"Teaching God's Word to God's World"
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It is a rule of interpretation that things equal to one another can be substituted for the other in a passage and still grant the reader a perfect knowledge of what was meant
For example:
Now try this:
"Buried with Him in (baptism,) wherein we are raised with Him." Colossians 2:12.
"Buried with Him in (immersion,) wherein we are raised with Him.
"Buried with Him in (sprinkling,) wherein we are raised with Him.
First, what the Greek dictionaries say:
An acquaintance of mine (F. J. Winder) went to the trouble of compiling the following information. This seems conclusive to me. Jesus was baptized ("baptizo") in the Jordan River. Can I honestly believe that Jesus was not immersed in light of what these scholars say that "baptizo" means?
Second, the examples of Scripture.
Matthew 3:16 says, "And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo the heavens were opened unto Him and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon Him." "Up out of the water". He must have been under the water. What would He have teen doing down in the water if only to sprinkle Him? Mark 1:10 likewise says He was baptized in the Jordan River and came up out of the water. John 3: 3-5 states: "Jesus answered and said unto him, 'Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' Nicodemus saith unto Him, 'How can a man be born when he is old?' Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?' Jesus answered, 'Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God!" Baptism is a birth. To "be born of" means "to come out of". Scriptural baptism requires that we be begotten by the Spirit and born of the water. Is a person who is sprinkled, born of the water?
John 3:23 says: "And John also was baptizing in Enon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came and were baptized." Does sprinkling require much water?
Acts 8:38 tells us: "And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him." Here was a believer who went down into the water and came up out of the water.
Romans 6:4 states: "Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life," Is one buried with Christ in immersion? Yes. Is one buried with Christ in sprinkling? Baptism is a drama of the death, burial and resurrection. Does sprinkling or pouring dramatize a burial? Is that how you bury your dead-merely by sprinkling dirt on their forehead. We are dead to sin. What does one do with the dead? We bury them. So we are buried with Christ, to arise to walk in a newness of life.
Colossians 2:12 says: "Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead." Immersion is obviously the practice referred to, not sprinkling.
Third, Church History shows us what the original mode of baptism was.
Barnabas, who lived in the first century, (Ante-Nicean Library, Vol. 1, p. 144) said: "Blessed are they who, placing their trust in the Cross, have gone down into the water; for, says he, they shall get their reward in due time. * * We indeed descend into the water full of sins and defilement".
Shepherd of Hermas, about the beginning of the second century, (in Similitudes, Chap. 16) said: "Now, that seal is the water of baptism into which men go down under the obligation unto death, but come up appointed unto life". He also in the "Commands of Hermas" (command 4, chap. 3) said: "And I said unto him, I have even now heard from certain teachers, that there is no other repentance besides that of baptism, when we go down into the water and receive the forgiveness of sins".
Tertullian, (On Baptism, Chapter 7): "Thus, too, in our case, the unction runs carnally, (such as on the body), but profits spiritually; in the same way as the act of baptism itself too is carnal, in that we are plunged in water, but the effect is spiritual, in that we are freed from sins." He also said: Vol. 3, p. 669: "A man is dipped in water". - "There is no difference between those whom John dipped in the Jordan, and those whom Peter dipped in the Tiber".
Athanasius (born about 347 A. D.) said: "Thou didst imitate, in the sinking down, the burial of the Master; but thou didst rise again from thence, before works, witnessing the work of the resurrection".
Chrysostom (born 347 A D.) wrote in Greek: "Divine symbols are therein celebrated- burial and deadness, and resurrection and life. And all these take place together; for when we sink down in the water, as in a kind of tomb, the old man is buried, and sinking down beneath, is all concealed at once; then, when we emerge, the new man comes up again."
Cyril (born about 315 A. D., and make Bishop of Jerusalem in 350 A. D.) said: "For, as Jesus assuming the sins of the world, died, that having slain sin, He might raise thee to righteousness; so also, thou going down into the water, and in a manner buried in the water, as He in the rock, art raised again, walking in newness of life".
Basil the Great (Caesarea, Palestine, 279-328 A. D.) said: "Imitating the burial of Christ, through immersion. For the bodies of those baptized are, as it were, buried in water".
