In our Ask FGBC Anything video series, listeners submit questions that we then answer in a video format.

Transcript

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

baptism, full immersion, water, sprinkled, scripture, baptist, baptized, mode, word, romans, face, coming, poured, beautiful, wretches, needy, improper, believer, preach, paleo

SPEAKERS

Pastor Mike Kirkpatrick, Pastor Jim Butler, Wim Kerkhoff

Wim Kerkhoff  00:07

I talk to people, obviously at church and different places, around baptism, coming from a paedo baptism background like I have. And this question is around like the baptism and just yet what is scriptural? So this question is, what are the valid modes of baptism: sprinkling, pouring, complete immersion? And how do you get to set a scripture? What are some proofs from scripture on that?

Pastor Mike Kirkpatrick  00:39

I’m gonna sound super pretentious to worry about to say, but there’s valid invalid baptism, and then it’s proper improper mode of baptism. And so we certainly would view an infant baptism as invalid because a valid baptism, baptism is upon profession of faith. But our confession does talk about the due administration, which distinguishes that proper and improper mode. And so certainly, even when the Baptist forefathers were ironing these things out and coming to a Baptist understanding, initially, there were some differences as far as far as you know, using face washing instead of full immersion. But I think biblically speaking, they all came to the agreement that it was it is full immersion, I think you see that in Scripture. I mean, Jesus, when He’s baptized, he goes under, he comes out of the water, just the language of baptism. So so I’m getting a little technical here, but the way the language is used does highlight the full immersion and being dunked rather than sprinkled or face washed. And so the scriptures I do think are very clear in that way.

Wim Kerkhoff  01:45

And the eunuch as well. Yes. There was there was water there, right? It wasn’t just a water bottle or a water glass. And that’s poured it over your head. But they went down into the water.

Pastor Jim Butler  01:57

Historically, the debates always been subjects and mode, who is the persons or who are the persons that should be baptized? And what mode of baptism is to be applied? So as a believer as Baptists, we believe that they should be believers, and by full immersion, and then the theology of Romans six man, you’re dead, you’re buried, you’re raised again with Jesus Christ. It you know, I realized that doesn’t carry the day and the debates, but it certainly does carry the day when we look at it. And as Mike mentioned earlier, in terms of regulative principle of worship, we, we preach the Word, we read the word, we pray the Word, we sing the word and we see the word and we see that word in the sacraments of baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. In our church, it’s quite common when we have a baptism to invite the children not to the font, but to the front, so that they can witness and one of the things that I like to try and point out to them, it’s like a story book or a picture book that doesn’t have any words, you go down to the store and you buy a book on beautiful BC. You don’t need words, you just see those images and you’re convinced that b c is beautiful. Well, when you see somebody in that water, go under that water and come out of that water, it does reflect what God does with needy centers, he saves them they were dead with Christ, they were buried with Christ, they’ve been raised with Christ. And that’s precisely what the Apostle does in Romans six.

Wim Kerkhoff  03:29

Yeah, I still agree 100% It’s a beautiful picture to think of Jesus died and rose again. And we don’t just need to be we’re such wretches, we can’t just be sprinkled with that we need to be immersed and we need to be baptized. Yes. Like say when you have a a dirty dish, you put it in the sink like you don’t just drip water on it, you put it right in the water and the soap and the bubbles and you clean that thing.

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