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Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge. (Proverbs 23:12)

Thinking About Baptism?

In the years following the fifteenth century Protestant Reformation a number of divisions erupted within the Protestant and Radical Reformation Churches. While there were various issues of varied degree of importance including a struggle for understanding the essential nature of the Church. It is a sad reality that one of the most visible signs of division was seen in the practice of Baptism; an ordinance which is to serve as a symbol of Christian unity (1Corinthians 12:13).

On the one hand the Anabaptists and later the Baptists practiced Believer’s baptism; while Luther Calvin and those in the Magisterial Reformation Tradition held to a Pedo-baptist (i.e. Infant Baptism) position. It is true that, the Magisterial Reformers shifted their theological understanding of Baptism in respect to God’s covenant dealings with humanity. Yet, in practice it mirrored the Roman tradition. In spite of Persecution and even death the radical reformers held to their practice of believers’ baptism. This was so because of their firm conviction in the authority of the scripture as the rule of faith and practice for believers. So intense have been historical arguments and division about baptism that one Christian Denomination, the Salvation Army doesn’t even practice the ordinance. The decision regarding baptism is to be a profoundly personal one, at the heart of the issue is the nature of Christian discipleship. Each of us brings our own spiritual and cultural baggage with us as we live in our world. Yet for the Christian believer, the Bible alone must be our guide.

The purpose of this short essay is to guide the reader into an understanding of the Scriptural teaching on the issue of baptism. It is only a guide to aid believers as they grapple with the issues involved.

I, for one, am keenly aware of the struggle involved in deciding about baptism. As one raised in the Ang1ican tradition, I was as is their practice Christened as an infant and confirmed at the age of twelve (the latter step taken largely to appease my mother). Yet not until seventeen years of age after an absence of five years from the Church was I to know and experience for myself the salvation that comes from a knowledge of Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Worshipping in a Baptist Church brought me face to face with the issue. Six months of heart searching study of the scripture led me to believe that the heart. of the issue was obedience to Christ. The scriptures are sufficiently clear. In January of 1977, 1 followed my Lord through the waters of baptism.

May God bless us as you search and. grapple with the issue.

Ajax Baptist Constitution