Believers' Baptism

by Bishop, A. C. | Category: A Centenary Review Of Major Themes | May 1988

The world of 1888 was very different in outlook from that of

today. It is futile to debate in which ways the present world is either better or worse than that of our grandparents, for we cannot and should not live in the past.

In 1888 a slim magazine, Needed Truth, was first published: it was then, and is still, a magazine for the teaching of the Word of God, and that Word does not change. Throughout the century of publication there has been within these pages a constancy and consistency of teaching that applies as much to baptism as to anything else.

Nothing in this article is new. All that it contains has been written before in earlier volumes, both more powerfully and more cogently. Several authors have emphasized aspects of baptism against the background of the varying needs of their times, but all have spoken with one voice.

Baptism - its setting

In 1954 James Martin clearly outlined the setting of baptism (1954, pp.91,92) pointing out that John the Baptist marked the great divide in God's dealings with men. In him the dispensation of the Law was brought to its close, for the prophets and the law were until John (Mat. 11:13; Luke 16:16) and his baptism marked the beginning of a new era (Acts 1:22). The first covenant was at its end; John was the herald of the new era.

The power of John's message was its veracity (John 10:41). It was not marked by miraculous signs but by a single, entirely new rite, baptism. Reference to the rite of baptism is quite absent from the Old Testament; it marks the end of one age and the beginning of another.

John's baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 3:3 NIV) was by immersion and was exclusively for the Jews (Acts 13:24), and implied readiness to receive the coming King (Acts 19:4). Luke 7:30 equates John's baptism with the purpose (counsel) of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, obedient to the counsel of God, was baptized, thereby leaving an example of obedience (1932, p.198). After Pentecost John's baptism was superseded by the baptism of believers irrespective of nationality, and to this we must now turn.

Baptism - its authority

It is important at the outset to be clear as to the authority for this baptism. It is rooted firmly in the command of the risen Lord Jesus Christ: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age" (Mat. 28:18-20 NIV). The argument that the Lord's command is only to baptize and not to be baptized serves no purpose, for the one implies the other. The Lord gave the apostles clear instructions and to these they devoted their lives following His ascension. These instructions "...stand, without modification or amendment; the charter of God's people 'till He come' " (T.M. Hyland, 1980, p.154).

Baptism - its mode

There seems to have been more confusion in Christendom on this issue than on many others. The matter was explored in a seminal article by A.P. Macdonald (1890, pp.107-112) and ninety years later by T.M. Hyland (1980, pp.153-155).

Baptism is a strange word that has no place in English apart from this ceremony. It is a Greek word "mispronounced, misspelt, and printed

in Latin characters" (1890, p.107). Why, when other Greek words were translated into English, was this word (baptizo) merely transliterated? It is not as though there is lacking an English word to render baptizo; the correct translation would have been "to dip", so why was it not used? Just over 600 years ago, when Wycliff first translated the Scriptures into English (1382) the practice of sprinkling infants in a baptismal rite was so deeply entrenched and known as baptism, that to avoid the difficulties that would most probably have ensued had the Greek been translated accurately, the transliteration was used

instead.

A.P. Macdonald shows, that although baptism as a rite is quite absent from the Old Testament, the Hebrew word taval - the word translated by baptizo in the Septuagint Version - is correctly translated into English by the word "dip". He writes, "On the table before me as I write lie the Hebrew Scriptures, the Greek version of the LXX., and the English Authorized Version. On reading 2 Kings 5:14 I perceive that the English verb "dip", and the Greek verb baptizo, "baptize", are equal to the same Hebrew verb. What can I conclude but that the verb "baptize", and the verb "dip", are equal to one another?" (1890, pp.108,109).

