Do you Have Scriptural Baptism?

Most churches administer baptism and most church members have been baptized.

Does this mean that every person who belongs to some church has been scripturally baptized? Definitely not! Not all baptisms are valid according to the Scriptures.

Baptism, by scriptural definition, is no baptism at all unless it meets the tests of the Scripture-what the Bible says concerning the ordinance.

To help us think straight about baptism let us think of baptism along the lines of a famous quote: "I have six honest serving men who taught me all I knew— their names are what and when and where and why and how and who."

-Kipling

I. WHAT IS BAPTISM?

"Baptism is the immersion in water, by a proper administrator, of a believer in Christ, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

Baptism is a commandment of Christ and a part of the Lord's Great Commission to His church (Matthew 28:19, 20).

Baptism is a public testimony (Matthew 3:15).

Baptism is a symbolic act, showing the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ being acted out by the believer in Christ. (Romans 6:1-10)

II. WHEN SHOULD ONE BE BAPTIZED?

After salvation (Acts 8:12). Soon after salvation (Acts 2:41; Acts 8:35-39; Acts 16:33). Now (Proverbs 27:1).

III. WHERE SHOULD BAPTISM BE PERFORMED?

Where there is MUCH water (John 3:23).

There are no specific rules given in the Bible concerning a certain place for baptism. Some churches use elaborate baptisteries while others baptize in streams, ponds, lakes or other places where there is enough water to carry out the symbolism of the death, burial and resurrection.

IV. WHY BE BAPTIZED?

If baptism is only symbolic, is it necessary? Everything is essential to the purpose for which it is given. Hands and feet are essential for some purposes but not for life. A bird's wings are essential for flight but not for life. Likewise, baptism is essential to proper obedience to Christ even though it is not essential to salvation.

Jesus commanded baptism (Matthew 28:19, 20). Christ Himself set the example by being baptized of John the Baptist before beginning His personal ministry (Matthew 3:15). Baptism is therefore an act of obedience to His command, a test of our love for Him (John 14:15), and a test of our fellowship with Him (John 15:14).

V. HOW SHOULD BAPTISM BE ADMINISTERED?

Only in the way taught in the Bible arid practiced in the Bible times. Was this way sprinkling? pouring? or immersion?

"Immersion is so exclusively tht-baptismal act that without it there is no baptism."

Immersion is the only Bible mode of baptism. The word baptism itself is an Anglicized form of the Greek word baptizo. The only recognized meaning of baptizo is: to dip, to plunge or to immerse.

Some scriptural examples of the proper mode of baptism are found in John 3:23 (much water), in Acts 8:38 (down into the water), and in the typology attributed to baptism in Romans 6:3-6 where it is compared with the words burial and planting.

Baptism is a perpetual memorial to the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Such a picture can only be typified by total immersion.

VI. WHO SHOULD BAPTIZE?

Only the church was given authority to baptize (Matthew 28:19, 20). But this was not just any church, it was the church which Jesus established during His personal ministry and which has had a perpetual and continuous existence from the days of Christ until now (Matthew 16:18).

To determine the scripturality of a church, disregard the name, the size of the congregation and other external distinctions. Examine instead the doctrinal beliefs and practices of that church. If those beliefs and practices match those in the New Testament, then the organization is obviously a scriptural church.

Unless the church is scriptural, obviously the baptism which it administers is not scriptural.

Have you had scriptural baptism?