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Ask FGBC #2: Is pouring or sprinkling sufficient for Baptism?

Jim Butler · 2024-03-02 · 657 words · 4 min

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So, yeah, I talk to people obviously 
at church and different places around baptism and people coming 
from a paedo-baptism background like I have, and there's questions 
around rebaptism and just, yeah, what is scriptural? So this question 
is around, like, what are the valid modes of baptism? Is sprinkling 
okay? Pouring? Complete immersion? 
And how do you get this out of scripture? What are some truths 
from scripture on that? I want you to take a crack at 
this. I'm going to sound super pretentious 
about what I'm about to say, but there's valid-invalid baptism, 
and then there's proper-improper mode of baptism. And so we certainly 
would view an infant baptism as invalid because a valid baptism 
is upon profession of faith. But our Confession does talk 
about the due administration, which distinguishes that proper 
and improper mode. And so, certainly, even when 
the Baptist forefathers were ironing these things out and 
coming to a Baptist understanding, initially there were some differences 
as far as, you know, using face-washing instead of full immersion. But 
I think, biblically speaking, they all came to the agreement 
that it is full immersion. In Scripture, I mean, Jesus, 
when He's baptized, He goes under, He comes out of the water. Just 
the language of baptizo—sorry, I'm getting a little technical 
here—but the way the language is used does highlight the full 
immersion and being dunked rather than sprinkled or face-washed. 
And so, the Scriptures, I do think, are very clear in that 
way. Yeah, and the eunuch as well. There was water there, 
right? It wasn't just a water bottle 
or a water glass and let's pour this over your head, but it went 
down into the water. Yeah, historically the debate's 
always been subjects and mode. Who is the persons or who are 
the persons that should be baptized and what mode of baptism is to 
be applied. believer. As Baptists, we believe 
that they should be believers and by full immersion. And then 
the theology of Roman sex. I mean, you're dead, you're buried, 
you're raised again with Jesus Christ. You know, I realize that 
doesn't carry the day in the debates, but it certainly does 
carry the day when we look at it And as Mike mentioned earlier 
in terms of regulative principle of worship, we preach the Word, 
we read the Word, we pray the Word, we sing the Word, and we 
see the Word. And we see that Word in the sacraments 
of baptism and the Lord's Supper. In our church, it's quite common 
when we have a baptism to invite the children, not to the font, 
but to the front so that they can witness. And one of the things 
that I like to try and point out to them, it's like a storybook 
or a picture book that doesn't have any words. You go down to 
the store and you buy a book on beautiful BC, you don't need 
words. You just see those images and 
you're convinced that BC is beautiful. Well, when you see somebody in 
that water, go under that water, and come out of that water, it 
does reflect what God does with needy sinners. He saves them. 
They were dead with Christ. They were buried with Christ. 
They've been raised with Christ. And that's precisely what the 
apostle does in Romans 6. Yeah, I still agree 100%. It's a beautiful picture. It's 
a thing of Jesus died and rose again. And we don't just need 
to be, we're such wretches, we can't just be sprinkled with 
that. We need to be immersed into it, right? That's right. 
We need to be baptized. Yes. Totally. Like I said, if 
you've got a dirty dish and you put it in a sink, you don't just 
drip some water on there. You put it right in the water, 
in the soap and the bubbles, and you clean that thing. Good 
observation.