Fourth, how the word "baptizo" was used in ancient writings.
Homer, B. C. 400: "The mass of iron, drawn red-hot from the furnace, is baptized in water". Polybius, B. C. 205: "They passed through with difficulty, the foot soldiers baptized as far as to the breasts".
Strabo, B. C. 60: speaking of the Lake Sibron: "If a man goes into it, he cannot be baptized, but is forcefully kept above".
Josephus (Wars): "And when they returned to come near, they suffered harm before they could inflict any, and were baptized along with their vessels - and those of the baptized who raised their heads, either a missile reached, or a vessel overtook".
Porphyry, A. D. 233, concerning the Styx: "The depth is as far as the knees; and when the accused comes to it, if he is guiltless, he goes through without fear, having the water as far as to the knees; but, if he is guilty, after preceding a little way, he is baptized unto the head".
Lucian, the celebrated humorist and satirist, was born at Samosata about A. D. 130 or 135. In his "True History," Book ii, ch. 4, while humorously describing men with cork feet as walking on the sea, he says, - "We wondered therefore when we saw them not immersed, but standing above the waves, and traveling on without fear."
The Septuagint version of the Old Testament was made in Egypt, under the patronage of Ptolemy Philadelphus, about 280 B. C. In it, the word baptizo occurs but four times: twice in the canonical books and twice in the Apocrypha, as follows:
Fifth, What do the reference books say about "baptizo" and infant baptism?
The Concordia Encyclopedia (1927): "Baptism . . . Nevertheless, it is held by historians that immersion wholly in water was the prevailing mode of the first century."
The Catholic Encyclopedia: "Baptism . . . The word baptism derived from the Greek word means to wash or to immerse. It signifies, therefore, that laving is the essential idea of the sacrament . . . The most ancient form usually employed was unquestionably immersion In the Latin ( Catholic) church, immersion seems to have prevailed until the twelfth century."
Hook's Church Dictionary: "In performing the ceremony of baptism, the usual custom was to immerse and dip the whole body."
Encyclopedia Americana: "Baptism (that is, dipping, immersing, from the Greek baptizo) . . . In the time of the apostles, the form of baptism was very simple. The person to be baptized was dipped in a river or vessel with the words which Christ had ordered . . ."
New International Encyclopedia: "Baptism... was originally by immersion. The candidates used to descend into fonts or streams, or rivers, and sink beneath the waters under the pressure of the hands of the minister."
Chamber's Encyclopedia: "Baptism . . . It is, however, indisputable that at a very early period the ordinary mode of baptism was by immersion . ."
Nelson Complete Encyclopedia (1937, 24 volumes): "There is little doubt that the original practice was immersion ."
Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge: "Baptism . . . Original Forms . . . It is an attractive theory, supported by Cyprian's express statement, that the Jews and the Gentiles in the apostles' time had a different manner of baptizing; that among the Jewish Christians a single immersion was the rule, in the name of Christ alone, on the analogy of the Jewish proselyte baptism, while the threefold immersion in the three-fold name, which has its counterpoint in the heathen was the rule among the Gentile Christians."
Blunt's Theological Dictionary: "That immersion was the ordinary mode of baptizing in the primitive church is unquestionable."
Catholic Dictionary (by Wm. E. Addis, 1934): "Baptism . . . In apostolic times the body of the baptized person was immersed, for St. Paul looks on this immersion as typifying burial with Christ, and speaks of baptism as a bath . . . for even St. Thomas in the 13th century, speaks of baptism by immersion as the common practice of his time."
The Catholic Encyclopedia Dictionary (1941): "Baptism . . . the act of immersing or washing."
Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Dictionary (by Rev. John Thein, 1900): "Baptism . . . The word baptism is a Greek word which signifies ablution or immersion. This was the manner of baptizing in the primitive church."
Encyclopedia Britannica: "The word is derived from the Greek baptizo, a frequentive form of baptizo, to dip, or wash, which is the term used in the New Testament when the sacrament is described . . . The usual mode of performing the ceremony was by immersion . . . The Council of Ravena in 1311, was the first council of the (Roman Catholic) church which legalized baptism by sprinkling, by leaving it to the choice of the officiating minister."
