Where In The Bible Will I Find:

Doing Bible Things In Bible Ways?

Any man, preacher or not, who tries to dodge the force of what God has said, will find in his chagrin that these words will confront him at the Judgment! Jesus declared, "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day" (John 12:48). You can delete and erase portions of the Bible, or you can bum the whole Book, but you can't destroy God's Word.

Water baptism is an act of obedience, commanded by Christ (Matt. 28:18-20; Mark 16:16; Acts 10:48), but there is much controversy on how it is to be performed. It is important that we "Do Things In Bible Ways", and God has not left us without example of this, "And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?

“And Phillip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that.Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing" (Acts 8:36-39).

From these verses, we find that the New Testament baptism calls for water (Acts 8:36), going down into the water (Acts 8:38), and coming up out of the water (Acts 8:39). Other passages show that baptism is a burial (Rom. 6:3-4), a planting and a resurrection (Col. 2:12), a birth (John 3:5), and requires "much water" (John 3:23).

Anyone who can understand plain English will have a hard time escaping just how baptism was performed in New Testament times: For the Bible defines it as a planting, a burial, a going down into the water and then coming up out of the water. This hardly signifies either pouring or sprinkling a little water on the head and calling it baptism. It is only when we are immersed in water that we are baptized INTO Christ.

The change of relationship is the results of the new birth, "water and the Spirit" (John 3:5). Salvation is in Christ, with all spiritual blessings (II Tim. 2:10; Eph. 1:3). Baptism is the last act of obedience that puts one IN Christ (Gal. 3:27), but as long as Satan can prevent one from being baptized into Christ, he still has them in his territory and under his dominion. If one has sufficient faith to put Christ on in baptism, he then escapes the devil and is "translated into the kingdom of his dear Son" (Col. 1:13).

Baptism today must be performed in the "Bible way," and for the same purpose as recorded by those in "Bible times." That is, “For," or "unto the remission of sins" (Acts 2:38; 22:16), and NOT because one thinks he is saved already, before baptism.