{"id":77,"date":"2002-09-08T17:51:10","date_gmt":"2002-09-09T01:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/archives\/2002\/09\/08\/some-more-thoughts-on-christian-baptism\/"},"modified":"2002-09-08T17:51:10","modified_gmt":"2002-09-09T01:51:10","slug":"some-more-thoughts-on-christian-baptism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2002\/09\/08\/some-more-thoughts-on-christian-baptism","title":{"rendered":"Some More Thoughts on Christian Baptism"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been quite a while since I\u2019ve had a chance to respond to all the things that Nota Bene<\/a> and Integrity Blog<\/a> have said in reference to baptism.<\/p>\n

Mea culpa\u2013I\u2019ve been running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Which I understand is quite a sight, although I\u2019ve never personally witnessed it. Which puts me in mind of Mike the Headless Chicken<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But I digress\u2026<\/p>\n

We\u2019re discussing what it means to follow Jesus, and how baptism relates to that. The Catholic position is that baptism is the way one normally becomes a Christian. So far I\u2019ve limited myself to discussing one specific passage<\/a> that Sean first mentioned<\/a>. They\u2019ve made a LOT of observations since I\u2019ve posted, so I encourage you to read their blogs to see what they\u2019ve been saying. There\u2019s no way I could respond to it all without this being my full-time job, so I\u2019ll just do what I can. Hey guys: if I misunderstand, misrepresent, or fail to address what you consider to be your strongest arguments please let me know: I am being selective, but I\u2019m trying to be selective with integrity.<\/i><\/p>\n

In this post I\u2019ll try to provide a broader understanding of baptism. It may be long, so buckle your seatbelts! My basic thesis will be that baptism is an expression of salvation, and not a means of salvation as held by certain churches<\/b>. Baptism is of vital importance in the life of the believer and is more than an archaic ritual, yet it is not ultimately salvific.<\/p>\n

Jack and Sean\u2019s observations fall into two categories: scriptural and historical. <\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to begin by offering my own scriptural observations.<\/b>
\nThe Bible is clear that salvation issues from placing one\u2019s faith [belief plus trust] in Jesus. There are several relevant passages of Scripture, referencing a few should suffice: John 3.16\u201318<\/a>, Acts 16.31, Romans 3.23\u201324<\/a>, Galatians 3.26\u201327<\/a>, Ephesians 2.8\u20139<\/a>, 1 John 5.1<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n

These passages are clear: God adopts us into His family when we place our faith in Jesus. I don\u2019t see such a clarity in the passages Jack references<\/a> or in the ones that Sean references<\/a>. I do see an emphasis on the importance of baptism, but I don\u2019t see a demonstration of baptism as a means of salvation. <\/p>\n

The only texts Jack raised which might even seem to teach salvific baptism are towards the end of his post, The Church would also point to the words of Peter and Paul on how baptism incorporates us into the Body of Christ: Romans 6:3\u20134<\/a>; Col 2:12 <\/a> \u2026 1 Cor 6:11<\/a>.<\/i> [note: I edited slightly for length]. In each of these verses, Paul is speaking descriptively: all the believers had been baptized, so he can speak of baptism as a synonym for being a believer.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019d like to make a few historical comments:<\/b>
\nFirst, I\u2019d like to acknowledge that the early church clearly thought that baptism was salvific<\/a>. <\/p>\n

I\u2019d also like to say that it\u2019s an unpersuasive point. Theology evolves. Over time the church gradually comes to a deeper understanding of the ramifications of the Bible\u2019s teaching and incorporates it into our theology. The most well-known example is the doctrine of the Trinity. All the clues were in the Bible, it just took the Church a few centuries to put them together in a consistent way.<\/p>\n

The early church fathers were wrong about baptism. They clearly did not understand the Scriptures at this point. In fact, I\u2019m willing to bet that there were divergent views among the early church theologians about baptism (I just don\u2019t have the historical expertise to know them off the top of my head or the time to ferret them out).<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to close by explaining what baptism does.<\/b>
\nJack asked me what exactly I think baptism does:
\n1) Baptism forces people to publicly profess their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
\n2) Baptism requires a public display of solidarity with the Church.
\n3) Baptism is a test of obedience. Someone unwilling to follow Christ in such a small thing cannot be properly called a follower of Christ.
\n4) Baptism is an object lesson in faith, and provides excellent symbolism that can be used to help people understand the gospel.<\/p>\n

Baptism does all these things, and probably a good deal more. It does not, however, save anyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Baptism is an expression of salvation, and not a means of salvation as held by certain churches. Baptism is of vital importance in the life of the believer and is more than an archaic ritual, yet it is not ultimately salvific.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-of-random-interest"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1f","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}