| Most Recently Posted Ask a Question | |||||||
| Q: | I have recently been discussing Baptism with one of my friends. She is reformed and believes that Baptism should be done after a person has accepted Christ to show other Christians that the person has decided to follow Jesus. I went through the Small Catechism with her, but basically she said that all the Catechism did was take verses out of context to validate its points. Where can I go in the Bible to put together a solid answer to her views. Finally, she has said that there are different types of baptism, water, fire, and baptism of the Holy Spirit, can you please shed some light on this subject, thanks! | ||||||
| A: | False views about the sacraments in general and baptism specifically usually involve a number of wrong ideas blended together. So offering adequate information is a brief manner is often a challenge. I'll offer a response based on your description of what your friend told you, and I hope this is helpful. At the heart of the issue seems to be the view that baptism is merely an external sign of one's internal faith but is by no means an instrument God actually uses to create or strengthen saving faith. In short, your friend rejects the truth that baptism is a true "means of grace" or instrument designed and used by God to give spiritual life and, with that, forgiveness of sins and salvation. All you need do is go back to those very passages (in the catechism or directly in the Bible, with their contexts clearly in place) and let the passages speak for themselves. I'm referring to passages like Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16, Romans 6:3, Galatians 3:27, Titus 3:5-7, and 1 Peter 3:20-21. None of these speak of baptism merely as an external sign giving a message to other people about a person's faith. They simply and clearly tell us that distinct blessings (the Holy Spirit, forgiveness, salvation, joining a person to Christ) are given in and through baptism. The words are clear enough as they stand. Your friend's statement that these passages are taken out of context was simply her way of trying to end the conversation. Nothing in the contexts of any of these verses changes what the verses themselves say and mean. All your friend is saying at this point is that she is not fully open to what the passages are clearly saying. Her cherished convictions, reflecting what she was taught in her church, were being denied. That's all. But this is an important thing to remember. Your friend's openness to let Scripture have its way with her beliefs depends mostly on her relationship to Christ and her view of the true Author of Scripture and his integrity. So continue to testify to more basic issues of law and gospel, sin and grace, with your friend. Love her with patience and remember you don't have to convince her of any of these things. Simply testify and set the Bible words before her and allow the Holy Spirit to use them for his good purposes. Finally, on the subject of fire baptism, baptism of/in the Holy Spirit, etc., no one ever denies that the word baptism is used metaphorically and does indeed refer to things above and beyond the applicaiton of water in the name of the Triune God. Any decent Bible dictionary will offer adequate information on such terms. But these things have nothing to do with the main point you and your friend were discussing. | ||||||
| |||||||