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--Critical Perspectives
from the Word of God

Ritual immersion, that is baptism from baptiso meaning to immerse, was a practice in first-century Judaism. The Pharisees used it in converting Gentiles to Judaism. A proselyte had to undergo ritual baptism, consisting of full immersion in water, to be admitted to the Mosaic Covenant as a proselyte of the gate.

John the Baptist utilized water baptism by immersion as symbolic of repentance (Matthew 3:13-17). Jesus set an example by traveling from Galilee to the Jordan for baptism by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:13). John attempted to dissuade him but Jesus said "it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness" and John consented (Matthew 3:13-17 NIV).

In the New Testament the ritual was by total immersion i.e. baptize, baptiso, symbolic of the burial of the old self into a watery grave. The Greek for "sprinkle" is rantizo and for "pour" is cheo. This remained the practice of the ancient Church, both in the Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman Christian branches. The words of Oxford professor Arthur Penrhyn Stanley describe the practice of the ancient Church as accurately today as when he wrote them 150 years ago. 

There can be no question that the original form of baptism�the very meaning of the word�was complete immersion in the deep baptismal waters; and that, for at least four centuries, any other form was either unknown, or regarded, unless in the case of dangerous illness, as an exceptional, almost a monstrous case. To this form the Eastern Church still rigidly adheres; and the most illustrious and venerable portion of it, that of the Byzantine Empire, absolutely repudiates and ignores any other mode of administration as essentially invalid. The Latin Church, on the other hand, doubtless in deference to the requirements of a northern climate, to the change of manners, to the convenience of custom, has wholly altered the mode, preferring, as it would fairly say, mercy to sacrifice; and (with the two exceptions of the cathedral of Milan, and the sect of the Baptists) a few drops of water are now the Western substitute for the threefold plunge into the rushing rivers, or the wide baptisteries of the East. (Stanley 1862:117.)

Baptism was a vital part of the process of salvation and required of all who would enter into the New Covenant. The apostles were to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). Baptism was into one body, the Church of God, and all given the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 12:13).

Baptism into Christ Jesus was into his death (Romans 6:3). Mark wrote that the apostles, and by implication the qehal'el, were to go into "all the world and preach the good news to all creation." As a result whoever "believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned" (Mark 16:15-16 NIV).

In early Christian understanding  a man or woman had to be engendered by receiving the impregnating life of the Holy Spirit as a gift from God and had to exercise the commitment, courage, and conviction to live a new Way of life. The newly baptized Christian received the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands (Acts 8:12, 8:17). The receipt of the Holy Spirit placed the individual into the body of Christ which was the church (Colossians 1:18, 1:24, 2:17 [literally, body of Christ, see marginal rendering in NASB at Colossians 2:17]). Baptism was not simply a symbolic form but testimony of a conclusive compact with God which required mature decision making.

Page last updated: 11/28/04 08:44 AM.

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