The New International Encyclopedia: "Baptidzein, to dip. In the primitive Church, the ordinary mode of baptism was by immersion". Vol. 2, p. 452.
The American Encyclopedia: "The solemn mode of baptism was originally by immersion".
English Encyclopedia: "The manner in which it was performed appears to have been at first by immersion".
Edinburgh Encyclopedia (Presbyterian): "Baptism, derived from the Greek verb baptidzo, to dip or tinge, is the initiatory rite of the Christian Religion. Baptism, in the apostolic age, was performed by immersion".
Smith's Bible Dictionary: "By the Greek fathers, the word 'baptidzein' is often used, frequently figuratively, for to immerse or overwhelm with sleep, sorrow, sin, etc. Hence 'baptisma', properly, and literary, means immersion".
Brande's Encyclopedia: "Baptism was originally administered by immersion".
The New People's Cyclopedia of Universal Knowledge, Vol. 1, p. 207: "Baptism-one of the sacraments of the Christian Church, deriving its name from the outward rite of washing with water (Greek, bapto: to dip or wash), which forms an essential part of it".
The New Practical Reference Library, Vol. 1; Article on "Baptism"; "In the primitive Church, the person to be baptized was dipped in a river or in a vessel, with the words which Christ ordered, and was given a new name to express the complete change".
International Encyclopedia, Vol. 11, p. 1451: "Baptism (Greek baptisma) from baptidzein, to dip,'.
Webster's Secondary School Dictionary: "Baptize, from Greek baptidzein, to dip in water."
Porson's Encyclopedia (Episcopalian): "The Baptists have the advantage of us; baptidzo signifies a total immersion". The Penny Cyclopedia says of Mr. Porson: "One of the profoundest Greek scholars - certainly the greatest verbal critic that any age or country has produced".
Stormouth's English Dictionary: "Baptism - Greek baptisma, from Greek baptidzo; I dip, submerge".
The World Book, Vol. 1, p. 586: "At first, baptism was by immersion".
Church of England Dictionary, edited by Dr. Hook: "Immersion -- the proper mode of administering the sacrament of baptism".
Church of England Handy Dictionary: "Baptism; the word means literally-dipping".
Kitto's Encyclopedia, Vol. A-H, p. 287: "Infant baptism was established neither by Christ, nor by the Apostles".
Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 220: "There is no trace of infant baptism in the New Testament. All attempts to deduce it from the words of the institution, or from such passages as I Cor. 1:16 must be given up as arbitrary".
Smith, Philip. - The regular mode of baptism was by immersion; but it was administered by sprinkling or affusions to persons who lay sick or dying; and when performed in such cases it was called clinical baptism. -History of the Christian Church, Vol. I., p. 172.
Sixth, what did the religious leaders of "sprinkling" churches say about Christian baptism?
Melancthon.-Baptism is immersion into water, which is performed with this occompanying benediction of admiration: I baptize thee etc..... Plunging signifies ablution from sin and immersion into the death of Christ. - Catechesis De Sacramentis, Opera Omnia, Vol. I., p. 25.
John Wesley, in his Journal, Feb. 21, 1736, said: "Mary Welch, aged eleven days, was baptized according to the custom of the first church, and the rule of the Church of England, by immersion". Wesley's "Notes on the New Testament", on Rom. 6:4: "We are buried with Him-alluding to the ancient manner of baptizing by immersion".
Dr. Wall, an Episcopalian, says: "Pouring was the substitute for baptism which Calvin first adopted and his sprinkling was only the substitute of a substitute and was the most scandalous thing ever adopted for baptism."
Brenner, Catholic: "For thirteen hundred years was baptism an immersion of the person under water."
Macknight, Presbyterian: "In baptism the baptized person is buried under the water. Christ submitted to be baptized, that is, to be buried under water."
The fourth council of Toledo, A. D. 633, decreed: "For shunning the schism or use of an heretical practice, we observe a single immersion in baptism. Nor do they who immerse three times appear to us to approve of the claim of heretics, although they follow their custom (of triune immersion), and that no one may doubt the propriety of this single sacrament, let him see that it is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ shown forth. For the immersion in the waters is a descent, as it were, into the grave; and again, the emersion from the water is a resurrection."
