The Wrong Bible

In the early 1800s, some Methodist missionaries went into northeast Alabama to evangelize Indian clans. They came upon some English-speaking Indians and gave them a Bible to read, promising to return the next year. When the missionaries returned, an Indian said that he had read the Bible and wanted to be baptized. The missionaries immediately invited him to their tent where they filled a bowl with water. The Indian asked, “Are you going to baptize me with that?” “Yes,” they said. The Indian replied, “Then you gave me the wrong Bible.” By approaching the Scriptures objectively, without any preconceived ideas, the Indian understood that baptism was an immersion in water.

The Greek word for “baptism” (baptisma) means to dip or plunge. It consists of the process “of immersion, submersion, and emergence” (Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary, p. 50). All reputable sources, without exception, give immersion as the common and primary sense of the word. There is no indication that sprinkling or pouring was practiced in the early church. Baptism was always a burial. Paul wrote, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4) and “Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead” (Colossians 2:12). Moreover, the fact that John baptized in Aenon “because water was plentiful there” (John 3:23) implies immersion. Sprinkling and pouring came about after the New Testament.

Many denominations teach that those being baptized are already “alive” spiritually (i.e., saved). Thus, they bury the living. Think about it. They say the person has already been given new life in Christ prior to baptism. Therefore, they bury them alive. However, the Scriptures teach that we are buried in the watery grave of baptism dead in sin and rise to new life (Colossians 2:13). The dead are to be buried, not the living.

Baptism was always an immersion in water. Therefore, if anyone tells you that sprinkling or pouring will suffice, just know that he is using the wrong Bible!