Baptism by....Baptism

Among those that profess Christianity and throughout the different denominations there have been for hundreds of years arguments over what mode of Baptism is acceptable and proper. Some baptize by immersion, some by sprinkling and some by pouring. The bible declares that there is “one faith, one Lord and one baptism”; so only one of these ways can be correct. How was Jesus baptized? How did the apostles baptize? What was the New Testament understanding of the word baptism? Answer these questions, and we know the proper mode of baptism.
The answer can be found simply by defining the word baptism. An English dictionary will only tell us what the word has come to mean. The New Testament was written in Greek, and the Greek word that was translated baptism was baptizo. What does the word baptizo mean? John Broadus, former professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote this in his commentary on the book of Matthew the following:

“The Greek word baptize, which we borrow, was of very common use, as is seen in every period of Greek literature and was applied to a great variety of matters, including the most familiar acts of everyday life. It was thus a word which every Greek speaking hearer and reader in apostolic times would at once and clearly understand. It meant what we express by ‘immerse’ and kindred terms, and no on e could then have thought of attributing to it a wholly different sense, such as ‘sprinkle’ or ‘pour’ without distinct explanation to that effect…..Luther and Calvin both explicitly declared that the primitive baptism was immersion and the former said it ought to be restored; but they allowed the existing practice to remain undisturbed. In the course of time many Protestants came to perceive that it was very awkward to rest their practice in this respect on the authority of the Church of Rome, and being accustomed and attacked to the practice they very naturally sought countenance for it in scripture. Such are the unavoidable defects of language, that strongly biased and ingenious minds can always cast some apparent doubt over the mean of the plainest words.”

In fact, the very word means to immerse, and there would have been no question in New Testament times what baptizo meant; dipping or immersing. JR Graves, in his study of the Greek word baptizo in his book John’s Baptism found that “sixty-two standard Greek Lexicons giving only to dip, to immerse, as the literal primary meaning, which is the real meaning, of the work in Greek, corroborating the declaration of Dr. Charles Anton (Episcopalian), [then] President of Columbia ‘The primary meaning of the word [baptizo] is to dip, to immerse; and its secondary meaning, if it ever had any, refers to the same leading idea. Sprinkling and pouring are entirely out of the question”. Using scripture as our sole authority, when a person is saved by God’s grace, they are to be baptized, and scripture declares that we are to be baptized by baptism, which is immersion.