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When should one be baptized? The word "when" may be taken a
couple of ways. "When", asking what must be done before
something is accomplished, and "when" referring to the timing
after the prerequisites have been completed. We have studied the
steps leading up to baptism: one must hear the word, believe
in Jesus as the Son of God, confess His name before men, and repent of
sin. Once these have been completed one is ready for baptism.
Now I'd like to look at the timing of baptism for the one who has
completed the four preliminary steps. That is, how long should one
wait before being baptized?
Let's again turn to the scriptures
and look at some examples of baptism. Remember what Ananias told
Saul in Acts
22:16? Once he had finished telling Saul of God's plan for him
Ananias told Saul, "And now why tarriest thou? Arise, and be
baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord."
What does tarry
mean? Please notice the Merriam-Webster link. What was Ananias
asking Saul? He was asking him "Now why are you waiting any
longer? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins."
Saul had completed the preliminary steps to baptism. It was foolish
for him to wait any longer for baptism, because he was still in sin.
Had he died in that state he would have been lost. Jesus tells us in
Mark
16:16 "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved."
Until one is baptized, they are still in sin. Should they die in
that state, they would be lost.
In Acts
16:25-34 we read of the conversion of the Philippian jailer.
What was he told in response to his question in verse
30 ("Sirs, what must I do to be saved")? He was told
to "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and thy
house." (verse
31) We see in verse
32 Paul and Silas preaching to him and all in his house the word of
the Lord. After hearing the word, what did they do? He and his house
were baptized straightway.
Please notice the definition for straightway. They were immediately
baptized. They didn't wait until some later date. They knew
what they had to do, and did it.
We considered the conversion of the
Ethiopian eunuch in question
#4 of our study of baptism. Let's return briefly to Acts 8 and
see when he was baptized. Luke records this event in Acts
8:26-39. Philip was led by the Holy Spirit to a chariot, in
which was a man of Ethiopia reading from Isaiah 53. He didn't
understand, however, the words he was reading. Philip began at the
same scripture and preached Jesus unto him. The next words we have
recorded as spoken by the eunuch were, "See, here is water; what doth
hinder me to be baptized?" In our earlier study we learned how
one is baptized. Here the eunuch shows us the attitude one must have
as to when one must be baptized. The Greek word koluo
is translated "hinder" and means "to hinder, prevent
forbid; to withhold a thing from anyone; to deny or refuse one a
thing." Only his confession of his heartfelt belief in Jesus as
the Son of God was preventing him from being baptized. Once he made
this confession he didn't wait to be baptized. We see in verse 36
that they had arrived at a body of water before he asked Philip what was
hindering his baptism. He and Philip entered that same body of water
immediately after his confession and the eunuch was baptized. Again,
we see this attitude of urgency demonstrated by the eunuch.
What can we learn from these examples?
We see that baptism is an urgent issue for one who has heard, believed,
repented, and confessed. The one who believes the truth knows he is
not saved until his sins have been washed away in baptism, and he doesn't
wish to wait another minute until this has been taken care of. In
the scriptures we see the urgency to be baptized expressed in the
believer. Do we see the same urgency expressed by
"believers" in many religious organizations today? If so,
why are they satisfied with waiting several days, weeks, or months to be
"baptized" on some day assigned by the "pastor" for
many to be "baptized"? Is this doctrine in keeping with
the scriptures? If it is not, it is false doctrine! What are
the consequences of teaching for doctrine the commandments of men?
Jesus tells us to do so is to worship God in vain! (Matthew
15:9) In NT Greek the word for vain in Matthew 15:9 is maten.
Vine's
tells us this word means "a fault, a folly", signifies "in
vain, to no purpose." Jesus warns us that we are worshipping
God "to no purpose" when we teach for doctrine the commandments
of men. Can we be saved when our worship is to no purpose? If
so, how?!
Let's take a few moments and review the
meaning of "belief" or "believe" as used in the NT.
Many people take Acts
16:31 alone as evidence for salvation by faith only. Is this the
message Luke is recording for our learning? As we learned in our
study of belief as a step toward salvation the Greek word translated believe
is pisteuo.
The word carries the idea of trust and reliance, not mere credence.
When we rely upon Christ we rely upon the words He spoke as being absolute
truth and follow them to the very best of our ability. When Jesus
tells us "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved", we
don't under-emphasize the importance of the word and.
Please review the Merriam-Webster definition for and. This
word serves as a coordinating
conjunction, joining together words or word groups of equal
grammatical rank. When Jesus used and in Mark
16:16 He was emphasizing the equal importance of belief and
baptism for salvation. Please do not use the
modern definition of believe
when studying the scriptures. Merriam-Webster includes "to hold
an opinion;
think" as the 3rd definition for the word believe. We
see in the dictionary that an opinion is "a belief stronger than
impression and less strong than positive knowledge; a generally held
view." (Merriam-Webster 2a,b) Do you wish to base your
eternal destiny on anything less than positive knowledge? Do you
wish to stand before God at the day of judgment with your salvation based
on nothing more than a generally held view? When we pisteuo
the words written in the scriptures we don't hold an opinion that cannot
be solidly affirmed in the Word of God. We don't discount what is
taught in one part of the scriptures
simply because it seems to conflict with something else in the scriptures.
We put our reasoning ability to work and learn how both work together to
give us a complete picture of God's will for our lives. (Please
review my study on Biblical Belief
for more information.) The Philippian jailer and those of his
household were required to complete every step we must complete in order
to be saved. In Acts
16:31, the jailer hadn't yet heard the word of the Lord--this wasn't
taught them until verse
32!! Even faith only (if it was a valid doctrine) couldn't have
saved him in verse 31, since he didn't know what to believe in!! How
did the account of the Philippian jailer end? Luke records in verse
34 that the jailer and all his house "rejoiced, believing in
God." Please notice the two times the word believe is
used in this account. The first is in verse 31. The second is
in verse 34. The jailer and his house rejoiced, having believed in
God when? After they were baptized, not before! Please review
the NASB rendering of Acts
16:34. In verse 31 they were told they would be saved if they
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 34 we learn they
recognized themselves as believers after completing the act of baptism
(which took place in verse
33). So, one cannot believe
(pisteuo) in the Lord Jesus Christ without being baptized!
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