Biblical Discipleship Ministries BAPTISM Dr. Jobe Martin Biblical Discipleship Ministries www.biblicaldiscipleship.org

BAPTISM “To be identified with” “To consecrate” “To immerse” DEFINITION: “To be identified with” “To consecrate” “To immerse”

BAPTISM: FOUR TYPES 1) WATER BAPTISM: To immerse or place in a body of water To sprinkle (affusion) with water 2) HOLY SPIRIT BAPTISM: “For John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit….” Acts 1:5

BAPTISM: FOUR TYPES 3) DRY BAPTISM: “…all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” 1 Corinthians 10b-11 4) JESUS’ CRUCIFIXION BAPTISM: See: Matthew 20:22-23

WATER BAPTISM:TWO KINDS IMMERSION: “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….” Matt. 3:16 AFFUSION: “And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes and was baptized….” Acts 16:33

WATER BAPTISM: WHAT PURPOSE? IDENTIFICATION?: Is water baptism a ritualistic testimony of a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ that he/she has been washed clean of their sins and raised to new life in Christ by faith in Jesus Christ? SALVATION?: Is water baptism necessary for the forgiveness of sins (regeneration) or for the reception of God’s grace?

WATER BAPTISM: WHAT PURPOSE? In the Great Commission of Matt. 28:19 Jesus says: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the holy ghost….” BUT in 1 Corinthians 1:14, 17a Paul says: “I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius…. For

WATER BAPTISM: WHAT PURPOSE? Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel….” [Paul separates baptism from the Gospel.] Paul is referring to water baptism in First Corinthians, but Jesus is using the term “baptism” in the sense of “identification” with the unique trinitarian God of the Bible [Father, Son, Holy Spirit] in contrast to the monotheist and polytheist of His day.

IS WATER BAPTISM NECESSARY FOR SALVATION??? “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Acts 2:21 “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,…” Acts 16:30b-31a

IS WATER BAPTISM NECESSARY FOR SALVATION??? “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Romans 10:9 “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13

IS WATER BAPTISM NECESSARY FOR SALVATION??? “But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out,…” Acts 3:18,19a

WATER BAPTISM IS NOT NECESSARY FOR SALVATION!!! See also: John 3:16, 36 Romans 4:1-17; 11:6 Galatians 3:8,9 Ephesians 2:8,9 Acts 13:38-30; 26:18

ACTS 2:38 “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, (you plural) [and be baptized (2nd Sing.) every one (“each,” singular) of you in the name of Jesus Christ] for the remission of your (2nd plural) sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” “The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas….” Matthew 12:41

MORE ABOUT ACTS 2:38 The main verb is repent (metanoesate pl). It refers to initial repentance to salvation. Be baptized is indirect passive imperative singular and does not have the same force as the direct command “repent.” The preposition “for” (eis=unto) means “for the purpose of identifying you with the remission of sins.” This same “eis” is

MORE ABOUT ACTS 2:38 is used in 1Corinthans 10:2 = “And all were baptized unto (eis) Moses.” These people were identifying themselves with the work and ministry of Moses. Repentance concerns an individual and God but baptism is a testimony to others. “Be baptized” (passive) means you do not baptize yourself, someone does it to you.

MORE ABOUT ACTS 2:38 If baptism in the passive means someone else must do it to you, then the solitary person who comes to faith in the Lord Jesus by reading the Gospel cannot be baptized. If baptism is essential for salvation and the solitary person cannot baptize him/herself according to the biblical method then they are not saved! NO!

MORE ABOUT ACTS 2:38 Peter uses the same words as in Acts 2:38 in Acts 10:43: “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” Here in 10:43 forgiveness of sins is on the basis of belief (faith) alone.

MORE ABOUT ACTS 2:38 In Luke 24:47 and Acts 5:31 the same writer, Luke, indicates that repentence results in the remission of sins. “And that repentence and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem.”Lk 24:47 “…a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” Acts 5:31

BAPTISMAL REGENERATION Acts 2:38 Matthew 28:19-20 Mark 16:15-16 John 3:3-5 Acts 22:16 Romans 6:3-4 1 Corinthians 12:13 Galatians 3:26-27 Ephesians 5:25-27 Colossians 2:11-13 Titus 3:5 1 Peter 3:21

MARK 16:16 Mark 16:9-20 are the most contested vv. in the New Testament as to their origin. Verse 16 “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;…” The baptism may refer to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body….” 1 Corinthians 12:13a

BELIEVERS’ BAPTISM “The name suggests the crucial point of this view of baptism: only those who have personally confessed their sins and have turned to Jesus Christ as their Saviour should be baptized…. Christians adopted this view because they were convinced that believers’ baptism was the practice of N. T. churches.

BELIEVERS’ BAPTISM The strength of this view lies in its stress on faith and repentance as conditions for baptism. Within this framework the out- ward symbol serves most clearly as a testimony to an inward spiritual reality.” Bruce L. Shelley, Why Baptism?

IN OTHER WORDS: Baptism is for the person who has knowingly and consciously repented of their sin and put their faith and trust in the crucified and resurrected Lord Jesus Christ as God’s only provision for their forgiveness and eternal salvation. Baptism should follow salvation as the Believer’s testimony to the world around.

I JOHN 5:11-13 (no baptism mentioned as needed for eternal life) And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his son. He that has the son has life; and he that has not the son of God has not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the son of God.