Believer's Baptism: Short Review of Its Rationale and History

The movie OH BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? popularized the Appalachian hymn DOWN TO THE WATER TO PRAY, with its celebration of baptism. Incredibly, the movie’s protagonist (George Clooney) dismissed baptism, scoffing at the notion of eternal life, and saying he had bigger fish to fry. Hardly!

We have scheduled baptism for Resurrection Sunday, April 12, as part of our Easter service. The early Christians always celebrated baptism at Easter because it so dramatically depicts the resurrection. Those being baptized are lowered into a watery grave, and then raised up to live out their new lives in obedience to Christ.

What is baptism? Is it an act that gets you heaven’s eternal reward (as the character in the movie claimed)? Is it something which must be done to infants to keep them from hell in case they die? Is it like a kindergarten graduation ceremony or a birthday party to make someone feel special? Baptism is often misunderstood and underappreciated by the Church, even by us Baptists who carry its namesake (the 2008 Baptist Hymnal, for example, lists but two baptism hymns!).

The earliest generation of Christians offered baptism only to believers. They tested the new convert, they explained salvation to them, and only then were they baptized.

Early Christians were understandably concerned about the salvation of their infants, especially since infant mortality rates were so high. Early in the history of Christianity, there arose a pervasive misunderstanding of baptism which led people to think that baptism confers a saving grace on the person being baptized; this led them to infant baptism. This view depended on the dubious interpretation that baptism is the New Testament equivalent of circumcision. Israelite baby boys were “born into the covenant” by virtue of their descent from Abraham, and parents circumcised them to demonstrate their allegiance to God. The coming of Christ and the New Covenant put an end to this. Children are not born “in Christ” or into the New Covenant. A person can only be born again in Christ through faith. This is why Baptists baptize only believers, and assert that babies (and those with mental disabilities) are already in a state of grace until they reach a certain maturity (“age of accountability”).

Churches that practice infant baptism do so in order that the parents might demonstrate their own faith, and promise to raise the child in the nurture of the church. For Baptists, this is the essential meaning of baby dedication. Biblical baptism says nothing about other people’s faith. Rather, baptism is about the faith of the one being baptized. Baptists offer parents the opportunity to dedicate their babies to the Lord as an expression of the parents’ faith.

 During the Middle Ages, there was an essential unity of Church and State. Every person in the king’s realm practiced the king’s religion. In Christian states, everyone (or nearly everyone) was baptized, whether or not they were believers. Everyone claimed to be a Christian simply because they were baptized, even if they lived like the devil. This practice was profoundly contrary to Jesus’ command to go, make believers, and then baptize them (Matt 28:18-20).

As Christians had better access to the Bible in their own language, the Baptist movement emerged. The core issue that distinguished Baptists from others was the “Believer’s Church,” and that only those who have professed a genuine faith belong to God’s Church. For this doctrine, Baptists were regularly persecuted (even in America during and after colonial days; see the image of Obadiah Holmes being whipped for his Baptist faith). Some were actually drowned as a mock re-baptism. Baptists were so convinced that only believers should be baptized that they were willing to die for their doctrine.

For our part, Baptists believe that the first urgency—the first order of business for a new follower of Jesus, is to obey his command to be baptized. Baptism is not optional. Nor is it to be deferred for the sake of one's personal feelings or preferences. If one fails to be obedient to this first command, what is the point of following Jesus at all?

Yet, baptism is not something which saves. Rather, the person who is already saved is called to be baptized. That is, baptism is for those who have already decided to follow Jesus. Indeed, baptism is a person's declaration to the world: "I am a Christian. I follow Jesus. I pledge my life and devotion to him." As such, baptism is not a private event. It is a public event, to be undertaken before many witnesses.

Moreover, baptism is a multifaceted symbol: 1) the washing away of sins through faith in Christ; 2) the death and burial of the old life, and the beginning of the new life; and 3) the placement of a person into the family of God, the Church.

If you are already a believer but have not received believer's baptism, we invite you to come down to the river to follow Christ in baptism.

Baptist Primary Distinctives: Soul Competency and “Believers’ Church”

The Baptist movement was forged in an age when a kingdom’s subjects were required to belong to the monarch’s own religion, and in an age when that religion was being switched back and forth with every other new monarch. Moreover, the Baptist movement was forged in an age when infants were baptised into their parents’ religion. And finally, the Baptist movement was forged in an age when everyone belonged to the church. These cultural factors significantly influenced Baptist distinctives.

In broad categories, Baptist distinctives can be brought down to two urgencies. The first urgency has historically been known as Soul Competency. Soul competency arises out of the conviction that the Spirit dwells in every believer. To be sure, this was an emphasis in all the Reformation churches, providing the impetus for bypassing intermediaries such as priest, bishop, and pope for one’s access to God’s forgiveness of sin. However, Baptists thought more deeply and more consistently about the indwelling of the Spirit than other movements. This doctrine informed their polity in that they accepted “congregational governance,” refusing to accept the notion that a powerful bishop or powerful elder board should rule over the congregation by fiat; rather, they embraced the notion that the congregation itself was competent to make decisions about its own ministry. This also implied that Christians did not have to embrace the religion or theology of the Crown, resulting in the martyrdom of many Baptist preachers who languished under poor health conditions in jails throughout Britain in the 17th century, including, for example, John Bunyan. Thus, the concept of the separation of church and state historically was first espoused and cogently argued by Baptists, although the term has been much abused in recent American history and political life.

The second urgency was a view of the church as a “voluntary association.” That is to say, people were not members of the church on the basis of their parents’ decision to have them baptised as infants. Rather, inclusion in the church was on the basis of the individual’s decision to follow Jesus, and upon his profession of faith as he was immersed in the waters of baptism. Early Baptists recoiled at the notion of baptising unbelievers, which is precisely what happens when an infant is baptised.

These two urgencies had several practical outcomes in the local church. First, Baptist churches were countercultural; in a culture where everyone belonged to the official, State-sponsored church, Baptists withdrew and formed their own independent congregations. Secondly, Baptist churches often had a congregational intimacy and purity which was practically impossible with those churches which included into its membership the whole of society on the basis of infant baptism. Thus, while the term “Believers’ Church” ought to have been theologically redundant, it was a practical reality, given that membership in the “Cultural Church” did not even include a person’s own declaration of faith.

Regrettably, many Baptists today have no clue as to these two primary distinctives and urgencies.