LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Is the doctrine of baptism a minor theological issue that matters little in the greater scheme of biblical teaching?
Adoniram and Ann Judson, famed Baptist missionaries, did not view baptism as a third-tier issue. In the winter of 1812, the Judsons began a long ocean voyage from Massachusetts to the mission field in India.
The couple was convinced that God had called them to a lifetime of Gospel service in India, and on the way to the field the Judsons studied their Bibles intensely. Both had been raised in godly Congregationalist families and baptized as infants.
However, as they spent days studying the Scriptures, the Judsons became convinced that only believers should be baptized. Upon reaching Calcutta the two were baptized by immersion in keeping with their newfound biblical convictions.
The editors and essayists of a new book, “Believer’s Baptism: Sign of the New Covenant in Christ” (Broadman & Holman Academic), concur with the sentiments of the Judsons, whose story opens the foreward by Baptist theologian and historian Timothy George. Baptism, while it is not required for one to become a Christian, is a critical issue that Scripture regularly connects with belief and salvation, the essayists say.
“Believer’s Baptism” is edited by Thomas R. Schreiner and Shawn D. Wright, both professors at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Schreiner serves as the James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament Interpretation and Wright is assistant professor of church history. The book is the second volume in Broadman & Holman’s NAC Studies in Bible & Theology.
Essayists argue stringently that baptism is not a teaching that should be dismissed lightly as a peripheral doctrine, particularly by Baptists whose forefathers were persecuted for insisting on believer’s baptism.
“Such sentiment (that baptism is a minor issue) is misdirected, for baptism is regularly connected in Scripture with belief and salvation,” the editors write in the introduction. “Baptism is the initiation rite into the Christian church. Those who label it as minor are imposing their own categories onto the Scriptures instead of listening to the Scriptures.”
The book argues on biblical grounds that baptism is the rite that initiates believers into the church, a rite that is to be administered to believers alone. The essayists also critique arguments for infant baptism and seek to demonstrate the unbiblical nature of baptizing children
“Baptism is important precisely because it is tied to the gospel, to the saving work that Christ accomplished in his death and resurrection,” the editors assert. “We do not think baptizing infants is merely a minor mistake, even though we rejoice in the evangelical credentials of many with whom we disagree.
“Believer’s baptism accords with the gospel because it teaches that the objective work of God in salvation necessarily leads to the subjective response of faith…We believe that baptism should be reserved for believers because it preserves the testimony of the gospel by showing that only those who have repented and believe belong to the church. Only those who have exercised faith are justified. Hence, only those who have trusted in Christ should be baptized. Restricting baptism to believers only, therefore, preserves the pure witness of the gospel.”
Essayists include Schreiner and Wright, along with four other scholars with ties to Southern Seminary, including:
· Robert H. Stein, senior professor of New Testament at Southern, who examines baptism in Luke and Acts.
· Stephen J. Wellum, professor of Theology at Southern, who analyzes the relationship between the old and new covenants and responds to key biblical arguments for infant baptism.
· Duane A.Garrett, professor of Old Testament interpretation at Southern, who interacts with Reformed scholar Meredith Kline and his view of New Testament baptism.
· Mark E. Dever, senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., and Southern Seminary trustee, whose chapter concludes the book and underscores practical issues related to baptism in the local church. Dever tackles such questions as the method and timing of baptism.
Schreiner argues from the New Testament epistles that baptism is an initiatory rite into the church for believers only and Wright critiques the logical arguments of Reformed Christians who hold to infant baptism.
Additional contributors include Andreas J. Köstenberger, Steven A. McKinion, Jonathan Rainbow and A.B. Caneday, who assess various biblical issues and historical movements including baptism in the Gospels, baptism in the early church, baptism among the early Anabaptists and baptism in the Stone-Campbell Restoration movement of the early 19th century.
In the foreward, George, who serves as dean of Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Ala., encourages Baptists to recover a robust understanding of what is being pictured when a new believer enters the baptismal waters.
“By becoming safely routinized as part of the ecclesiastical landscape, baptism is apt to lose its basic (New Testament) meaning as the decisive transition from an old way of life to a new way of life, as an act of radical obedience in which a specific renunciation is made and a specific promise is given,” he writes.
“The recovery of a robust doctrine of believer’s baptism can serve as an antidote to the theological minimalism and atomistic individualism that prevail in many Baptist churches in our culture. Baptism is not only the solemn profession of a redeemed sinner, our ‘appeal to God for a clear conscience,’ as the (New Testament) puts it; it is also a sacred and serious act of incorporation into the visible community of faith.”