by the missionary who led him to Jesus
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- A young man being baptized in a church he has no intention of joining
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- A young man being baptized in a church he has no intention of joining
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- A soldier being baptized by her chaplain while deployed overseas
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- A soldier being baptized by her chaplain while deployed overseas
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- A believing child being baptized in a swimming pool with family and a few friends
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- A believing child being baptized in a swimming pool with family and a few friends