Baptism: The Powerful Step ... A Pastoral Quest

Baptism

The Powerful Step … A Pastoral Quest

Gary V Carter

Published by

Kainos Enterprises

7777 Churchville Road

Brampton ON L6Y 0H3 Canada

Copyright 2017 Gary V Carter

Smashwords Edition

About the cover image:

This baptistry is located in Avdat, and Mamshit/Mampsis in the Negev and was likely built in the Byzantine era 250-600AD

Visit www.baptismis.ca for free additional resources

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 -- Certainty

The Role of Certainty

Certainty and Movements

Certainty and Movement Growth

Certainty Today

Chapter 2 -- Missionary Inspiration

William Carey

Adoniram Judson

Luther Rice

Chapter 3 -- Canadian Baptist Inflection Points

Inflection Point #1

Inflection Point #2

Inflection Point #3

Chapter 4 – How to Reach a Friend

Chapter 5 -- Christian Baptism by Adoniram Judson

Chapter 6 -- Words Have Meaning

Epistemology

Word Uses

Βαπτ- References

Footnotes

Introduction

I write this book to help galvanize the convictions and implementations of immersionists. It is a book for pastors but if you aren’t one you are most welcome to listen in. This isn’t a book for seminarians and professors; it is for practitioners. Then again, all the professors are welcome to read and assimilate if they like.

Since we are about to spend some time together, let me tell you a bit about myself. I am not a scholar in the technical sense. But I am pretty smart. I didn’t do too well in school half a century ago but I learn better now. I have written several books under my name and have ghost written a lot for others to put bread on the table. Apparently, I learned to communicate well in print. Who knew?

This book is all my own concoction. I am not big on footnoting but I do attempt to be as accurate as possible on the facts. History is always a weak area in my memory. So I have to verify as best I can by checking resources. Memories fade so it is important to check. History always includes facts, alleged facts, selected facts. That is mixed with the interpretation of the writer. I am no different. I don’t collect all the facts, nor could I. But I do attempt to portray the history fairly.

One of my early mentors was Arnold Dallimore. I lived in the Dallimore home as a summer intern in 1967. He had not yet published anything of note from his historical research on Whitfield. I got to read what he was writing one page at a time as it came off his old manual black upright typewriter. (I think they might have that in the Smithsonian or at least one like it. You can buy one on eBay for about $1,500. Make them an offer. But I digress.) Cut and paste was actually cut and paste of paper. I marveled at how much he could dig up that had never been uncovered before. He went on to become a noted historian with many books to his credit. I cherish the memories. But I knew I didn’t have the bent to be a historian. Yet, here I am recounting some history because I learned that history is very important.

I studied missions and thought my mission field would be across an ocean. I found mission in my own back yard. I did however take great inspiration from men like Carey and Judson. I was encouraged to read missionary biographies. I read a few and they changed and continue to change my life because I remember the extreme price many paid and the time it took to get any traction.

I was raised in a good Baptist church. But I became a true Baptist by conviction in my later teen years. I used to try to figure out some things from a logical perspective but found that leading with the Bible and not with logic was the best approach. And my brain still can’t figure out some things that my Bible teaches.

My understanding of baptism grew over the years. As a young pastor, I realized that baptism isn’t a graduation certificate from something; it is simply an initial act of following. Jesus said do it so I did. Jesus said teach it so I do. It bothered me that we left far too much time between the coming to faith in Christ and baptism. It still bothers me that we don’t teach baptism as the first step in a life of obedience. It still bothers me that we teach much more about how to think than about how to obey. The Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20 is very clear.

It is my contention that obedience creates power. If we wait for power to obey we keep on waiting a very long time. I am growing more and more confident that the lack of power in the church today is very much connected to a weak approach to baptism. If someone won’t take the first outward step they will stumble and crawl through the next steps. If we don’t teach baptism with strength of conviction and frequency we will not see obedience in all the other things commanded.

I don’t know how many people I have personally baptized. It is over a hundred. Sadly, many of those baptisms were with people who should have been baptized years – even decades – before. But nobody – and I mean nobody – stuck it to them! I have found that this requires personal conversations. Billy Graham said that in the end all evangelism is personal evangelism. I will extend that to say every baptism is the result of personal conversations encouraging baptism.

The first village church I pastored had the space for a baptistry but no tank. The building was over 25 years old. We got that glitch fixed and baptized dozens. The answer of the clear conscience transformed that church because the people saw the people who had a new spring in their step after baptism.

Everything I write here is from my Canadian Baptist experience and perspective. It is written for Canadians but everyone is welcome to read what I write.

In a recent survey I conducted at a seminar, 23% of the people present – mostly pastors and pastor’s wives said that apathy was the biggest problem/issue they faced in their church right now. I have thought long and hard about that. I have some tentative ideas on how to beat it. These come from my experience and also from my research. One the things I have uncovered is this subject of baptism. So I am about to tell you what I have figured out. I hope you will develop even more confidence in the power of the Gospel and that you will act upon that confidence. What is the worst thing that can happen if you do? You break even.

