"Why do you only immerse for baptism?"
The greatest interest around the conversion process we follow at ACC is almost always centered around baptism. This is because we only practice baptism by immersion. With so many traditions using such a variety of forms for baptism (sprinkling, pouring, babies, adults) people often ask "Why do you only do baptism by immersion?"
What follows is a summary of the reasons why we practice baptism as we do. (They are not listed in any type of priority)
- Our English word “baptism” is not a translation of the Greek word used in the New Testament – it IS the Greek word! It is a “transliteration.” Deacon would be another such Greek word. For a variety of reasons, often to avoid a controversy, our Bibles have just brought the word over and turned it into an English word. The problem when you do this is that there is no meaning assigned to the word – we are left to assign our own meaning, which is what has happened to baptism.
Yet if we go back into the Greek, baptizo was the word for immerse. It was not a theological word. It just meant “To plunge under the water.” Greek has other words for pour or sprinkle. Those words were not used in the New Testament because that is not what they were doing when they baptized someone, they were immersing them.
The validity of this point is illustrated by the Greek Orthodox Church today. For theological reasons they baptize infants (see #5 below). However, because they understand Greek, they immerse the babies! (They actually do so three time; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!) - The baptism which John was practicing in the Jordan River was immersion. This is what Jesus would have experienced. We have clear, early rabbinic writings on how to baptize. To this day, Orthodox Jewish synagogues still use immersion as their baptism for converts to Judaism.
- We know from the Didache (literally “The Teaching”) that immersion was the desired form of baptism. This is one of the earliest Christian books after the New Testament. It is almost universally accepted as representing orthodox Christian teaching and not some heresy. There is a passage that gives directions for baptism. Immersion is always to be the desired form of baptism (actually cold running water is better than warm or still water!). Only when there are unavoidable circumstances (you’re in the desert) was it ok to pour water over the head, and if water was in VERY short supply you could sprinkle water.
- When people in the New Testament were baptized, we almost always hear the detail that they were near a large enough body of water (river, lake, etc.) for immersion. If sprinkling were the original form of baptism, this would never have been an issue to ever mention.
- Baptism as practiced in the New Testament was always linked to belief. It was the confirmation of faith. A baby cannot, developmentally, have faith let alone communicate such faith. Yet history reveals that this was in fact the very change that occurred. Augustine was a very strong proponent of the concept that we inherit guilt. We are “born sinners.” (He taught that we are born with the guilt of our parents and ancestors’ sins) Thus if a baby dies, God will condemn that newborn to Hell. The implication is that babies need to be baptized immediately after birth. Sprinkling was a much more workable way to do that, especially in the cold cathedrals of Europe. So baptism of babies by sprinkling began. We do not believe this theology is Scriptural. We believe that babies are born sinless and will only be held accountable for their own actions (Ezekiel 18:19-20). They have no need to be baptized to go to Heaven.
- Baptism by immersion is the only form of baptism that depicts the symbolism Paul says baptism is intended to communicate. Only immersion enacts a burial – and a resurrection to new life. Only immersion demonstrates a total washing away of sins by Christ’s blood. (Romans 6:1-10)
- The most common practice taught today for expressing conversion – praying a prayer – is the ONE act that is never found in the New Testament at a conversion. Baptism is found at every conversion in the Book of Acts. Please understand, prayer is very appropriate at a conversion – but it is not what the first Christians did – or at least we have no such record of this.
This list is not offered to condemn those who do not practice immersion baptism. It is presented only for the purpose of showing the reasons that have brought us to our view that baptism should be by immersion, for those who are old enough to believe.