Is a Burial

The mode of baptism is a subject that has been much controverted by theologians. But the Word of God is very plain on this subject; and a few Scriptural considerations will be sufficient to show the humble follower of Christ that immersion is the Bible mode of baptism. In fact, almost without exception theologians admit the validity of immersion; the chief controversy has arisen over the effort on the part of many to prove that sprinkling or pouring also is valid.

All scholars admit “immersion” to be the plain English equivalent of the Greek word baptizo. “Sprinkle” and “pour” are not equivalent, as the lexicons testify. There are three words in the Greek language that are equivalent respectively to the three English words “immerse,” “sprinkle,” and “pour.” Now, whenever the Bible speaks of baptism as a literal Christian rite, it always employs the Greek word that is the equivalent of the English word “immerse.” If the Bible writers, using Greek, desired to convey the idea of “pour,” why did they not use the Greek word that signifies “pour,” instead of the word that signifies “immerse”? or use a word for “sprinkle” if they meant “sprinkle”? The reason is clear to all fair-minded men: they said what they meant, and meant what they said.

This distinction is so clear that wherever the literal Christian rite is spoken of one can substitute the word immerse without in any sense changing the meaning; whereas in many cases if we can substitute the word sprinkle or pour, the passage is made ridiculous. There is no mention of sprinkling or pouring for baptism during the first two centuries, when it was introduced in case of sickness and was not regarded as regular. Furthermore, all the facts and circumstances concerning baptism, recorded in the New Testament, harmonize with the doctrine of immersion, but not on any other supposition.

The historians, as Neander, Mosheim, Wall, Weiss, Ewald, Geikie, Eidersheimer, De Pressense, Conybeare, Stanley, Schaff, and many others, all testify that immersion was the primitive practice. This was also affirmed by the reformers, as Luther, Calvin, Wesley, and others.

A few years ago a noted American minister, whose name is familiar in almost every household and who belonged to a church that always sprinkles for baptism, made a trip to the Holy Land, where he had his photograph taken in the act of immersing a candidate in the river Jordan. Why was this? Because he knew, as all well-informed men know, that immersion was the primitive practice. It is probably because the act of immersion is a little inconvenient, and rather humiliating to vanity and pride, that such great efforts are made to substitute something else.

Baptism is a ceremonial representation of the burial and resurrection of our Lord; therefore only immersion is appropriate. In fact, the individual believer symbolically follows Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. First he dies the death to sin, is “crucified with Christ”* (Galatians 2:20); then he is “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.”* (Colossians 2:12) Baptism thus becomes to the individual an outward sign of an inward work. First we “are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh”* (verse 11); then we are “buried with him in baptism,”* (verse 12) as just quoted.

The same idea is alluded to in that remarkable passage in Romans 6:1-4: “How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?… 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.”

“Buried with him.” Was Christ buried in baptism? Yes. John was baptizing “in Jordan”* (Matthew 8:6); “In the river of Jordan.”* (Mark 1:5) “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him…. 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: and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”* (Matthew 3:13-17) Jesus evidently went down into the Jordan in order to be baptized; for after His baptism, He “went up straightway out of the water.” Here we have the highest authority for immersion in water, which is thus shown to be heaven’s plan:

1. Jesus Himself, the Son of God, set the example. That of itself should be sufficient.

2. The Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity, bore witness, by appearing visibly in the form of a dove and lighting upon Christ.

3. The Father Himself declared in audible tones, “I am well pleased.”

Reader, if you desire Bible baptism, follow the example of the Son of God, and you will receive a witness of the Spirit; while the Father Himself, speaking to your heart, will say, “I am well pleased.”

This is the way baptism was administered in the apostolic church. In the eighth chapter of Acts we read about Philip’s meeting a certain eunuch and holding a conversation with him concerning the Scripture. “And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?… 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. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.”* (Acts 8:36-39) This passage would be meaningless and ridiculous connected with the idea of sprinkling or pouring; but it is perfectly consistent with the Bible standard, for we are “buried with him in baptism.”* (Colossians 2:12)

So in order to fulfil the Word of God perfectly and secure a valid baptism the candidate must observe the following:

1. He must know, or hear, the gospel, which is usually through a minister (Mark 16:15).
2. He must repent of his sins and believe the gospel, the doing of which will effect his salvation (Acts 3:19; 16:31; 2:38).
3. He must find a minister of God that is ready to baptize him (Acts 8:36-37).
4. Preacher and candidate must go together to a place where there is “much water.”* (John 3:23)
5. Then they must go “down both into the water,”* (Acts 8:38) thus following the example of Christ in His baptism (Matthew 3:16).
6. Then he must be “buried with Him in baptism.”* (Colossians 2:12)
7. Both preacher and candidate can then “come up out of the water.”* (Acts 8:39)
8. Then the candidate, having obeyed the Word and followed his Lord, can go “on his way rejoicing.”* (Acts 8:39)

Reader, have you met Bible conditions and been baptized in this way? If not, you have not been baptized at all; for nothing short of this constitutes a valid baptism.

Some humble ministers of Christ may not be able to follow the learned scholars into the Greek language in order to understand all about the meaning of words; but after reading the plain accounts of how baptism was performed by the apostles, they can be satisfied to do as they did.