Title: Which Baptism?
Author: Christopher Harbin
Text: Acts 19:1-7
Baptism has often been one of those things that we do, to which we attach great significance, but which we have never really understood. For many of the people I worked with in Brazil, it was some magical rite. For others, it was a contract with a particular church structure granting access for weddings and funerals. For others, it was a means of covering their spiritual bases. For yet others, it marked a life committed to God which might need to be renewed after any significant falling away-it was about forgiveness and cleansing of guilt. With all of that, we rarely clarify which baptism we are discussing.
I grew up in a tradition that spent its energy on the mode of baptism. We looked at the term and saw that it meant immersion. In fact, the KJV had balked at translating the term into English at all, since King James had not been immersed, but had participated in the sacrament, so they transliterated it as baptism. My tradition claim that King's baptism was invalid, since he had not been immersed nor had we willingly participated in it. They made the same inferences to their own baptisms and became known as anabaptists, ones who baptized again. They were stuck on the mode of the rite and could not see much beyond recovering immersion as the proper form.
Karen and I worked started a children's Bible club in Mexico. On one particular Saturday, we had been teaching a passage about Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist and we the kids were drawing free-hand pictures of Jesus' baptism. One of them brought up a beautiful drawing he had made of a bearded man holding a baby in his arms. It was a beautiful picture and I told him so. When I asked him how old Jesus was when he was baptized, however, there was shock written all over the kid's face. Suddenly, things he knew, understood, had heard, and had seen collided before his eyes. He had seen one practice before ...
Author: Christopher Harbin
Text: Acts 19:1-7
Baptism has often been one of those things that we do, to which we attach great significance, but which we have never really understood. For many of the people I worked with in Brazil, it was some magical rite. For others, it was a contract with a particular church structure granting access for weddings and funerals. For others, it was a means of covering their spiritual bases. For yet others, it marked a life committed to God which might need to be renewed after any significant falling away-it was about forgiveness and cleansing of guilt. With all of that, we rarely clarify which baptism we are discussing.
I grew up in a tradition that spent its energy on the mode of baptism. We looked at the term and saw that it meant immersion. In fact, the KJV had balked at translating the term into English at all, since King James had not been immersed, but had participated in the sacrament, so they transliterated it as baptism. My tradition claim that King's baptism was invalid, since he had not been immersed nor had we willingly participated in it. They made the same inferences to their own baptisms and became known as anabaptists, ones who baptized again. They were stuck on the mode of the rite and could not see much beyond recovering immersion as the proper form.
Karen and I worked started a children's Bible club in Mexico. On one particular Saturday, we had been teaching a passage about Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist and we the kids were drawing free-hand pictures of Jesus' baptism. One of them brought up a beautiful drawing he had made of a bearded man holding a baby in his arms. It was a beautiful picture and I told him so. When I asked him how old Jesus was when he was baptized, however, there was shock written all over the kid's face. Suddenly, things he knew, understood, had heard, and had seen collided before his eyes. He had seen one practice before ...
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