{"id":21458,"date":"2022-12-02T22:53:52","date_gmt":"2022-12-02T22:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=21458"},"modified":"2023-03-16T16:12:29","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T16:12:29","slug":"what-is-baptism-no-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=21458","title":{"rendered":"What Is Baptism? \u2014 No. 4"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 0<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">[<strong>Note: <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our <strong>Brief Articles 3\u00a0<\/strong> page.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">In previous articles in this series, we have seen that by actual definition, the Greek word <em>baptidzo <\/em>means to <strong>overwhelm, dip, plunge, submerge or immerse<\/strong>, both in its literal and its figurative usages. We have also noted that the descriptions of the act of baptism in the New Testament completely support this definition (John 3:23; Acts 8:38\u201339; Rom 6:4; Col. 2:12).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 While we have already called your attention to the statements of lexicons concerning the meaning of <em>baptism<\/em> in the New Testament, let us now cite quotations from numerous religious leaders of the past few centuries. Please understand that these are not cited to embarrass anyone or to prove that some are right, and others are wrong on this subject. Our purpose is to exalt the Truth of God\u2019s Word, and hopefully to persuade you to obey it.\u00a0 Now to our quotes:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Martin Luther <\/strong>(\u201cFather of the Reformation,\u201d founder of the Lutheran Church): \u201cBaptism is called in the Greek language<em>Baptismos<\/em>, in Latin, <em>mersio<\/em>, which means to plunge something entirely into the water, so that the water closes over it.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>John Calvin <\/strong>(Reformer, a founder of Presbyterian Church): \u201cThe very word <em>baptize<\/em> \u2026 signifies to immerse; and it is certain that immersion was the practice of the ancient church.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>John Wesley<\/strong> (founder of Methodist Church): \u201cWe are buried with him, alluding to the ancient manner of baptizing by immersion.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Dean Stanley<\/strong> (Church of England): \u201cFor the first 13 centuries the almost universal practice of baptism was that of which we read in the New Testament, and which is very meaning of the word \u201cbaptize\u201d\u2014that those who were baptized were plunged, submerged, immersed into water.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Ignatius Dollinger<\/strong> (Roman Catholic scholar): \u201cAt first baptism commonly took place in the Jordan\u2026It was by immersion of the whole person, which is the only meaning of the New Testament word. A mere pouring or sprinkling was never thought of.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>George P. Fisher<\/strong> (Congregationalist): \u201cBaptism, it is now commonly admitted among scholars, was commonly by immersion.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Each of these quotations has two things in common:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">They are unanimous in their definition of baptism as immersion.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">They all come from members of churches that have substituted sprinkling and pouring for immersion.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Their scholarship and honor require them to refute their own practice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">[<strong>Note:<\/strong>\u00a0I wrote this article for, and it was published in the \u201cBible Thoughts\u201d Column for the <em>Hood County News<\/em>, Granbury, Texas, March 19, 1978.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Attribution:<\/strong> From <em>thescripturecache.com<\/em>; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 0[Note: This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 3\u00a0 page.] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In previous articles in this series, we have seen that by actual definition, the Greek word baptidzo means to overwhelm, dip, plunge, submerge or immerse, both in its literal&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"easywp-readmore\"><a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=21458\">Continue Reading&#8230;<span class=\"easywp-sr-only\">  What Is Baptism? \u2014 No. 4<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,318,323,72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baptism","category-denominational-terminology","category-immersion","category-salvation","wpcat-37-id","wpcat-318-id","wpcat-323-id","wpcat-72-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21458"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22812,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21458\/revisions\/22812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}