A New Take On Baptism?

It's that time of year again. In early June, our church holds a baptism service, which means our pastor has lost his ever-lovin' mind. Take this week's sermon title as an example: he titled it “Baptism and Communion”, and in the 40 minute sermon, he spent 40 minutes talking about why everyone needs to be baptized. See a problem there? Oh, sure, it was communion Sunday. We have a communion Sunday every month (I think; my schedule doesn't let me attend every month). But last month, they didn't title the sermon “Share … and Communion” or the month before that “Contagious Inviters … and Communion”, because they recognized that Communion, while part of the service, was not part of the sermon. But for some reason, this week they felt the needed to include Communion in the sermon title, even though they wouldn't actually be talking about it. Reminds me of last year, when he actually raised the question, “Does a person need to be baptized to be right with God?” and he would not answer the question. Hint: The answer is no. But something about Baptism turns our pastor, who I otherwise genuinely like, into an advertising guru, or possibly a grifter, shilling his shell game.

My pastor is not alone in this phenomenon. A few years back, I was … not happy … with some aspects of my church, including this attitude about baptism, so I decided to look for another church. I went to church after church after church in my area, and they all said the same thing: “You need to be baptized. Oh, baptism isn't a requirement for salvation, but you need to be baptized.” Really? Why? No one can actually give a satisfactory answer for that. They just say, “It's a sign of obedience.” But is it, really?

Churches, well, Protestant churches, are fond of quoting The Great Commission: “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19) Okay. I actually believe the Bible. I believe that it's the Inspired Word of God, and good for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16) What I don't believe is that God requires us to climb into a pool of water and have someone shove our heads under while that person recites the magic words (“I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”).

One of the things the pastor talked about during his sermon was what he called, “a brief history lesson.” During Old Testament times, or The Days of the Prophets for those who don't recognize two Testaments, in order for a gentile to become a Jew, he would submit to circumcision, to obedience to the law, to a sacrifice (probably of a bull, ram, lamb, goat, doves, what have you), and to a ceremonial washing. Today, to become a member of the Church, a lot of churches gloss over obedience -- yes, they say you should be obedient, but they don't really talk much about The Law, they no longer demand that a person not have committed adultery, or that the person not be divorced -- and they certainly don't demand an animal sacrifice or circumcision. If those aren't necessary, why do they still insist on a ceremonial washing?

I don't like literalism. I do, however, like understanding. The Greek word “βαπτίζοντες” (past-participle of βαπτίζω) means “to dip under, to immerse, to soak, to sink, to wash”. To a literalist, that means to cover the person in water. Okay, you want to be a literalist, then why would you say “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” instead of their actual names, “I AM” (אֶהְיֶה or EHYEH or Yahweh), “Jesus” (ישוע or Y'shua) and … well, I don't know the Holy Spirit's name, but is that really why they don't use the others? When we talk about how Jesus said, “Ask anything in my name...” he didn't mean that saying “In Jesus' Name, amen” at the end of a prayer will magically make it come true. He meant that if the prayer is in accord with his name, with his identity, then God will do it for you*. (This does not mean that only prayers God was going to do anyway will come true, which would make prayer ... redundant.) Moreso, if you're going to be a literalist, the Bible doesn't say, “Be baptized,” it says TO baptize. So the impetus would then not be on the members of the congregation, or new believers to submit to baptism, it would be on the pastors, teachers and missionaries to baptize people. Maybe that's why they push it so hard. Mind you, there are many, many reasons I don't like literalism.

Because, no, I do not believe God has commanded missionaries to shove people under water while spouting The Magic Words.

Jesus said a lot of things while He was alive (one of which was not, “Always capitalize when referring to me in the third person,” but I digress). He said, “You must be born again.” He called himself a vine, a gate and a shepherd. He called his followers sheep several times. None of these were actually meant literally (and when He said, “sheep,” He did it in love). No, you do not need to crawl back into your mother's womb and come back out again to be a Christian. Many Christian faiths even believe that when he said, “This is my body” and “This is my blood,” he was not speaking literally, that he did not transform crackers and grape alcohol into human DNA, while still standing in front of his disciples.

So, maybe, just maybe, when Jesus said, after his death, to “go and make disciples of all the nations, βαπτίζοντες them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” what he meant was not, “go and make disciples of all the nations, immersing them in water and saying, 'in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit',” but, “go and make disciples of all the nations, immersing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” immersing them, not in water, but in the very identities of who the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are (figuratively, the name). After all, it seems to me that in Jesus' teaching, the state of a person's heart is far more important than outward signs of religiosity.

So that's why I've made the decision to not be baptized as an adult, not because I'm unwilling to be obedient, but because my reading of the Bible tells me that it's not an issue of obedience. I haven't done a search to find whether this is a new idea or not, but I did go looking for a church not that long ago, and couldn't find one that believed in the Bible but didn't believe that baptism was necessary. So call me a trendsetter, call me a trailblazer, hey, you can call me irresponsible, since it doesn't matter what you call me. But seriously, don't judge me. And don't judge others while you're at it. If you want to hold a baptism service, you go ahead. If you want to be baptized, you go ahead. And if I don't, then you might want to consider that I'm not the one being disobedient or hard-hearted.

* This is not a guarantee. It's a truism. There are several reasons why God's answer to a prayer is or seems to be "no". Of course, most of those can probably be summed up by, "It's not in accordance with His identity, at least not right now."