[FONT="]BAPTISM (LUTHERAN DOCTRINE)[/FONT][FONT="]
_I. THE TERM_
1. The Derivation
2. The Meaning
3. The Application
4. Equivalent Terms
_II. THE ORDINANCE_
1. The Teaching of Scripture
(1) An Authoritative Command
(2) A Clear Declaration of the Object in View
(3) A Definite Promise
(4) A Plain Indication of the Scope
(5) A Prescribed Formula for Administering the Ordinance
2. The Biblical History of the Ordinance
3. Types of Baptism
_III. DIFFICULTIES_
1. Are Matthew 28:18-20 and Mark 16:15,16 Genuine?
2. Was the Trinitarian Formula Used in New Testament Times?
3. Was Christian Baptism Really a New Ordinance?
4. Should Infants Be Baptized?
5. Why Did Paul not Baptize?
6. What Is the Baptism for the Dead?
_I. The Term._
1. The Derivation:
The word "baptism" is the Anglicized form of the Greek baptisma, or baptismos. These Greek words are verbal nouns derived from baptizo, which, again, is the intensive form of the verb bapto. "Baptismos denotes the action of baptizein (the baptizing), baptisma the result of the action (the baptism)" (Cremer). This distinction differs from, but is not necessarily contrary to, that of Plummer, who infers from Mark 7:4 and Hebrews 9:10 that baptismos usually means lustrations or ceremonial washings, and from Romans 6:4; Ephesians 4:1; 1 Peter 3:21 that baptisma denotes baptism proper (Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible (five volumes)).
2. The Meaning:
The Greek words from which our English "baptism" has been formed are used by Greek writers, in classical antiquity, in the Septuagint and in the New Testament, with a great latitude of meaning. It is not possible to exhaust their meaning by any single English term. The action which the Greek words express may be performed by plunging, drenching, staining, dipping, sprinkling. The nouns baptisma and baptismos do not occur in the Septuagint; the verb baptizo occurs only in four places, and in two of them in a figurative sense (2 Kings 5:14; Judith 12:7; Isaiah 21:4; Ecclesiasticus @@31 (34):
25). Wherever these words occur in the New Testament, the context or, in the case of quotations, a comparison with the Old Testament will in many instances suggest which of the various renderings noted above should be adopted (compare Mark 7:4; Hebrews 9:10 with Numbers 19:18,19; 8:7; Exodus 24:4-6; Acts 2:16,17,41 with Joel 2:28). But there are passages in which the particular form of the act of baptizing remains in doubt. "The assertion that the command to baptize is a command to immerse is utterly unauthorized" (Hodge).
[/FONT][FONT="]2. The Biblical History of the Ordinance:
After the Lord had entered into His glory, we find that in the era of the apostles and in the primitive Christian church baptism is the established and universally acknowledged rite by which persons are admitted to communion with the church (Acts 2:38,41; 8:12,36,38; 9:18; 10:47; 16:15,33; 18:8; Romans 6:3; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:27). Even in cases where an outpouring of the special gifts of the Holy Spirit had already taken place, baptism is still administered (Acts 10:44; 11:15). "Thus, baptism occupied among the Gentile converts to Christianity, and later among all Christians, the same position as circumcision in the Old Covenant (Colossians 2:11; Galatians 5:2). It is, essentially, part of the foundation on which the unity of the Christian society rested from the beginning (Ephesians 4:5; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:27)" (Riehm, Handworterb.). 3. Types of Baptism:
In 1 Corinthians 10:1,2 the apostle states that the Israelites "were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." Farrar attempts the following solution of this type:
"The passing under the cloud (Exodus 14:19) and through the sea, constituting as it did their deliverance from bondage into freedom, their death to Egypt, and their birth to a new covenant, was a general type or dim shadow of Christian baptism (compare our collect, `figuring thereby Thy holy baptism'). But the typology is quite incidental; it is the moral lesson which is paramount. `Unto Moses'; rather, into. By this `baptism' they accepted Moses as their Heavensent guide and teacher" (Pulpit Comm.). In 1 Peter 3:21 the apostle calls baptism the antitupon of the Deluge. Delitzsch (on Hebrews 9:24) suggests that tupos and antitupon in Greek represent the original figure and a copy made therefrom, or a prophetic foretype and its later accomplishment. The point of comparison is the saving power of water in either instance. Water saved Noah and his family by floating the ark which sheltered them, and by removing from them the disobedient generation which had sorely tried their faith, as it had tried God's patience. In like manner the water of baptism bears up the ark of the Christian church and saves its believing members, by separating them from their filthy and doomed fellow-men.[/FONT]
