Rituals
were a prominent part of Old Testament worship--there were annual rituals, monthly rituals
and daily rituals. Rituals
were a prominent part of Old Testament worship--there were annual rituals, monthly rituals
and daily rituals.
There were rituals for birth and rituals for death, rituals of sacrifice, rituals of cleansing, rituals of ordination. Faith was involved, but rituals were more prominent.
The New Testament, in contrast, has two basic rituals: baptism and the Lord's Supper--and there are no detailed regulations for either.
Why these two? In a religion in which faith is primary, why have any rituals at all?
The primary reason, I believe, is that both the Lord's Supper and baptism picture the gospel of Jesus Christ. They rehearse the fundamental elements of our faith.
I have already described (WN, April 22, 1997) how the Lord's Supper reminds us of the Lord's death, his life now that we share in, and his promise to return. Therefore, as often as we do it, it is a reminder that our salvation is based on the death and life of Jesus Christ.
How does baptism picture the central truths of the gospel?
The apostle Paul wrote: "Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection" (Rom. 6:3-5).
Paul is saying that baptism unites us with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection. These are the primary points of the gospel (1 Cor. 15:3-4). Our salvation depends on his death and on his resurrection. Our forgiveness--being cleansed of sin--depends on his death; our Christian life and future depend on his resurrected life.
Baptism symbolizes the death of the old self--the old person was crucified with Christ--buried with Christ in baptism (Rom. 6:8; Gal. 2:20; 6:14; Col. 2:12, 20).
It pictures our identification with Jesus Christ--we cast our lot in with him. We accept that his death was for us, for our sins. We acknowledge that we have sinned, that we have a propensity to sin, that we are sinners in need of a Savior.
We acknowledge our need to be cleansed, and that this cleansing comes through the death of Jesus Christ. Baptism is one of the ways in which we confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
Baptism pictures even better news--in baptism we are raised with Christ so that we might live with Christ (Eph. 2:5-6; Col. 2:12-13; 3:1). In him, we have a new life, with him as Lord leading us out of sinful ways and into righteous ways.
In this way we symbolize repentance, a change in the way we live, and also the fact that we cannot make this change in ourselves--it is done by the power of the risen Christ living in us. We identify with Christ in his resurrection not just for the future, but for life right now.
John the Baptist used baptism as a ritual to show repentance in which the water symbolized cleansing.
Jesus and his disciples continued this practice. It dramatizes the fact that we have a new basis for life, and a new basis for our relationship with God.
Baptism pictures our participation in Christ's death and in his resurrection. As we rise from the baptismal waters, we picture rising to a new life--a life in Christ, with him in us.
Peter wrote that baptism saves us "by the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 3:21). However, baptism itself does not save us. We are saved by God's grace, through faith in Christ.
We are baptized not only into Christ Jesus, but also into his body, the church. "We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body" (1 Cor. 12:13). That means it must be done within the context of the Christian community. There are no secret Christians, people who believe in Christ but no one knows about it.
The biblical pattern is to confess Christ before others, to make a public acknowledgment of Jesus as Lord.
Baptism is basically a ritual recognizing that a person has already repented of sin, accepted Christ as Savior, begun to grow spiritually--is in fact already a Christian. Baptism is generally done soon after a person has made a commitment, but occasionally it may be done much later.
After a person has come to faith in Christ, he or she is eligible for baptism. This may be when the person is quite old, or quite young. A young person may explain faith differently than an older person does, but young people may have faith nonetheless.
Teens and even younger children may have genuine sorrow over sin, genuine faith that Christ has paid for their sins, and genuine commitment to Christ, and they may be baptized.
Will some of them eventually change their minds and fall away? Perhaps, but that happens with adult professions of faith, too. Will some of those childhood conversions turn out to be mistaken? Perhaps, but that happens with adults, too.
If the person is repentant and has faith in Christ, as best as the pastor can determine, then the person may be baptized. It is not our practice, however, to baptize minors without consent of their parent or legal guardian. If the parent objects, then the child who has faith in Jesus is no less a Christian for waiting until he or she becomes an adult to be baptized.
It is our practice in the WCG to baptize by immersion. We believe that was the most likely practice in first-century Judaism and in the early church. We believe that complete immersion pictures death and burial better than sprinkling does.
However, we do not make the mode of baptism an issue to divide Christians. The important thing is that the person forsakes the old life of sin, and has faith in Christ as Savior.
To develop the analogy further, we may say that the old person died with Christ, whether or not the body was properly buried. Cleansing was pictured, even if burial was not. The old life is dead, and the new life is here.
Salvation does not depend on the exact mode of baptism (the Bible doesn't give us many details on procedure, anyway) nor on the exact words, as if the words had some magical power of their own.
Salvation depends on faith in Christ, not on the depth of the baptismal waters. A believing person baptized by sprinkling or pouring is still a Christian. If such a person wishes to become a member of the WCG, we do not require a new baptism, unless the person believes it appropriate.
If the fruit of a Christian life has been present for 20 years, for example, there is no need to quibble about the validity of a ceremony of 20 years ago. Christianity is based on faith, not on performance of a ritual.
It is not our practice to baptize infants or children too young to express faith for themselves, since we understand baptism to be an expression of faith, and no one can be saved by their parents' faith.
We do not, however, condemn as unchristian those who do practice infant baptism. Here are two common arguments for infant baptism.
First, scriptures such as Acts 10:44; 11:14; 16:15 tell us that entire households were baptized, and households in the first century normally included infants.
It is possible that these households did not have young children, but I think that a better explanation would be to observe in Acts 16:34 and 18:8 that entire households were said to believe in Christ.
I do not think the infants had genuine faith, nor that the infants spoke in tongues (10:44-46). Perhaps the entire household was baptized in the same way that the entire household believed in Christ. This would mean that as many as were old enough to believe were also baptized.
A second argument uses the concept of covenants. In the Old Testament, children were included in the covenant, and the ritual of inclusion was circumcision, done on infants.
The new covenant is a better covenant, with better promises, so surely children are included automatically and should therefore be marked with the initiatory rite of the new covenant, baptism, even in infancy.
However, this fails to acknowledge the difference between the old and new covenants. A person entered the old covenant by genealogy, but a person enters the new covenant only by repentance and faith.
We cannot argue that all a Christian's descendants are automatically in the new covenant! Each must come to faith himself or herself.
Occasionally a person baptized in infancy wishes to become a WCG member. Is it necessary for us to baptize the person?
I believe that this must be decided on a case-by-case basis, based on the person's preference and understanding of baptism. If the person has only recently come to a point of faith and commitment, it is probably appropriate to baptize the person. In such cases, baptism would emphasize to the person what a decisive step of faith has been taken.
If the person was baptized in infancy and has been living as an adult Christian for many years, with good fruit, then we do not need to insist on baptizing them.
Of course, if they request it, then we would be happy to do so, but we do not need to quibble about ceremonies of decades ago when Christian fruit is already evident. We can simply praise the grace of God. The person is a Christian whether or not the ritual was done correctly.
For similar reasons, it is permissible for us to share the Lord's Supper with people who have not been baptized in the manner we are accustomed to. The criterion is faith.
If we both have faith in Jesus Christ, we are both united to him, we have both been baptized, one way or another, into his body, we may share in the bread and wine.
We may even share with them if they have erroneous ideas about what happens to the bread and wine. (Don't we all have erroneous ideas about some things?)
Friends, my prayers are with you. May you be strengthened by our Savior and by his gospel.
Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 1998