Reformed Baptist Distinctives: Baptism Part 2

Baptism is Immersion
The proper mode of baptism is immersion in water. This is the meaning of the word baptizing in Matthew 28:19, which is translated from the Greek word transliterated baptizo, which is defined "(1) to dip repeatedly, to immerse, to submerge (of vessels sunk) (2) to cleanse by dipping or submerging, to wash, to make clean with water, to wash one’s self, bathe (3) to overwhelm"

The Greek words for sprinkling are different, and are transliterated rhantizo or rhantismos, which are used in the New Testament in reference to O.T. ritual purification (Hebrews 9:13, 21, 11:28) and the fulfillment of that which ritual purification pointed to, Christ's death being applied for the purification of believers united to him by faith, which is justification (Hebrews 10:22, 12:24, 1Peter 1:2). Although baptism signifies our justification, the use of the word sprinkling in the New Testament refers to the very act of justification in our uniting to Christ by faith.

Likewise, the Greek words translated in English to indicate pouring is used of different words, transliterated variously as ekcheo, ballo, didomi, epicheo, katacheo, and spendo, and are used many times in the New Testament in different contexts but never in reference to the ordinance of baptism.

It is difficult for me to understand how sprinkling and pouring could possibly be considered immersion or dipping, which is the literal translation of the very Greek word for baptism. If we use the English equivalents of the Greek terms: sprinkle, pour, dip - these three words mean three different things and to use them interchangeably is absurd. It could and should be concluded from this alone that the proper mode of baptism is immersion, but there is more evidence for immersion as we shall see.

Reformed Baptist Distinctives: Baptism Part 1

I have been, slowly and sporadically, working on content for my website. The latest is an original article about Christian Baptism. Hopefully I will have it completed before I die.

In the completed form at my website, there will be extensive footnotes and links as usual. But in the meantime, I thought I would blog the article in sections to keep you interested.

Baptism

It is unfortunate that among modern Baptist churches that the doctrine of the ordinance of baptism has often been neglected and weakened into relative insignificance, or else confused with mixture of errors that have never been practiced or believed by Baptists, but have found there way in as Baptists have rejected statements of orthodoxy and despised our historic roots. This arises from the importance of doctrine being relegated to only very core Christian distinctives, and often not even that, with nearly the entirety of church polity being open to various interpretations and beliefs which are all too readily accepted by an ignorant and apathetic laity.

As Dr. Timothy George has observed:

"The recovery of a robust doctrine of believers' Baptism can serve as an antidote to the theological minimalism and atomistic individualism which prevailin many credobaptist churches in our culture."

What follows is a short treatise on the Reformed Baptist theology of baptism,
which is an attempt at a recovery of the historic Baptist doctrine. I will give
positive statements of what baptism is, signifies, and the right administration
of it, as well as address some of the common errors.

Baptism is a New Testament Ordinance of Perpetuity

Baptism and the Lords Supper are ordinances of positive, and soveraign institution; appointed by the Lord Jesus the only Law-giver, to be continued in his Church to the end of the world. (1689 LBCF, Chapter 28: Of Baptism and the Lord's Supper)

Baptism is an Ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, to be unto the party Baptized, a sign of his fellowship with him, in his death, and resurrection; of his being engrafted into him; of remission of sins; and of his giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of Life. (1689 LBCF, Chapter 29: Of Baptism)

An ordinance is a regulative statute, or rule of law, ordained by a governing authority, with the limits and due administration of the statute prescribed by that governing authority. Jesus Christ is the governing authority of the church, and it is he who commanded the institution of the ordinance, its limits, and the right administration of it.

Jesus Christ gave the ordinance of baptism to the church after his resurrection, in his final address to his disciples before he ascended to the Father, known as "The Great Commission":

Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with
you always, to the end of the age."

Jesus starts by stating that he has been given authority to institute commands to the church; "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.". He then commands that the gospel be preached throughout the world; "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations," Disciples are students and followers of Christ; viz." teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." He then commands that his disciples be baptised; "baptizing them". Christ gives the ordinance as an institution to be observed in perpetuity, or, "without end", till he comes at the end of the age;

"The commission was given, just before Christ ascended to heaven, and was
designed for the dispensation which was to follow ... Since the ascension of
Christ, no change of dispensation has occurred by which the commission could be
revoked. The promise which it contains, of Christ's presence until the end of
the world, implies its perpetuity. Under this commission the ministers of Christ
now act, and by it they are bound, according to the manifest intention of his
words, to administer water baptism."

The strange world of Dr. Scott Clark

Dr. R. Scott Clark is finally drawing some attention to himself with his incredibly sectarian views on what it means to be "Reformed" and "Covenantal". Dr. Bob Gonzales, dean of Reformed Baptist Seminary
has written a short article calling attention to Clark's contentions, including this amazing statement:

We would discipline someone if they left our church and began attending a baptistic congregation or a sect…. I don’t think that any congregation that denies the administration of baptism to covenant children can be a true church. I don’t see how any baptistic congregation is practicing the “pure administration” of the sacraments

Good thing Dr. Clark left that baptistic sect he used to belong to and discovered the true church. At least he was baptised with true Christian baptism before he left.

I don't believe that Dr. Clark considers Baptists to be damnably heretical, so I have to wonder how he reconciles the idea that he has that a person can be in the body of Christ and not a member of the true church. That is a strange idea to say the least.

Ironically, in another statement quoted by James White at the Alpha & Omega blog, Clark accuses Baptists of the same error:

As a consequence, we regard our children as Christians and as baptized persons. Baptists, of course, do not regard our children as Baptized persons nor do they regard those of us who've not been re-baptized as Baptized persons!

That's a huge matter. According to the Baptists I'm not a Christian. That's no small thing.

