Answering baptism objections 34

To my knowledge there are four basic objections to baptism by sprinkling, so, as promised, let’s deal with them.

  1. Immersion is a symbol of our burial. This is the one that was mentioned most frequently in the comments to the last baptism post, and it’s based on two primary passages.



    When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. (Colossians 2:11-13)

    The argument is that immersion properly symbolizes our death and resurrection by putting us under water (burial in the ground) and then raising us out of the water again (resurrection out of the ground).

    There are a few problems with analogizing immersion to Jesus’ death and resurrection.

    1. Jesus wasn’t buried under the ground.
    2. Jesus wasn’t submerged in water when he died.
    3. Jesus didn’t come out of the ground. Far from coming out of some physical medium with it falling or dripping off him, he didn’t even disturb his burial clothes.
    4. No-one saw Jesus rise from the dead.
    5. Neither passage mentions water.

    These two passages explain the purpose of baptism, not its mode (though there is a connection between purpose and mode). Baptism unites us to Christ, who through his atoning work on the cross gives us power to overcome the deadly effects of sin.

    The question Paul is answering in Romans 6 is “Should we continue to sin?”, not “How do we get baptized?”

    If we are to treat Romans and Colossians as instructive on the issue of mode, why not also throw in Galatians 3:27?


    By what means do you use Romans and Colossians as relevant for mode, yet exclude this? Immersion can’t realistically be analogous to clothing. We wear clothes around and on us, and we don’t expect them to fall off or dry up as soon as we’ve put them on.

    All three passages explain the purpose of baptism, not its mode.

  2. Noah and Moses symbolize baptism by immersion. Here are the passages that are associated with this argument:


    In [the ark] only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also–not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. (I Peter 3:20-21)

    This argument does show us some water, but not in a way that would support immersion. The point of both is that the people whom God saved were NOT immersed. It was the Egyptians and the sinners who were fatally immersed in both cases. In fact, the Children of Israel didn’t even get wet, so the passage can’t even be used to support sprinkling.

    If we interpret the purpose of baptism as being union with Christ, we see what’s happening with Moses. Through their experiences together (the cloud) and their miraculous salvation (the sea), they are united to Moses.

  3. Jesus came out of the water. This argument says that there are several passages that describe immersion because we see participants coming up out of the water.



    These passages do show a connection between water and baptism, though not immersion. First, they certainly don’t exclude sprinkling. If all the parties had stood at the edge of a river or pond (who knows if Philip’s wasn’t just a puddle?), they might accurately be described as coming out of the water when they were finished.

    Second, the point of Matthew’s account is not to show the method of baptism but the sequence of events. Note the emphasis on chronology: “as soon as,” followed by “at that moment.” This is a passage about when, not where.

    Third, if baptism by immersion is a symbol of death, burial and resurrection, Matthew seems to have jumped the gun in his description. He says, “As soon as Jesus was baptized…” Surely Jesus would have to have come back out of the water to complete the resurrection step. After the baptism is complete, then we have Matthew tell us about coming up out of the water. If this is intended to show Jesus in the act of emerging from immersion, you need to explain how he comes out of the water twice, yet only goes in once.

    Fourth, for Acts to describe baptism by immersion, Philip would have had to have baptized himself, in violation of the one-baptism rule (and common sense). Note that “both” Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, then “they” came out of it. In terms of their spatial relationship with the water, what happened to one happened to the other. If the point is that the eunuch is immersed here, so is Philip.

  4. The Greek word for baptism means immersion. This argument looks at the etymology of baptizo and finds that, according to Strongs, it has three possible meanings:
    3. to overwhelm

    Given that we don’t see any unambiguous descriptions of baptism by immersion in the Bible, this is perhaps the strongest of all the objections. Baptizo can describe immersion, though it doesn’t exclude baptism by sprinkling or pouring. The problem with the etymological argument is that it requires us to take an ambiguous term (immersion or pouring) and read its cultural definitions into Scripture.

    Assuming that God knew what he was doing when he wrote his Word, wouldn’t it be wiser and safer to let God interpret his own terms? Outside the context of Scripture, baptizo certainly can describe immersion, but within Scripture it doesn’t match anything else God tells us about the mode of baptism. Through the Old and New Testaments, we see repeated and consistent descriptions of sprinkling. Unless we can see a clear change in direction in the New Testament (and I can’t), we need to read God’s definition into the term.

One more point. If baptism is a picture of God’s grace to us when we were dead in sins, which mode would best picture that?

One in which we actively step into a passive pool of water that’s just sitting there waiting for us?

Or one in which water is actively poured over our stationary bodies?

34 thoughts on “Answering baptism objections

  1. Jeff Nov 28, 2009 10:59 pm


    It is a tremendous fact to defend: atonement is made always by blood alone. That is well established in both testaments. Propitiation is based on blood (Romans 3:25) always and ONLY (i.e. no torment in hell).

    “It is finished”: glorious words! I have never appreciated them as much as I have in defending them. Thank you for bringing a new understanding of their value to me.

    There seems to be a concerted effort to attack the atonement, for some reason. Am I surprised? I really shouldnâ€™t be. The enemy hates the blood, the power of the word of the cross. He hates it. He will attack it whenever he can, using whomever he can. If anything can be made to appear to be missing in the work Christ on the cross, then what faith will people have in the gospel? How will they come to believe that it is the blood of Christ that washes away sins?

    We were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:19).
    Our redemption is through His own blood (Heb 9:12).

    I suspect James has had enough of this. We have wandered away from his topic of baptism, and for that I am sorry. I didnâ€™t mean to carry it this far afield.

    I turn it back to James to continue on.

    His work in poking fun at the young CEOâ€™s is hilarious. Please keep it up! My regards…

  2. Josh Nov 28, 2009 11:42 pm

    So no straight answer about whether the resurrection was necessary for our salvation? I feel cheated somehow.

    I would point out that you and the “young CEOs” have one thing in common though: You both claim that anyone who disagrees with you is the “enemy” and you both seem to think that any criticism of what you say is a personal attack.

  3. Tommy F Nov 29, 2009 2:52 pm


    Your posts get farther afield from baptism, while also revealing that you have no desire to dialogue about your initial comments.

    You have dodged every question from Josh, and seem incapable of responding to my questions about your words…. You continually mix terms together making your posts incomprehensible and inconsistent.

    I get it. You really like “It is finished.” The problem is that you have equated atonement and blood with hanging on a cross, rather than dying, forsaken by the Father. You have collapsed the atonement into Jesus hanging on a cross, before death. Again, I’ll ask: shouldn’t Jesus have asked for help getting off of the cross once he said: “It is finished”?

    You comment that the enemy does not like the atonement. It seems that neither do you. You seem to like the cross, but not death, and apparently not the resurrection (you’ve avoided Josh’s repeated questions).

    I’ll repeat the two questions that most reveal your confused theology. If redemption is â€œcompleteâ€ at the point of â€œIt is finishedâ€ then why did he die? And If redemption was not complete, and thus he needed to die, then havenâ€™t you overstated the importance of â€œIt is finishedâ€?

    Stop dodging and evading. If the atonement is so important to you, perhaps you’d like to clarify your confusing comments.

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