This past Sunday, May 11th I had the privilege of baptizing two individuals at Metropolitan Baptist Church. I previously had baptized a total of 9 people in my brief pastoral ministry. The first baptism went very well. The second, well that's when I ran into an issue and had to make a split second decision.
As I attempted to immerse the second individual the definition about what I believe about baptism entered my mind. As the individual came up from the water I realized that the entire front of his face and the front part of his hair were completely dry. In my mind I actually believe I heard myself say, "Oh crap, what should I do?" People were clapping and rejoicing, I surely shouldn't attempt to do this again, should I? The problem was that I really hadn't baptized this individual by immersion and if I was to literally follow what I believe then I had to do this again. So I went on to announce to the crowd that, "We need to do this again!" I quickly went on to fully immerse (without a doubt) this individual and he arose from the water with more rejoicing, much laughter, and a story to tell of "the outward representation of his inward regeneration" (as he previously testified)
1 comment:
You Anabaptist you.
:)
Seriously though...I've often wondered where we Baptists got the idea that baptism is a "public proclamation of faith" or something like that. There's not a shred of that idea in the NT...is there?
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