Other Questions.

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A number of additional questions arise when people consider baptism. Just as the gift of repentance is granted to a person to begin him on the path of turning from the wrong way of life—through the process of both learning the truth and unlearning error—so a person must unlearn certain common fallacies associated with baptism. Several should be examined.

First, are ordained ministers the only people authorized by God to perform baptisms? How important is the spiritual condition, character or personal beliefs of the one who administers the baptism?

Consider John the Baptist. Was he a trained, ordained minister who had attended a Bible college or theological seminary of his time? He was not. Yet, John baptized a great many people—including Jesus! This is an important statement! As a matter of fact, Jesus was also not a “trained, ordained minister” after the fashion of the churches of this world. He was generally rejected and despised by the religious hierarchy and leadership of His time. He was persecuted, belittled, denigrated, even hated by the leaders of His time—the Bible records that they often sought to kill Him. This is because He was not recognized and was considered to be out of step—a non-conformist in nearly every way.

When the Ethiopian eunuch was baptized (Acts 8:1-40), Philip, who baptized him, was still a deacon. Philip did eventually become an evangelist, but only well after this account (Acts 21:8). We have discussed how Christ’s disciples baptized many people. None of His disciples were ordained when they did this. They had been baptized but did not yet have God’s Holy Spirit. Unlike John and Christ, they were not even converted!

We have also discussed how it is Christ who is putting you into His Church. Immerse means “put into.” Christ is “putting (you) into” His Body—His Church—at the moment of baptism! After the 3,000 were baptized on the first Pentecost of the New Testament Church, Acts records, “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47). It was Christ adding to His Church—not the ministers who performed the daily baptisms. So baptism is not the work of any human instrument. It is the “operation” (Col. 2:12) of Jesus Christ. The human instrument is not the critical factor in the ordinance of baptism.

Take your eyes off of men—put them on Christ and keep them there! Men can fall away, deceive people, sin or perform the baptism for reasons of self-glorification. These things are not relevant to Christ’s decision to place you into the Church that He is building. Learning, after your baptism, about the sins, deception or intent of the man who baptized you, cannot invalidate your baptism and does nothing to necessitate a re-baptism by another. If it did, you might require baptism over and over again until you found a worthy human instrument to perform it. And how long would it be before you could be absolutely certain that this next human instrument was never going to become untrue in some way?

Nowhere does the scripture say anything about possessing the kind of supreme divine insight that would be necessary to accurately discern the human being who is putting you under water. Judas was among the twelve disciples who were baptizing on Christ’s behalf! Did his later defection and betrayal invalidate all of the baptisms he had performed? Of course not!

Second, we should ask, who could do a baptism? We have already established that deacons may perform baptisms and that Christ’s unordained, unconverted disciples performed many baptisms. The latter were students (this is what disciples means) and Christ authorized them to baptize on His behalf. Their preparation to become apostles was not yet complete. While they were still unconverted, Jesus also gave them power to heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons in His name and preach the gospel of the kingdom of God (Matt. 10:1,7-8). But it was Jesus who authorized them. They carried out His commission for Him, while faithfully preaching the gospel of the coming kingdom of God. It was neither their perfection nor their ordination that was important.

Acts 8:1-40 records that, when performing baptisms in Samaria, Philip also performed miracles and cast out demons, while preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. Peter and John did later come to Samaria, so it is obvious that Philip was not acting on his own authority. The apostles must have sent him because, in Ac 8:14, upon hearing of many conversions by Philip, the apostles then sent Peter and John to Samaria. If Peter and John went to Samaria, at the behest of the apostles, the deacon Philip (a deacon is one who basically “waits on tables”—Acts 6:2-3), would never have acted on his own authority or without having been sent.

The New Testament does not place great significance on the particular person who is performing the baptism. Yet, the pattern is always that the person who does the baptism is a representative sent or authorized by a senior minister or elder, who may not have been able to be present himself. Such ministers would be part of the true Church of God.

Third, in an attempt to negate the need for baptism, some try to use “the thief on the cross” to prove that not everyone needs to be baptized to be saved. Is this true? By now it should be perfectly clear that baptism is a biblical command.

However, the thief on the cross represented extraordinary circumstances. He was in no position to obey the command to be baptized. It would have been impossible. It is not the literal act of baptism that saves us. Rather, it is Christ’s forgiveness and removal of the death penalty over us, His making us righteous through the entering of the Holy Spirit and our determined willingness to obey Him in circumstances that we can control, that does this. We do not need to worry or be concerned with things that we cannot control. God is merciful—and He always looks on the heart, the attitude of a person. Many years ago, I was present when an elderly, bed-ridden lady became a member of the Church. According to the biblical command, we laid hands on her head so that she would receive God’s Spirit. Her fragile condition made it impossible for her to be lifted into the water to be baptized. Those present never doubted the validity of her conversion.

