{"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 Integri\u00adty Blog<\/a> have said in ref\u00ader\u00adence to bap\u00adtism.<\/p>\n

Mea culpa\u2013I\u2019ve been run\u00adning around like a chick\u00aden with my head cut off. Which I under\u00adstand is quite a sight, although I\u2019ve nev\u00ader per\u00adson\u00adal\u00adly wit\u00adnessed it. Which puts me in mind of Mike the Head\u00adless Chick\u00aden<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

We\u2019re dis\u00adcussing what it means to fol\u00adlow Jesus, and how bap\u00adtism relates to that. The Catholic posi\u00adtion is that bap\u00adtism is the way one nor\u00admal\u00adly becomes a Chris\u00adt\u00adian. So far I\u2019ve lim\u00adit\u00aded myself to dis\u00adcussing one spe\u00adcif\u00adic pas\u00adsage<\/a> that Sean first men\u00adtioned<\/a>. They\u2019ve made a LOT of obser\u00adva\u00adtions since I\u2019ve post\u00aded, so I encour\u00adage you to read their blogs to see what they\u2019ve been say\u00ading. There\u2019s no way I could respond to it all with\u00adout this being my full-time job, so I\u2019ll just do what I can. Hey guys: if I mis\u00adun\u00adder\u00adstand, mis\u00adrep\u00adre\u00adsent, or fail to address what you con\u00adsid\u00ader to be your strongest argu\u00adments please let me know: I am being selec\u00adtive, but I\u2019m try\u00ading to be selec\u00adtive with integri\u00adty.<\/i><\/p>\n

In this post I\u2019ll try to pro\u00advide a broad\u00ader under\u00adstand\u00ading of bap\u00adtism. It may be long, so buck\u00adle your seat\u00adbelts! My basic the\u00adsis will be that bap\u00adtism is an expres\u00adsion of sal\u00adva\u00adtion, and not a means of sal\u00adva\u00adtion as held by cer\u00adtain church\u00ades<\/b>. Bap\u00adtism is of vital impor\u00adtance in the life of the believ\u00ader and is more than an archa\u00adic rit\u00adu\u00adal, yet it is not ulti\u00admate\u00adly salvif\u00adic.<\/p>\n

Jack and Sean\u2019s obser\u00adva\u00adtions fall into two cat\u00ade\u00adgories: scrip\u00adtur\u00adal and his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal. <\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to begin by offer\u00ading my own scrip\u00adtur\u00adal obser\u00adva\u00adtions.<\/b>
\nThe Bible is clear that sal\u00adva\u00adtion issues from plac\u00ading one\u2019s faith [belief plus trust] in Jesus. There are sev\u00ader\u00adal rel\u00ade\u00advant pas\u00adsages of Scrip\u00adture, ref\u00ader\u00adenc\u00ading a few should suf\u00adfice: John 3.16\u201318<\/a>, Acts 16.31, Romans 3.23\u201324<\/a>, Gala\u00adtians 3.26\u201327<\/a>, Eph\u00adesians 2.8\u20139<\/a>, 1 John 5.1<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n

These pas\u00adsages are clear: God adopts us into His fam\u00adi\u00adly when we place our faith in Jesus. I don\u2019t see such a clar\u00adi\u00adty in the pas\u00adsages Jack ref\u00ader\u00adences<\/a> or in the ones that Sean ref\u00ader\u00adences<\/a>. I do see an empha\u00adsis on the impor\u00adtance of bap\u00adtism, but I don\u2019t see a demon\u00adstra\u00adtion of bap\u00adtism as a means of sal\u00adva\u00adtion. <\/p>\n

The only texts Jack raised which might even seem to teach salvif\u00adic bap\u00adtism are towards the end of his post, The Church would also point to the words of Peter and Paul on how bap\u00adtism incor\u00adpo\u00adrates us into the Body of Christ: Romans 6:3\u20134<\/a>; Col 2:12 <\/a> \u2026 1 Cor 6:11<\/a>.<\/i> [note: I edit\u00aded slight\u00adly for length]. In each of these vers\u00ades, Paul is speak\u00ading descrip\u00adtive\u00adly: all the believ\u00aders had been bap\u00adtized, so he can speak of bap\u00adtism as a syn\u00adonym for being a believ\u00ader.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019d like to make a few his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal com\u00adments:<\/b>
\nFirst, I\u2019d like to acknowl\u00adedge that the ear\u00adly church clear\u00adly thought that bap\u00adtism was salvif\u00adic<\/a>. <\/p>\n

I\u2019d also like to say that it\u2019s an unper\u00adsua\u00adsive point. The\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy evolves. Over time the church grad\u00adu\u00adal\u00adly comes to a deep\u00ader under\u00adstand\u00ading of the ram\u00adi\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtions of the Bible\u2019s teach\u00ading and incor\u00adpo\u00adrates it into our the\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy. The most well-known exam\u00adple is the doc\u00adtrine of the Trin\u00adi\u00adty. All the clues were in the Bible, it just took the Church a few cen\u00adturies to put them togeth\u00ader in a con\u00adsis\u00adtent way.<\/p>\n

The ear\u00adly church fathers were wrong about bap\u00adtism. They clear\u00adly did not under\u00adstand the Scrip\u00adtures at this point. In fact, I\u2019m will\u00ading to bet that there were diver\u00adgent views among the ear\u00adly church the\u00adolo\u00adgians about bap\u00adtism (I just don\u2019t have the his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal exper\u00adtise to know them off the top of my head or the time to fer\u00adret them out).<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to close by explain\u00ading what bap\u00adtism does.<\/b>
\nJack asked me what exact\u00adly I think bap\u00adtism does:
\n1) Bap\u00adtism forces peo\u00adple to pub\u00adlicly pro\u00adfess their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
\n2) Bap\u00adtism requires a pub\u00adlic dis\u00adplay of sol\u00adi\u00addar\u00adi\u00adty with the Church.
\n3) Bap\u00adtism is a test of obe\u00addi\u00adence. Some\u00adone unwill\u00ading to fol\u00adlow Christ in such a small thing can\u00adnot be prop\u00ader\u00adly called a fol\u00adlow\u00ader of Christ.
\n4) Bap\u00adtism is an object les\u00adson in faith, and pro\u00advides excel\u00adlent sym\u00adbol\u00adism that can be used to help peo\u00adple under\u00adstand the gospel.<\/p>\n

Bap\u00adtism does all these things, and prob\u00ada\u00adbly a good deal more. It does not, how\u00adev\u00ader, save any\u00adone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bap\u00adtism is an expres\u00adsion of sal\u00adva\u00adtion, and not a means of sal\u00adva\u00adtion as held by cer\u00adtain church\u00ades. Bap\u00adtism is of vital impor\u00adtance in the life of the believ\u00ader and is more than an archa\u00adic rit\u00adu\u00adal, yet it is not ulti\u00admate\u00adly salvif\u00adic.<\/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_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"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}]}}