Baptism - Meaning, Mode and Subjects

Wet, wet, wet

Baptism - meaning, mode and subjects
By Michael Kimmitt
K&M Books for 'Covenant Protestant Church of Ballymena'. 48 pages
ISBN 0 952304112

This booklet claims to deal with the 'meaning, mode and subjects' of baptism. In fact, most of it is taken up with the issue of mode - is it by sprinkling, pouring or immersion? The meaning, which is the crucial issue, gets just over two pages and the subjects - infants or professing believers - around two and a half.
He claims to appeal only to Scripture but claims also that mathematics demonstrate 'incontrovertibly' that John's baptism cannot mean immersion (p.15). Those who are not mathematicians would, I suggest, find truth and clarity in the biblical comment that John baptised at Aenon because there 'was plenty of water there' (John 3.25) - hardly needed if a few drops were enough for each penitent!
I found it a most distasteful booklet. This was not because the arguments were compelling. It was because there were unpleasant references to fellow believers. Thus those who are persuaded that baptism is for believers are dismissed as 'unthinking' and suffering from 'delusion' (p.32). We are arrogant (p.45). We are accused of 'sophism' (p.44). My Oxford dictionary explains that this word signifies a false argument intended to deceive. We perpetuate a false report (a canard) because of our 'desperation' (p.44). Such insulting words are hardly likely to advance his cause!

H.M. Carson

© Evangelicals Now - August 1998
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Main Articles

• The Spirit fell upon us
  A historical account of the Evangelical Movement of Wales in its 50th anniversary year (1948 - 1998)
• In defence of pluralism
  Society should be tolerant of all faiths and this is no threat to real Christianity
• Post-modernism (POMO) in Chicago
  An account of a conference in May 1998 aiming to assist pastors in a post-modern age
• The story of a T-shirt
  How a T-shirt with references to faiths was withdrawn from sale following joint Muslim and Christian approaches
• From an M-16 to John 3.16
  How a Nicaraguan revolutionary became a Christian and an aid worker (reprinted from World Magazine)
• Turkish delight?
  A holiday in Turkey
• Sun, sea and salvation?
  How Denise found Christ through United Beach Missions
• High explosive Sunday schools
  An interview with Trevor and Thalia Blundell about TnT Ministries
• Anti-missionary law will ban Christian witness in Israel
• The Alpha collywobbles
  A pastor outlines his dilemma in connection with the Alpha course
• Consumerism and the slow apocalypse
  The connection between consumerism and the failing society
• Driving me crazy (Bulldog for August)
  Commuting long distances to church
• When asylum is madness
  Foreign Islamic extremists in Britain

Other articles

• Under The Shadow
• Losing our Virtue - why the church must recover its moral vision
• The Life of John Calvin
• The Anointing
• City of Angels
• Territorial Spirits and World Evangelisation? - Thoughts on the spiritual warfare in the book of Revelation - an extract from the book Territorial Spirits and World Evangelisation?
• Rumours of Heaven - Essays in celebration of C S Lewis
• Green Eye of the Storm
• An Urbanising World - The United Nations Report on Human Settlements 1996
• Fire In Our Hearts
• Briefings: The Arab World - A series from OM
• Briefings: Children in Crisis - A series from OM
• The Authentic Church
• For All God's Worth
• Explore - Bible notes
• Baptism - Meaning, Mode and Subjects
• He Is Altogether Lovely