Nevertheless, baptism is clearly a biblical command. Those who are able to be baptized should worry and be concerned about their own salvation if they neglect this command. For “God…now commands all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30), and “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (II Pet. 3:9). These are plain commands from God. Disregarding or disobeying them certainly would end a person’s opportunity for salvation.

Fourth, should children be baptized? Hundreds of millions of people (and perhaps as many as two billion) attend the various popular “Christian” churches of this world. The baptism of infants and children is a very common practice among these churches. Here is the problem—this is not biblical!

But why?

The following points should be carefully considered. There is not one single place anywhere in the Bible recording the baptism of a child. Not one! When Philip was baptizing (Acts 8:12), it says, “they were baptized, both men and women.” There is no mention of children being baptized in this account. Children are simply not mature enough to comprehend baptism.

The Bible command is to “repent” and “believe.” Babies and young children are not capable of believing, or even understanding, the gospel of the kingdom of God. They cannot comprehend a great, world-ruling government, led by Christ and the resurrected saints, coming to replace the governments of this world. This is beyond a child’s ability to understand. Can a child really understand that Christ died for his sins? Is a child mature enough to understand the symbolism of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and how it is paralleled in the baptism ceremony? Can a child comprehend receiving God’s Spirit, as a begettal in the mind—let alone all that this begettal should set in motion in his or her life? Obviously, not.

Babies have nothing to repent of, though young people have certainly done many things that they can, at least partially, see were wrong. It is true that many children are capable of temporary, shallow feelings of regret or remorse, but these are soon forgotten in the carefree world of a child’s life. Children quickly wander off to other things. I have never seen a child capable of understanding the meaning of baptism—and I have ministered to nearly 10,000 people for more than 30 years. Children are no more likely to endure the commitment involved in becoming a true follower of Jesus Christ than they are committed to marrying any boyfriend or girlfriend that they may have had in their young lives.

While some teenagers may mature earlier than others, most people do not reach true adult maturity until at least their early twenties. Age 18 is the minimum age at which a person is capable of grasping what baptism means. If you are a young person reading this booklet, give yourself time to season and mature, until you are absolutely sure that you know what you are doing and what is at stake in your decision to become a Christian. Yes, adults should not delay upon reaching repentance, but young people should delay, sometimes several years before taking the step of baptism.

When the self-righteous, hypocritical Pharisees came to John the Baptist for baptism, he told them, “Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance” (Luke 3:8). They were adults. Young people also need to “bring forth fruits worthy of repentance.” I do not say this because young people are Pharisaical, but rather because they need time to see their own sincerity and conviction deepen. Young people need to know beyond any shadow of doubt that they have repented. Otherwise, they will lack the necessary confidence later that God has given them His Holy Spirit.

The path that we will travel on the way to the kingdom of God will require us to know with absolute certainty that we have God’s Spirit in us, helping us in every time of need!

Counselling for Baptism

We should consider the example of Paul. He actually baptized very few people himself. A contention had arisen in the Corinthian church about which apostle the brethren there wished to follow.

Notice I Corinthians 1:13-17: “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius; lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name. And I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.”

Similarly, I cannot personally baptize people scattered all over the earth. Representatives “stood in” for Paul (for different reasons and in different circumstances than mine) and performed baptisms that were ready to take place. Still, it is not important that I baptize you personally. I also do not want people to look to me in any kind of special way because, as has been previously explained, it is Jesus who puts you into His Church, not me or any other man. Even if I could personally baptize you—and I have baptized several hundred people—I would still only be doing it as a servant of Christ, acting on His behalf, not on my own! While our representatives are scattered around the world, they will do everything in their power, with God’s help, to work out a way to reach you. If God is calling you, He will work out a way for you to be baptized. You can have absolute faith in this!

A vital point: Some contact us believing they are already true Christians— that they already have the Holy Spirit leading them—but lacking proper baptism. They are merely looking for one to baptize them—to validate an assumed conversion. Grasp this. Without either sufficient understanding of true biblical doctrines, true repentance or knowledge of real conversion—all of this on top of a correct baptism—one is not a true Christian. Lacking any of these things, no matter what one has been told, he is not a Christian, and we cannot baptize.

After studying this booklet, along with many other truths of God, you may wish to counsel for baptism. Trained representatives are available to counsel, either in person or by phone—depending upon your location. But this is a decision that can be made only by you. You must “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12). We are here to assist you in the ordinance of baptism should you desire. We will never call on you or urge you into this step. You must “count the cost” (Luke 14:25-30) and decide whether you will answer God’s call. The following quote comes from the conclusion of Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong’s booklet All About Water Baptism: “[Many] are being converted — their lives changed — by this Work of God…

“Some, not realizing one of God’s own called and consecrated ministers could call and explain, answer questions, and even baptize, have JOINED one of the churches of this world. You cannot JOIN the true Church of God — the Almighty God puts you in. “But if you have questions about fellowship, doctrines or practice, repentance and baptism—or any questions about the Bible, or the Christian life, write to the address of our office…

“Weigh carefully the FACTS, according to your own BIBLE. Then make your decision and take what steps GOD shows you.”