Jesus Sprinkles, Not Immerses
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 3:16-17
Here are a few points you seem to be ignoring:
1) It took place in the
Jordan River. (Matt 3:6, Matt 3:13) - Not a church with a bowl of water, and there is no mention of sprinkling a few drops on his forehead.
2) He came up out of the water. - The words "up" and "out of the water" indicate that he was down or submerged, even if only for a moment.
3) The Greek word for baptism itself (Baptizo) means to immerse, dip or submerge.
Another example is in Acts 8, the Ethiopian eunuch who became a believer. I'm going to bold some important parts to pay attention to:
As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?” And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him.
So as you can see, belief with all one's heart is a prerequisite. And as you can see, for them to both be standing in the water clearly shows that it wasn't like a church baby baptism were the priest is dry and there is a bowl of water and a few drops are sprinkled.
During a water baptism, the person who is doing the baptizing is also in the water, whether it's a river, ocean or pool....any place where a person can be immersed.
I've shared this a few times before, but I'll share it again. Towards the beginning of this video is a short clip of my water baptism. (you don't have to watch the whole thing... just the first 30 seconds or so)
Lilymc, there are a few problems with your view above that I'd like to address:
1. Indeed, Matthew 3:17 says that Jesus "went up straightway out of the water." However, His coming up out of the water occurred
after He was baptized. Just read the passage again, for it says, "And Jesus,
when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water." So, His baptism happened, and then He got out of the water. The text doesn't say that Jesus was baptized by going in and out of the water. Thus, you're assuming that His mode of baptism was by immersion, using a phrase incorrectly, which you don't even apply consistently (as I'll show you in a moment).
But just because Jesus was baptized in a large body of water does not mean that He must have been immersed in it. The apostle Paul tells us that the Old Testament Church was baptized in a large body of water (the Red Sea), but we know that the waters of the sea never touched them because they were baptized from water above them (cf. Psalm 77:17). Thus, in Paul's view, Israel's baptism under Moses was a true baptism, and it did not occur by immersion. It was the Egyptian Army that was immersed in the sea because God drowned them in its waters, in judgment.
2. In Acts 8, we're told that the Ethiopian eunuch was reading from the prophet Isaiah (v. 28). Then in Verse 32, we're shown what place the eunuch was reading from, as it cites from Isaiah 53:7: "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth." After Philip explains to him that the passage is referring to Jesus, the eunuch asks, "See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?" Now where did the eunuch get that idea from? We're not told that Philip mentioned baptism to him, after all. When we consider the context of what the eunuch was reading, we find in Isaiah 52:13-15 (which, by the way, there were no chapter and verse divisions in the Old Testament scrolls) that it says:
Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently, He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. As many were astonied at Thee, His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men, so shall He sprinkle many nations...
Thus, it appears that the Ethiopian eunuch understood that he should be baptized because of the sprinkling language in Isaiah, and that definitely was the mode of cleansing and purification in the Old Testament. So, the context still doesn't imply that the Ethiopian eunuch's baptism was by immersion.
But here is where you get inconsistent, lilymc. You cite Acts 8:38, where it says, "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," as a prooftext that baptism is by immersion, emphasizing the phrase "they went down both into the water." In your baptism video, there was only one person who "went down into the water" (you), even though the Acts 8:38 passage says that "they
both went down into the water." So, given your hermeneutical standard, it would appear that your baptism was not done properly by the language of the text because the person who baptized you did not go "into the water" when you did. So, was it a valid immersion?
Also, we find the same problem of sequence that I addressed in the Matthew 3 passage, concerning the action of going into the water and the act of being baptized. In Acts 8:38, it states, "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." Notice that at the end of that passage, it tells us that Philip baptized the eunuch. But then in the beginning of Verse 39, we read, "And when they were come up out of the water..." So, the eunuch's baptism occurred
before they both came up out of the water. From a Baptist interpretation, they see those two verses as teaching baptism by immersion, explicitly, by its use of their "going down into the water" and their "coming up out of the water." However, in the middle of those two clauses, it says that Philip baptized the eunuch. So, it is not likely that that passage is teaching baptism by immersion,
or else you have to say that both the baptizer and the recipient must go under the water together. But your baptism in your video shows otherwise, lilymc.
I haven't seen you here in a while.
