Does it matter?
If it does I'm covered because I was Sprinkled as an infant and Dunked as a Young Child.
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Does it matter?
Does it matter?
If it does I'm covered because I was Sprinkled as an infant and Dunked as a Young Child.
Some important points here I would like to post that seemed to have been overlooked.
1. The only ones completely immersed in Baptism in the O.T. were the Egyptians and the Genesis flood victoms. And they were immersed in the judgment of God's wrath. "Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: They sank as lead in the mighty waters" Exodus 15:10 Also see Psalm 107:24-31 pertaining the angry sea being the source of God's judgment.
I don't think that we are in 2 Kings to exegete a new method for the ceremonial cleaning for leprosy. The fact that human origins translated the word used as "dip" in every other usage of the word, to an idea of totally "immersing" is weak at best. I don't think that you can force that into the text.
Mode is not important.
Ivan, seriously if it is not important then take it out of your church name!
Immersion, or dipping of the person in water, is necessary to the due administration of this ordinance. (LBC 29.4)
It seems like the historic Particular Baptists viewed immersion as necessary to the due administration of baptism.
Immersion, or dipping of the person in water, is necessary to the due administration of this ordinance. (LBC 29.4)
The way and manner of the dispensing of this Ordinance the Scripture holds out to be dipping or plunging the whole body under water: it being a sign, must answer the thing signified, which are these: first, the washing the whole soul in the blood of Christ: Secondly, that interest the Saints have in the death, burial, and resurrection; thirdly, together with a confirmation of our faith, that as certainly as the body is buried under water, and riseth again, so certainly shall the bodies of the Saints be raised by the power of Christ in the day of the resurrection, to reign with Christ. [The word Baptizo, signifying to dip under water, yet so as with convenient garments both upon the administrator and subject, with all modesty.]
It seems like the historic Particular Baptists viewed immersion as necessary to the due administration of baptism.
Immersion, or dipping of the person in water, is necessary to the due administration of this ordinance. (LBC 29.4)
Martin Luther -" I could wish that the baptized should be totally IMMERSED according to the meaning of the word."
Philip Schaff -"IMMERSION and not sprinkling was unquestionably the original normal form of baptism. This is shown by the meaning of the Greek word and the analogy of the baptism of John which was performed in Jordan." (History of the Apostolic Church, p.568).
Unfortunately it is a much debated issue.
Your brother in Christ
Mode is not important.
Ivan, seriously if it is not important then take it out of your church name!
Are we to try to force the the idea of immersion only into every usage of the word baptize and baptism? Or does the word carry more meaning than the idea of believers baptismal methodology?
Gator,
If I am not mistaken, in the septuigent the word baptizo is also used in ceremonial cleansing upon houses and in other situations where it is impossible to immerse in a tub of water or river.
I did not know that. Thanks for sharing. I however stay loyal to the Textus Receptus in all regards, but that is for a totally different thread. I really don't want to open that can of worms at this time.
I. The Term
1. The Derivation
The word “baptism” is the Anglicized form of the Greek báptisma, or baptismóš. These Greek words are verbal nouns derived from baptı́zō, which, again, is the intensive form of the verb báptō̌. “Baptismos denotes the action of baptı́zein (the baptizing), baptisma the result of the action (the baptism)” (Cremer). This distinction differs from, but is not necessarily contrary to, that of Plummer, who infers from Mar_7:4 and Heb_9:10 that baptismos usually means lustrations or ceremonial washings, and from Rom_6:4; Eph_4:1 Pet Eph_3:21 that baptisma denotes baptism proper (Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible (five volumes)).
2. The Meaning
The Greek words from which our English “baptism” has been formed are used by Greek writers, in classical antiquity, in the Septuagint and in the New Testament, with a great latitude of meaning. It is not possible to exhaust their meaning by any single English term. The action which the Greek words express may be performed by plunging, drenching, staining, dipping, sprinkling. The nouns baptisma and baptismos do not occur in the Septuagint; the verb baptizō occurs only in four places, and in two of them in a figurative sense (2Ki_5:14; Judith 12:7; Isa_21:4; Ecclesiasticus @@31 (34):25). Wherever these words occur in the New Testament, the context or, in the case of quotations, a comparison with the Old Testament will in many instances suggest which of the various renderings noted above should be adopted (compare Mar_7:4; Heb_9:10 with Num_19:18, Num_19:19; Num_8:7; Exo_24:4-6; Act_2:16, Act_2:17, Act_2:41 with Joe_2:28). But there are passages in which the particular form of the act of baptizing remains in doubt. “The assertion that the command to baptize is a command to immerse is utterly unauthorized” (Hodge).
3. The Application
In the majority of Biblical instances the verbs and nouns denoting baptism are used in a lit sense, and signify the application of water to an object or a person for a certain purpose. The ceremonial washings of the Jews, the baptism of proselytes to the Jewish faith, common in the days of Christ, the baptism of John and of the disciples of Christ prior to the Day of Pentecost, and the Christian sacrament of baptism, are literal baptisms (baptismus fluminis, “baptism of the river,” i.e. water). But Scripture speaks also of figurative baptisms, without water (Mat_20:22; Mar_10:38; Luk_12:50 = the sufferings which overwhelmed Christ and His followers, especially the martyrs - baptismus sanguinis, “baptism of blood”; Mat_3:11; Mar_1:8; Luk_3:16; Act_1:5; Act_11:16 = the outpouring of the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost, which was a characteristic phenomenon of primitive Christianity - baptismus flaminis, “baptism of wind, breeze,” i.e. “spirit”). Some even take Mat_21:25; Mar_11:30; Act_18:25; 1Co_10:2 in a synecdochical sense, for doctrine of faith, baptism being a prominent feature of that doctrine (baptismus luminis, “baptism of light”).
I would also add that since the primary governing standards of the PB are the Westminster Standards (which supports both sprinkling and pouring), you have just essentially equated the PB with Romanism. Not a good move.