Evidentally Dr. Clark associates baptism with Christianity so closely that one can be saved and not a Christian. I am really confused about this one, but I can say for sure no Baptist would say that anyone is not a Christian because they havn't been baptised.

Note that in the same statement he admitts that he believes that his infant children are Christians simply be recieving infant baptism.

So in Clark's strange world one one can be unsaved and Christian, saved but not a member of the true church, saved but not a Christian.

Dr. Gonzales lists a few good links to discussions about Baptist use of the adjective "Reformed". I have a feeling this conversation is just getting warmed up.

I'm still around

You may be wondering why I haven't blogged in a while. Well it's a combination of laziness, lack of time, and really not having anything much to say. I know most people use their blogs as they are meant to be used- as a public diary of sorts. I'm not sure that my day to day musings and thoughts are worth sharing as a whole, and, frankly, I'm not sure most of the blog posts I read are worth reading.

At any rate, I have a couple of interesting links for you.

The first is a blog by an old internet friend of mine, goes by the handle
Graceshaker. The Holy Wild

He doesn't like categories like "Reformed" and "Calvinist" and "Baptist" and so-forth, which is OK because he doesn't really fit into any of them. Some of his beliefs I strongly disagree with. Nevertheless, Graceshaker has a strong belief in God's absolute sovereignty and man's depravity, and the gospel of grace. His blog is more like what a blog was meant to be (as I described above), and is really some of the most interesting reading around.

Next is an exciting (to me) new internet resource, Puritan Picks.

It is a DVD lending library business similar to Netflix, without all the wickedness. They not only have documentary and educational videos, but lots of clean entertainment DVDs as well.

Lastly, I may as well introduce my new website, A Confessional Baptist.

I had hope to have more content there by now, but, for the same reasons I haven't updated my blog in a good while, I don't. What is available is a presentation of the gospel, the 1689 LBCF, the Baptist Catechism (Keach's), Cambridge Declaration, Daily Scripture readings, memorization, a couple of devotional and news feeds, and a link to my Cafe Press store.

The next thing I will have ready on the website will be the Canons of Dort, and it will be up soon. After that, i will tackle a little original writing with articles about Reformed Baptist Distinctives and then I don't know. I hope you enjoy the site and find it's resources useful. Feel free to tell me what you think here or through the contact form at the website.

Reformed Baptist? Me Too!

Pastor Keith Throop is one of my long time favorites of the "Christian Blogosphere" and internet who, like myself, takes exception to those who would claim exclusive use of the descriptor "Reformed". At least excluding Baptists.

Unlike myself he writes his prose with charitable even-handedness and level-headedness which is too often lacking in the many "poison pens" on the Internet.

His most recent post on why he calls himself a Reformed Baptist in response to former Reformed Baptist R. Scott Clark's repeated assertions that such phrase is a misnomer is no exception, in which Pastor Throop lists three reasons why he believes that Baptists can have a legitimate and historically accurate use of the term.

Here is an excerpt from his post:

Second, Clark's comments seem to assume the idea that there is a monolithic historical understanding of the meaning the English word reformed. But this is simply not true. There are broader and more narrow senses in which the word may be used, and not all of these require the specific understanding to which he apparently wishes to restrict usage of the term. In addition, I see know [sic]reason why a modifier cannot be attached to the word that in effect alters and qualifies its meaning so as to rule out the kind of misunderstanding that Clark is apparently concerned about. One such modifier – as I have already noted – is the term baptist, which immediately communicates a distinctive use of the word reformed.

Read the whole post here: Why I Call Myself a Reformed Baptist

It may be a coinkidink, but the two voices that I hear loudest (Dr.s R. Scott Clark and Matthew McMahon) in objecting to Baptists using the term "Reformed" as a descriptor are themselves former Baptists. I suppose this is usually the case, with former Dispensationalists being the most belligerent towards that system, Roman Catholics the most critical of that movement, etc.

I myself am a former Independent Fundamental Pauline Dispensational Scofield Reading Pre-Trib Rapturing Semi Pelagian'in King James Only Baptist (IFBSRPTRSPKJVOB) and frankly find my shortened self identifier much easier to say and abbreviate; Reformed Baptist, (RB). Nice ring to it too.

Dr.s Clark and McMahon are both very edifying brothers in most respects, by the way, and I with good conscience endorse them both to all y'all Reformed Baptists.

Get ready for my new website

This week I've begun construction of a new site to replace my old site. The main reason is that I want to use a domain name and a different name (the new site will be "A Confessional Baptist" like this blog), and since I don't use any dynamic server side software this would mean going through the pages of my old site and changing hundreds of links by hand, something I'm not willing to devote the time to.

Other reasons are the archaic look and rather clunky HTML. My HTML skills are far from mad, but hopefully the new site will be slicker, cleaner, more modern looking, and easier for me to keep updated. I hope that it will be more cross-browser functional, as the non-IE browsers are gaining in popularity.

As far as content changes, the new site will be more focused on Reformed Baptist resources. There are a lot of Reformed resource sites on the internet, but very few that focus and give preference to Reformed Baptist resources. The Reformed Reader is still online and the best site I've found for Reformed Baptist info but it is no longer being updated. As far as generally Reformed resource sites, nobody can beat Monergism.com and they have that well covered. No need to re-invent the wheel.

The content will be mostly categorized off-site links, but I will have some confessional Baptist documents on site and original articles. My plan is to have an introductory page for each category with links to on-site and off-site resources that are category specific. Preference will be given to Reformed Baptist resources in every category.

Lord willing I will have the site up and running in the next couple of months. I'll keep you posted. If there is anything you would like to see on a website let me know in the comments to this post and I will consider it.