In the New Testament 3,000 were baptized in one day in the Mikveh pools in and around Jerusalem. They didn’t have time to be taught much; they just did what Peter told them was the next step after belief. Then they joined the church. Same day. What was wrong with that? Nothing. Why can’t we just replicate the behavior and attitude today? We can. Will all the people immersed be true believers? God only knows. Will all their bad habits drop the moment they believe? Not usually. However, the conviction and energy created by baptism brings others face to face with the Gospel. People come to Christ when they see others take a stand. Then, they too are baptized. Properly taught, baptism has the probability of becoming viral. Start with one and you will find two for next time. Then the two will find you four.

Obviously, you can’t vet 3,000 people in one day. You know humanity well enough to know that probably wasn’t 3,000 true believers. If a person is not a believer and they ask for baptism, they get a free bath. If they are already a believer and I am wrong about baptism they get a free bath. If they had another baptism and it turns out it was valid, they got a free bath. Free baths are at least as valid as praying a sinner’s prayer that isn’t genuine on the artificial grass at a mass evangelism crusade are they not?

I’m not one for theological argumentation. I am a practitioner who cares about implementing 2 Timothy 2:2. So why would I write about a theological issue like baptism? I do so because I believe that people come to Christ when the Gospel is shared. And, now follow carefully, the greatest impact from those new believers is at and after the time of their public profession by immersion. Evangelistic efforts fade into the ether if we are not strong on what comes next. It is for the lost who will be saved that I write to stimulate the church to get back on message.

There aren’t multiple modes of baptism because the word means immerse. That should be all you need to know but for many they can’t believe that because the fog of history created faulty views and approaches to baptism – even in immersionist churches.

Some have said that I over argue in making that point. I ask, What if I am correct? In history, even Calvin and Luther drew the conclusion that baptism was ideally immersion. But at the minimum they, and most others, will say baptism could be immersion. I am not aware of any who say immersion isn’t baptism. But what if immersion is the only baptism? To illustrate, we put guard rails down highways in the rare event that vehicles drive off the road. We would rather be safe than sorry. Why would we not take the same approach with baptism? What if Jesus is grieved by the fact we misappropriated his intentions? What if the form mattered to him as much as the function? There is nothing wrong in using the safest form.

Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, immersing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:18-20)

Brothers, what shall we do? Peter replied, Repent and be immersed, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:37-38)

Those who accepted his message were immersed, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. (Acts 2:41)

Let’s follow and do just that!

Chapter 1 – Certainty

People love certainty when it is on their side of an issue. They also tend to despise it when used by others with whom the disagree. That is why some recoil at certain statements in the Bible.

But unless you repent, you too will all perish. (Jesus, Luke 13:3,5)

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. (Peter, Acts 4:12)

The Christian Gospel oozes certainty. Never forget that even when others give condescending smiles at your certainty.

The Role of Certainty

Baptists have always been a people of certainty since their emergence in the 17th century. Their certainty got them in a lot of hot water with the governmental systems in both England and America. Their big certainty was that church and state should be separated. That was a very new and controversial idea then. It gets a, Duh! Well yeah … response today.

Baptists were separate. And as such, they were part of a movement of separatists and independents that included Mennonites and Quakers. These so-called Anabaptists had their roots in a group in the 16th century called the Swiss Brethren. Many in all these groups suffered greatly for their beliefs. The idea of re-baptizing a person as an adult was so abhorrent that it was a capital offense. The groups I mention were all fringe groups at the start. They were illegal movements in England until the time of Oliver Cromwell – himself a separatist.

The unswerving doctrine, as held by Baptists and not all separatists, that baptism is immersion of believers only emerged from its beginning in the early 1600s until the mid-1600s. It appears to me that there is a correlation between the world-wide spread of the Gospel through Baptists and the strength of their doctrine and practice of immersion only. Baptism may or may not be a causative factor in the rise of Baptist work in America; I think it is. But broader than that I am more confident that it was the certainty of taking a stand against the prevailing doctrinal winds that made a difference.

It is important to separate the concept of truth from belief. It is entirely possible to believe something that isn’t true. It is also possible to disbelieve something that is true. Being certain that the thing believed is true is the basis for conviction that is life altering. Everyone maintains a compartment in their belief system for the things they believe are certainly true. Baptists (among others) have historically decided on what belongs in that compartment by analyzing the Bible and resting on it as the final authority of belief and practice. The Bible is the foundation of the most certain beliefs.

Certainty and Movements

There was certainty in the beliefs and – as we will see in the next chapter – the steps of Carey, Rice and Judson. Their stand for immersion was still unpopular in their day during the end of the 18th and into the 19th century. All of them paid a great price in social separation by taking a stand that was unpopular in its day. It cannot be missed that Baptists were considered out of the main stream. In Massachusetts where both Judson and Rice were raised they lost their roots and extended church family in the Congregational churches when they became Baptists. While Congregational churches in Massachusetts were autonomous they were the only ones who received support from the State tax coffers. Baptists had often been beaten, jailed and even drowned for their convictions in America.

The obvious visual conviction that created the separation was immersion even though their greater concern was usually their right to express their religion without interference by the State or other churches. Their convictions were very costly.

These