by Lois Delnay

Created on: October 25, 2008

CONFUSION AND DIVISION ABOUT THE SUBJECT OF BAPTISM

Let's take a doctrinal approach to this controversial subject by looking at it carefully throughout God's Word.

One of the causes of problems among believers in the Lord Jesus Christ regarding the subject of baptism is a lack of understanding of the true meaning of the word. Most people immediately think of water whenever they hear the word; however, the word baptism was transliterated and not translated from the original Koine Greek language into English, and it ALWAYS refers to IDENTIFICATION.

The idea of sprinkling goes back to Old Testament rituals of animal sacrifices to indicate identification of the believer's sins with an innocent substitute. Those sacrifices were to be used as teaching aids so that people could understand what a coming Savior would do for mankind.

Water baptism of an individual by immersing the candidate in water is first seen in the scriptures when Jesus was baptized by John the baptizer. (Matthew 3:13-17; Luke 3:27; and John 1:31-34) At that time, Jesus was being identified with His Father's plan it signified the beginning of His 3-year ministry on earth. His baptism was unique, because Jesus was not a sinner.

During Jesus ministry on earth, believers were baptized in water, and by doing so, they were being identified with the future Millennial Kingdom a time during which Jesus will rule as absolute monarch over the world for 1,000 years. Note that John's message was: "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." (Matthew 3:2) To repent does not mean to feel sorry, but to change your mind or attitude about something. The apostle Paul explains to us in Acts 19:4 what John was saying to the Jews: "John truly baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe in the One who would come after him that is, in Jesus Christ."

After Jesus death, burial, resurrection and ascension into heaven, believers were baptized in water to identify them with a brand new period of time the CHURCH AGE, in which we are now living. Those incidents in the book of Acts took place during the transition between the Jewish Age and the Church Age. No record of water baptism for believers is found anywhere in the New Testament epistles. All of the previous incidents involving water were actually ritual baptisms.
Real or actual identification is shown by four DRY baptisms, which are:

(1) the baptism of Moses that took place when the Children of Israel were identified with Moses

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