_I. THE TERM_
1. The Derivation
2. The Meaning
3. The Application
4. Equivalent Terms
_II. THE ORDINANCE_
1. The Teaching of Scripture
(1) An Authoritative Command
(2) A Clear Declaration of the Object in View
(3) A Definite Promise
(4) A Plain Indication of the Scope
(5) A Prescribed Formula for Administering the Ordinance
2. The Biblical History of the Ordinance
3. Types of Baptism
_III. DIFFICULTIES_
1. Are Matthew 28:18-20 and Mark 16:15,16 Genuine?
2. Was the Trinitarian Formula Used in New Testament Times?
3. Was Christian Baptism Really a New Ordinance?
4. Should Infants Be Baptized?
5. Why Did Paul not Baptize?
6. What Is the Baptism for the Dead?
_I. The Term._
1. The Derivation:
The word "baptism" is the Anglicized form of the Greek baptisma, or baptismos. These Greek words are verbal nouns derived from baptizo, which, again, is the intensive form of the verb bapto. "Baptismos denotes the action of baptizein (the baptizing), baptisma the result of the action (the baptism)" (Cremer). This distinction differs from, but is not necessarily contrary to, that of Plummer, who infers from Mark 7:4 and Hebrews 9:10 that baptismos usually means lustrations or ceremonial washings, and from Romans 6:4; Ephesians 4:1; 1 Peter 3:21 that baptisma denotes baptism proper (Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible (five volumes)).
2. The Meaning:
The Greek words from which our English "baptism" has been formed are used by Greek writers, in classical antiquity, in the Septuagint and in the New Testament, with a great latitude of meaning. It is not possible to exhaust their meaning by any single English term. The action which the Greek words express may be performed by plunging, drenching, staining, dipping, sprinkling. The nouns baptisma and baptismos do not occur in the Septuagint; the verb baptizo occurs only in four places, and in two of them in a figurative sense (2 Kings 5:14; Judith 12:7; Isaiah 21:4; Ecclesiasticus @@31 (34):
25). Wherever these words occur in the New Testament, the context or, in the case of quotations, a comparison with the Old Testament will in many instances suggest which of the various renderings noted above should be adopted (compare Mark 7:4; Hebrews 9:10 with Numbers 19:18,19; 8:7; Exodus 24:4-6; Acts 2:16,17,41 with Joel 2:28). But there are passages in which the particular form of the act of baptizing remains in doubt. "The assertion that the command to baptize is a command to immerse is utterly unauthorized" (Hodge).
[/FONT][FONT="]2. The Biblical History of the Ordinance:
After the Lord had entered into His glory, we find that in the era of the apostles and in the primitive Christian church baptism is the established and universally acknowledged rite by which persons are admitted to communion with the church (Acts 2:38,41; 8:12,36,38; 9:18; 10:47; 16:15,33; 18:8; Romans 6:3; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:27). Even in cases where an outpouring of the special gifts of the Holy Spirit had already taken place, baptism is still administered (Acts 10:44; 11:15). "Thus, baptism occupied among the Gentile converts to Christianity, and later among all Christians, the same position as circumcision in the Old Covenant (Colossians 2:11; Galatians 5:2). It is, essentially, part of the foundation on which the unity of the Christian society rested from the beginning (Ephesians 4:5; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:27)" (Riehm, Handworterb.). 3. Types of Baptism:
In 1 Corinthians 10:1,2 the apostle states that the Israelites "were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." Farrar attempts the following solution of this type:
"The passing under the cloud (Exodus 14:19) and through the sea, constituting as it did their deliverance from bondage into freedom, their death to Egypt, and their birth to a new covenant, was a general type or dim shadow of Christian baptism (compare our collect, `figuring thereby Thy holy baptism'). But the typology is quite incidental; it is the moral lesson which is paramount. `Unto Moses'; rather, into. By this `baptism' they accepted Moses as their Heavensent guide and teacher" (Pulpit Comm.). In 1 Peter 3:21 the apostle calls baptism the antitupon of the Deluge. Delitzsch (on Hebrews 9:24) suggests that tupos and antitupon in Greek represent the original figure and a copy made therefrom, or a prophetic foretype and its later accomplishment. The point of comparison is the saving power of water in either instance. Water saved Noah and his family by floating the ark which sheltered them, and by removing from them the disobedient generation which had sorely tried their faith, as it had tried God's patience. In like manner the water of baptism bears up the ark of the Christian church and saves its believing members, by separating them from their filthy and doomed fellow-men.[/FONT]