The point is further emphasized in that there is, as one might expect, a distinct Greek word - rhantizo - that means to sprinkle: it is correctly

translated into English in the Bible. T.M. Hyland sums it up thus:

"Sufficient evidence has been adduced to establish that there is neither scriptural nor lexical authority for bringing "sprinkling" within the meaning of baptizo and its derivatives" (1980, p.154); see also N.D.W. Miller, (1932, p.l9~199). The word baptizo is used without exception for the New Testament rite of baptism; from the time of John the Baptist until now it means dipping (immersion) in water.

Baptism - the subjects

Difficulty concerning the mode of baptism led to confusion as to the subjects of baptism. If the Lord's commission of Mat. 28:18-20 is set alongside Acts 2:41 and other scriptures it is clear that those who were baptized were those who had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and who were willing to be His disciples. The significance of this is explored by T.M. Hyland (1980, pp.167-169) who quotes WE. Vine in stressing that discipleship implies allegiance that presupposes belief in the gospel, followed by a voluntary and conscious decision to acknowledge the authority of Jesus Christ as Lord.

Many writers in these pages have examined the lack of scriptural authority for the sprinkling of infants. Infant baptism was neither taught nor practised by the Lord and His apostles and was introduced with other doctrines

and practices in the early centuries following the apostolic age. T.M. Hyland refers to Tertullian's condemnation in 197 AD of this practice that was then gaining favour (1980, pp.168,169).

From this point it was a short step to the concept that baptism, now called a sacrament, conferred upon the recipient the status of "a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven". Such a claim runs counter to New Testament teaching: salvation is clearly presented as being "by grace... through faith" (Eph. 2:8). Baptism plays no part in securing the believer's eternal life.

The matter of the baptism of infants together with adult believers (household baptism) seems once to have been a more contentious issue than now, judging from the space allotted to its consideration in early issues of Needed Truth. The reader is referred to 1908, pages 236-239 and 1980, page 169. These and other references stress that Scripture makes clear that only those who have

believed on the Lord Jesus Christ were baptized and therefore only those of sufficiently mature years to have made a profession of faith and a commitment to discipleship. The narratives in Acts concerning those baptized in the households of Cornelius (Acts 10:47-48), the Philippian jailor (Acts 16:31-34) and Crispus (Acts 18:8) indicate that all had heard the gospel, believed, and were willing to be baptized. The record concerning the households of Lydia (Acts 16:15) and Stephanas (1 Cor. 1:16) is less informative, but could not, in the general tenor of Scripture, be used to support the contention that infants were among those to be baptized. The Lord's commission to His disciples (Mat. 28:18-20) is surely sufficient to exclude baptism of any other than disciples.

Baptism - its teaching

The meaning of baptism has been expounded by J. Drain (1971, pp.114-117) and T.M. Hyland (1980, pp.184,185). Baptism is, for the believer, the public confession of his allegiance to his new Master (Rom. 6:4-5). Belief in Christ brings a union that results in both death and life. In Christ we have eternal life, but in His we also die. We have died with Him to all to which He died - including sin, the law and the world. Baptism is a representation of the believer's identification with Christ in death and resurrection. He is buried and raised again to live a new life. Nowhere is this more clearly seen than in the case of the dogged, determined and single-minded Pharisee Saul, who having met and believed in Christ, was told by Ananias, "Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on His name" (Acts 22:16 NIV). Such was to be his allegiance to the Master he had persecuted that the former life would be radically changed. It is to this consequence of Saul's baptism that the words "wash your sins away" apply.

This picture of the new life is emphasized in 1 Cor. 10:2 by Paul's reference to the crossing by Israel of the Red Sea. On reaching the far shore they began a new life of faith and obedience, and there was to be no return: the closing waters precluded that. The baptized believer similarly has to dissociate himself from the life he once lived and to live the new pilgrim life in Christ. In short, baptism is a public witness to the authority of Christ. Though it plays no part in the believer's redemption that rests solely on the atoning work

TIof Christ - it is nevertheless a significant act of witness and obedience for every true disciple.

Bishop, A. C. | May 1988
A Centenary Review Of Major Themes