False Teaching and How It Impacts Baptism
Characteristics of bad teaching typically include human effort playing a significant role in God’s work and Christ’s pre-eminence and sufficiency being undermined. In some cases a number of Bible texts will be drawn into a theme that is out of step with the harmonious teaching of Scripture. Extra-biblical traditions are often a deceptive blend of Bible truths and spiritually harmful interpretations.
In the case of baptism, widespread man-made tradition is a corruption of the biblical position. Over hundreds of years church traditions have been passed on from generation to generation. Within Roman Catholicism the Sacrament of Baptism (see below) is taught as an infallible truth handed down from the days of the early church. But this is untrue. It does not fit the fullness of biblical truth. How many church-goers have been mislead because they became full church members through the legalism of Baptism? How does this impact them spiritually in the long run?
Taken in balance Scripture does not plainly teach salvation by a religious ceremony of any kind. Also, the New Testament does not explicitly support the view that a religious practice offered alongside faith is necessary for salvation. Rather, God’s Word teaches that salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone. God draws us to Christ so that we may place our faith in Him and be born anew. Formerly, because of our sinful condition, we were dead in our sins, but now we are alive in Christ and accepted by God.
This is of critical importance. To teach otherwise robs God of His omnipotent independence. He is at the centre of all things, reconciling the world to Himself in and through Christ. If in any sense a ritual were crucial for salvation it would mean human endeavour and religious intervention play a key role in preventing God's punishment and gaining His everlasting favour. This is heresy.
The Roman Catholic Catechism teaches, “Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit… Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ… Baptism is a bath of water in which the ‘imperishable seed’ of the Word of God produces its life-giving effect… Baptism signifies liberation from sin… By Baptism all sins are forgiven, original sin and all personal sins, as well as all punishment for sin.” The full catechism is available online.
I live in Ireland and according to the Church of Ireland, “God’s gift in baptism is new birth in Christ, a new direction in life as God’s child, and a calling to be a lifelong, faithful disciple of Christ… Baptism can take place at any age. In the Church of Ireland most people are baptised as infants. Children are baptised before they can answer for themselves so that they become fully included in the life of the Church… Baptism is a sacrament which, for any individual, cannot be repeated or undone, because it represents God’s once–for–all gift and calling to those baptised. If baptised persons want to affirm their faith at a later stage, the proper procedure is to present themselves for Confirmation or to renew their baptismal vows” (What We Believe: Baptism & Confirmation, ireland.anglican.org).
To Scripture-grounded believers these views sit uneasily alongside biblical doctrine. We know that God looks on the heart and demands true repentance and total trust in Christ before anyone can be born anew and saved from sin’s penalty. Therefore at the very least baptism in the true Church demonstrates we have willingly committed our lives to Christ—baptism is not in itself “the gateway to life”. Contrary to the Roman Catholic teaching above, authentic baptism follows on from our “new birth in Christ” which happened in response to our saving faith in Him: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8, 9, NASB). The “works” of religious ceremonies are not necessary for salvation.
In the context of Scripture's final authority and uncompromised New Testament studies in general, Baptismal Regeneration (being born again spiritually into God’s new life through baptism) does not stand up to close scrutiny. We are not “freed from sin” by Baptism. We can say with assurance that definitive New Testament evidence for baptismal regeneration does not exist. Roman Catholic teaching is therefore false.
At best it’s unhelpful and somewhat ambiguous to use phraseology such as: “God’s gift in baptism is new birth in Christ” (Church of Ireland). However, baptism does indeed demonstrate “a new direction in life as God’s child” (Church of Ireland teaching) if that person has believed and responded in faith to Christ. But we face further insurmountable problems if these baptismal terms are applied to infants.
Many of those conditioned by their religious traditions have offered arguments that attempt to justify the baptism of babies. But their argumentation from Scripture is unconvincing, to say the least. Biblical texts have to be massaged into a state of compromise before infant baptism can be presented as God’s will for His Church. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the Roman Catholic Catechism’s lengthy explanation of Baptism. (If you are still confused by various beliefs on baptism—its practice and figurative significance—take the time to impartially examine the New Testament texts and contexts for yourself.)
Tiny babies cannot come to Christ by responding in faith to His message of salvation. Infants cannot be “freed from sin” by faith, but older children and adults can, by sincerely placing their trust in Christ. (It’s right to assume God recognises that in their innocence babies and infants have not committed any sins.) The nature of sin is not dealt with by Roman Catholic Baptism, and Church of Ireland definitions and practices throw the balanced scriptural position out of focus.
Few would seriously consider formally submerging or covering infants in water, but the immersion of believers is taught in Scripture:
"The Greek word 'Baptizo,' which occurs some eighty times in the New Testament, means—'to dip'—'to immerse'. Had our translators put it into English, they could not have represented it by any other term, certainly not by 'sprinkling.' But then if the translators of 1611 had translated the Greek word 'Baptizo' into the English word 'immerse', that would have upset the practice of the Church, and King James had given them distinct instructions not to do that, by their translation" (John Ritchie).
Greek dictionaries define baptizo and associated terms as: dip, to immerse, to plunge, to sink, to submerge, to overwhelm, etc. In some references, the result of this action indicates "to purify through washing".
"Baptisma—bap'-tis-mah: 'baptism,' consisting of the processes of immersion, submersion and emergence (from bapto, 'to dip'); baptizo—bap-tid'-zo: 'to baptize,' primarily a frequentative form of bapto, 'to dip,' was used among the Greeks to signify the dyeing of a garment, or the drawing of water by dipping a vessel into another, etc" (W. E. Vine).
As a footnote to the above:
The mode of baptism that follows saving faith is occasionally debated among true believers. Some try to argue it's worthwhile coalescing views on biblical baptism for believers. For example, in the New Testament context and climate, should we always assume that following confessions of faith there was enough water nearby for immersion to take place? If precious water was in very short supply, were other methods used? Pouring, for example?
Also, a minority argue that because the New Testament was written in common language Greek (Koine), and not classical Greek, the word baptizo cannot strictly mean "immerse" or "dip": it may indicate or suggest pouring, or even sprinkling.
Baptism is only for those who have accepted Christ by faith and it must not in any sense be considered necessary for salvation.
A majority of those who acknowledge the final authority of Scripture believe that—
Baptism is a public act of obedience that follows our conversion to Christ by faith in His Gospel message.
Baptism demonstrates we have fully surrendered our lives to Christ.
Baptism shows that from our hearts we have confessed our lost and sinful condition to God.
Baptism signifies that we are confessing our old life is past and that we have been born again into new life in Christ. We have put on Christ in the newness of life.
Baptism is a reverential picture of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ our Saviour.
