Baptism: Is It Necessary? - Part 1

At the beginning of the year I posted a short blurb regarding baptism. We had an all too brief discussion about it at our small group this past Sunday evening. It also came up in discussion with some friends Sunday morning before our corporate worship time after we broke from singing practice. I just came across a ton of video’s on YouTube and thought that I will begin sharing some of these from my blog.

Theology of Baptism

Several weeks ago during our small group discussion someone asked me what my views were on baptism. Now, I do not know about you, but within our churches tradition this typically tends to be one of those boundary markers or dividing points. However, to give the people in my congregation the benefit of the doubt, we do not typically toe the line of those in our tradition in certain areas, but I also knew that my answer would not be inline with what our tradition declares normative and so I was a bit hesitant in offering up my view.

Since that time I have undertook a serious study of the biblical view of baptism. While I have not quite made up on mind on this topic and its teaching, I have come across some extremely convincing arguments put forth by very capable theologians from different Christian backgrounds. A couple of weeks ago I read Dr. Ben Witherington’s book, Troubled Waters: Rethinking the Theology of Baptism. Dr. Witherington (or W3 as he likes to sign his name on his blog) comes from a Protestant background and I did appreciate the scope and depth that he attempted to encompass in this short book. I felt that there was much more ground that he could have covered on this topic, but what he did provide was extremely helpful in causing me to pause and think of baptism, its purpose, and mode in an entirely fresh way. This does not mean that I agreed with everything that he wrote, there were a few points that I felt he was way off base on, however, in general I found it to be an engaging read and very informative.

Next I read a book by our minister, Tom Riley. This book was born out of his Masters’ Thesis on the topic of baptism titled Dying to Live Again: The Grace of Baptism. I spoke to him this morning regarding it and mentioned to him that I had read it, thought it was done rather well, but wished he had written more on the subject. He spent the majority of the book camped in Romans 6:1-7, which is not a bad place to camp, but there is such a wealth of other scriptures which address this subject that it would have been nice to have his insight on those as well. Unfortunately, I believe the limit of scope given was more due to the limitations based on his assignment at the time of writing as opposed to his knowledge of the subject in general. Having known Tom for the past three years, his knowledge far exceeds anything that could be limited by pages in his book. Hopefully, in the near future I will have more opportunities to sit with him and discuss this topic more in depth as I continue to gather more information to form a more solidified belief on this topic.

Next up, I have begun reading a couple of systematic theology books, skipping to the parts regarding church sacraments and baptism in particular. I also plan on purchasing Beasley-Murray’s book Baptism in the New Testament, as well as Karl Barth’s The Teaching of the Church Regarding Baptism. I know that both of these books are viewed as scholarly in their approach on this topic.

If you have any thoughts on this topic or have any books or scholarly articles that address this subject, by all means please comment with either a place to find it or read it on the internet. I would appreciate any and all information that I can get as I attempt to do as thorough an investigation into baptism as I am able.