The Churches of Christ baptize believers by immersing them fully in water.  Why do we insist on immersion, especially since other forms are widely practiced and some English dictionaries define baptism as a Christian rite administered by sprinkling, pouring, or immersion.

   Baptism, a command and practice in the New Testament, must be defined by New Testament definitions, not by English language usages nineteen hundred years later.  The English dictionary only gives the meaning of words as they are currently used in English.  The New Testament was originally written in Greek (or some believe, Hebrew, and later translated into Greek) in the first century A.D..  To insure accuracy, biblical words and ideas should be defined by biblical usages and not by modern practices.

   While it is true that some churches practice baptism by sprinkling or pouring, this does not mean that the opinions are biblical or approved by God.  Throughout history, man has often been misinformed about Gods word.  Humans have been known to substitute their own preferences for what God has commanded.  The fact that many people believe in something does not make it biblically acceptable.

   If a person were to simply take the Bible and write out all one hundred and twenty references to baptism, he would know all that God teaches on the subject.  Gods word is unified, consistent and without confusion.  Here's some references this person would find relating to what baptism involved:

Matthew 3:6  Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

Matthew 3:16  As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water.

Mark 1:9-10  Jesus . . .was baptized by John in the Jordan.  As Jesus was coming up out of the water . . .

Acts 8:38-39  Both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.  When they came up out of the water . . .

Romans 6:4-5  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  If we have been united with him like this in death . . .

Colossians 2:12  Having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him . . .

   Only immersion involves a going down into the water, a coming up out of the water, and a burial and a resurrection.  In the New Testament, people to be baptized were brought to the water.  The water was not brought to them.

   All the Greek dictionaries define baptize and related words as dipping, immersing, submerging.  For example, one might consult Joseph Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 1963 reprint, pp. 93-94; Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, I, 1968, pp. 529-546; The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, I, 1975, pp. 143-154; and William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich's A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, 1957, pp. 131-132.

   The English word baptism is a transliteration, not a translation of the Greek word.  This means that the Greek words, baptidzo, baptiszein, baptisma, and baptismos, were simply given English spellings and inserted into the English Bibles as English words.  English readers tend to interpret these words according to their theological backgrounds and not according to their original meanings in the Greek language and early church practice.  Some English translations do, in fact, translate the words as immersed, dipped, submerged.  Over the years the reason that the transliteration baptism has been retained in our versions is that it allows denominations to interpret the words as they choose.  In the English dictionaries baptism can be seen to have originally meant dipping or immersing.  For example, Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary says the origin of baptize is Afr. GK baptizein to dip, baptize, fr. baptos dipped, fr. baptein to dip; akin to ON kafa to dive.

   The antecedent of baptism is Jewish washings which are immersions.  In New Testament times, the Jews constructed immersion pools (mikwaoth) for these religious washings.

   The earliest church buildings and their ruins offer corroborating evidence supporting immersion as the oldest and original form of baptism.  The earliest known baptistery is in the house church at Dura-Europos ca. 240. The pool is five feet by three feet by three feet in depth.  Over four hundred baptisteries dating from the third to the seventh centuries offer plenty of early evidence for immersion.  The largest existing baptismal pool is in the baptistery at St. John Lateran in Rome.  The circular pool is twenty-eight feet in diameter.

   Immersion has never been questioned as legitimate Christian baptism.  Sprinkling and pouring were under suspicion beginning with their first practices for the sick in the third century.  Those first receiving pouring for baptism an their sick beds, as a matter of convenience, were later required to be immersed when they recovered and wanted to be church leaders.  It was not until A.D. 1215, over eleven hundred years after apostolic Christianity, that the Council of Trent accepted sprinkling equal to immersion in the Catholic church.  Three hundred years later, the Protestant reformers, based on their past experiences, brought sprinkling and pouring into their newly-formed Protestant churches.

   The Churches of Christ stand on the undivided ground of the New Testament Christianity.  We want to do Bible things in Bible ways.  We want the same baptism Jesus experienced and authorized, the baptism the apostles received and practiced, and the baptisms that all early Christians received.

   We encourage everyone to do just what the Bible says, nothing more, nothing less.  In the New Testament, there are no discussions on the form of baptism.  The biblical record consistently supports immersion.

   On the basis of biblical teachings and practices, and because of God's grace in Jesus Christ and your own personal faith and repentance, we encourage you to be immersed in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38).  This is the way that we know is accepted with God and cannot be mistaken.  We will be pleased to discuss these matters with you at any time and to arrange for your baptism is you so desire.

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