Bishop White: "Whether baptism ought to be by immersion or by effusion. I dare not conceal that in the Gospel age, and for some ages afterward, the former was the usual mode".
Bishop Coxe (translator of the Ante-Nicean Fathers): "Immersion. The word means to dip. I wish that all Christians would restore the primitive practice."
Dean Stanley: "The change from immersion to sprinkling has set aside the larger part of the apostolic language regarding baptism, and has altered the very meaning of the word."
Dean Alford: "The baptism was administered by the immersion of the whole person".
Chas. Anthon, LL. D., Professor of Latin and Greek in Columbia College, New York: "The primary meaning of baptism is to dip or immerse. The secondary meaning, if it has any, refers to the same leading idea. Sprinkling is entirely out of the question".
Dr. Adam Clarke, LL. D., in his Commentary, speaking of Rom. 6: 4, says: "It is probable that the apostle here alludes to the mode of administering baptism by immersion, the whole body being put under the water." Speaking on Col. 2:12, he says: "Buried with Him in baptism- alluding to the immersion practiced in the case of adults".
George Whitefield, the colleague of Wesley, preached from Rom. 6:4 and said: "It is certain that in the words of our text there is an allusion to the manner of baptism, which was by immersion".
"Calvin Institutes", Chap. 15: "It is certain that immersion was the practice of the ancient Church".
Beza: "Christ commanded us to be baptized, by which word it is certain that immersion is signified".
Philip Schaff: "The baptism of Christ in the river Jordan, and the illustrations of baptism used in the New Testament, are all in favor of immersion, rather than sprinkling, as is freely admitted by the best exegetes, Catholic and Protestant, English and German. Nothing can be gained by unnatural exegesis. The aggressiveness of the Baptists has driven Pedobaptists to the opposite extreme".
Richard Baxter: "It is commonly confessed by us to the ana-baptists, as our commentators declare, that in the apostles' time, the baptized were dipped over head in the water".
Moses Stuart, D. D., Professor in Andover Theological Seminary (Congregational), in his book, "Mode of Baptism" p. 51, says: "Bapto and baptidzo mean to dip, plunge, or immerse into any liquid."
Dr. Doddridge, a Greek scholar who gave us one of the best, if not the best translations of Acts extant, says regarding Rom. 6:4: "Buried in Baptism. It seems but the part of candor to confess that here is an allusion to the ancient manner of baptizing by immersion".
Cardinal Gibbons (Roman Catholic): "For several centuries after the establishment of Christianity, baptism was usually conferred by immersion, but since the 12th century the practice of baptizing by effusion has prevailed in the Catholic Church, as this manner is attended with less inconvenience than baptism by immersion."
MacKnight, a Presbyterian commentator, says: "In baptism the baptized person is buried under the water. Christ submitted to be baptized; that is, to be buried under the water."
Stoudza, a native Greek, says: "The verb 'baptize' has only one meaning. Baptism and immersion are identical."
Weiss, a Lutheran, says: ``After confessing their sins they went down, man by man, into the water of the Jordan, in order to immerge newborn, a people prepared for the Lord." (Vol. 1, p. 307).
Confession of Faith, (written by Melancthon in 1551, and adopted by the Saxon Churches, on baptism): "Baptism is an entire action, to-wit, a dipping, and a pronouncing of these words, 'I baptize thee', etc."
The Confession of Helvetia, drawn up by the direction of Bucer in 1536, ten years before the death of Luther, and republished in 1556 by the pastors of Zurich, says: "Baptism was instituted and consecrated by God; and the first who baptized was John, who dipped Christ in the water in the Jordan".
Neander (Lutheran Historian), in "History of the Christian Church and Religion", Vol. 1, p. 311: "Baptism was administered at first only to adults, as men were accustomed to conceive baptism and faith as strictly connected".
Bishop Burnett (Episcopalian), in "Exposition of the 39 Articles", Article 27: "There is no express precept, or rule, given in the N. T. for the baptism of infants".
Dr. Wall (Episcopalian), in "History of Infant Baptism", introduction, p. 1: "Among all the persons that are recorded as baptized by the Apostles, there is no express mention of any infant".