This week we are hitting the seventh article of the BF&M and the article which defines us most as a denomination (along with last weeks statements about the local church being autonomous), that being the one on Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. In this post we will look at what the BF&M has to say about Baptism in particular, tomorrow we will focus on Communion. To begin, the article says,
VII. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper.
As we go on, there seem to be very few statements in the Baptist Faith & Message that I would not handle with a little care as to exactly what they say, but on this paragraph concerning baptism I have to admit that I am completely in agreement with what has been written.
From the beginning, they assert that Christian baptism is by immersion (as opposed to by sprinkling) which is the precedent we see in places such as with the baptism of Christ in Mark 1.9-11 and the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8.38, as well as by the linguistic analysis of the Greek word translated as ‘baptism,’ that being baptizō. This is of first importance, not that it has any affect on the persons salvation, but to be in full obedience of the symbol which baptism is to hold (and to which we will speak in a moment).
Secondly, it is “immersion of a believer,” hence us calling it “Believers baptism.” Though I love my reformed Presbyterian brothers, this is where they get it totally wrong. Baptism is not a perfect equivalent to circumcision the way they try and pursue it. Baptism is for the believer who, after placing faith in Christ as Savior and Lord, partakes in it as “a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead.” Look at the most controversial of the baptism verses, Acts 2.37-39:
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized 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. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
What evidence does this give us that the baptism is for believers? Because it says that the people were under convicttion from the Holy Spirit and were seeking to respond somehow (v.37). So, Peter instructs them that, since they have been convicted (regenerated, no?) then they should repent of their sins and follow after the Lord in baptism. The following after in baptism is done as a public testimony of faith, since it is something that a devout Jew (which reasonably we should assume these people were) would not be willing to participate in.
Notice, that is all he says to them about baptism. The next verse, which is where the Presbyterians go awry, deals with the promise of the Holy Spirit’s availability. The Presbys interpret this as a promise of his actual gifting and how to receive it, that through baptism “[this] promise is [realized] . . . for your children.” However, clearly, if nothing else, this neglects the remainder of v.39 about “all who are far off,” since we never see any hurry to baptize those people in the Presbyterian church, and so should immediately be rejected as the proper understanding of what Peter is saying. (Note: for comments on why this verse doesn’t teach baptismal regeneration, see my earlier words here.)
Next, we see that baptism is done in the full Trinitarian name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is Jesus’ clear command on what to do in the Great Commission, particularly Matthew 28.19.
Then we get to the crux of why we do it. I think this is so crucial. It seems to me that some people in the Southern Baptist church cling to baptism so strongly simply because it is one of our distinctives and so is what sets us apart from the other denominations, specifically from Catholics and Presbyterians. As a whole, this is a crumby reason to be sold out on believers baptism by immersion. The true reason, the biblical reason, why our holding up the symbol of baptism in this way should always be because of what it signifies. Believers baptism by immersion is not just some form of Baptist hazing ritual. If we don’t take to heart why we are doing it then we are no better than anyone else who corrupts this act. At the end of the day, performing the correct mode and method of baptism are honestly unimportant if the symbol is still obscured.
That said, what does the BF&M say is the symbol of our baptism? It says that baptism symbolizes “the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus.” This can be easily justified in the biblical teachings on baptism found in Romans 6.3-5 and Colossians 2.12.
Finally, we see that baptism is a “prequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper.” This, as I have argued previously, is most clearly seen in the order of events for the first members into the church of Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. It says in Acts 2.41, “So those who [first] received his word were [then] baptized, and [afterwards] there were added that day about three thousand souls,” where we should understand that the “three thousand souls” were added to the initial body of 120 (Acts 1.15) to make up what was the church at that time. In tomorrow’s post on the Lord’s Supper we shall see a practical controversy which is arising out of the statement that baptism “is prerequisite . . . to the Lord’s Supper.”
Posted by Todd Burus 
