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Water baptism and church membership

David Ewert

The practice of water baptism is older than the Christian church. Gentiles who embraced the Jewish faith and became members of the Jewish synagogue before and after the time of Christ were baptized with water and thereby initiated into the Jewish community. (Gentile men were also required to take on circumcision.)

John the Baptist began a radical practice: He baptized Jews who repented and

Peter declared in his Pentecost sermon that those who repented and got baptized with water would receive the gift of the Spirit (Acts 2:39) Skjold Photo

publicly declared their decision to begin a new way of life. By baptism these Jewish (and Gentiles) converts were initiated into the “messianic” community which was prepared to receive Jesus, the coming Messiah.

When Jesus came, He Himself submitted to baptism with water. It was His way of identifying with sinners whom He had come to save. Jesus also baptized others (John 3:22), although Jesus Himself did not do the baptizing but His disciples did (John 4:1-2).

J.H.E. Hull writes, “What was more natural then, than that the church . . . should have taken over the practice of water-baptism, not only as a continuing token of forgiveness but as a sign of conversion to the gospel and the gateway into membership of the Christian community” (The Holy Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles, p. 91).

Shortly before Pentecost, Jesus explained to His disciples that whereas John had baptized with water, they would be baptized with the Spirit in a few days (Acts 1:5). When this baptism of the Spirit took place on the day of Pentecost and the church was born, it never seems to have occurred to anyone that water baptism was now outmoded. Peter declared in his Pentecost sermon that those who repented and got baptized with water would receive the gift of the Spirit (Acts 2:39). All those who received the Word and believed in Christ were baptized and became members of the Jerusalem church. As the gospel made its way in the Gentile world, all those who embraced the Christian faith also were baptized with water (Acts 10; 1 Corinthians 1:13-14).

1. The meaning of water baptism

Cleansing If we ask what the theological significance of water baptism might be, we get a number of answers from the Scriptures. One is that baptism with water symbolizes the cleansing of a person’s life from sin. When the apostle Paul was converted, he was instructed to “rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on His name” (Acts 22:16). Later, when Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he recalled their dark pagan past, but quickly added, “But you were washed” (1 Corinthians 6:10-11) – most likely a reference to their baptism. Washing the body obviously does not rid a person of moral defilement, but it symbolizes the cleansing of the heart. New life Romans 6 has always been a favourite baptismal text for Mennonite Brethren (in part because it lends strong support to the practice of baptism by immersion). Romans 6:4 says, “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.” This passage clearly teaches that baptism signifies the beginning of the new life. In baptism, the baptisand (the person being baptized) proclaims before others that what happened at Calvary, when Christ died for the sins of humankind, and on Easter morning, when He rose triumphantly from the grave, has become his or her personal experience by faith. Whereas life without Christ is described as a state of spiritual death, baptism signifies that the baptisand has risen from death to life. Another reason Romans 6 has been so important to Mennonite Brethren baptismal practice is that this passage has ethical implications for the new convert. Since the birth of the Mennonite Brethren Church in 1860 was to a large degree a revolt against unethical practices in the Mennonite villages, we should not be surprised that Romans 6 became so central in their baptismal theology. To be buried with Christ and to rise to a new life means “that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin” (Romans 6:6). In some of the early Christian baptismal liturgies, the baptisands at first wore “rough” garments (reminiscent of the clothes of skin God made for sinful human beings). These were then laid aside and trampled on to indicate that the old life of sin was being left behind. The baptisands then put on white garments. Baptism, then, not only signifies resurrection to a new life in Christ, but is also a public commitment to walk Christ’s way. That baptism was a pledge of loyalty may be inferred from the formula “to be baptized into Christ’s name” – to transfer something to another person’s name suggests new ownership. Baptism means we now belong to Christ. In some churches it is the custom for the baptiser to ask the baptisand: “Do you promise to follow Christ faithfully all the days of your life?” The Holy Spirit The conversion accounts in Acts show a close connection between faith, baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit. Peter explained to his inquirers at Pentecost: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). When Paul was converted, Ananias laid hands on him so that he might regain his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit; immediately after that, he was baptized (Acts 9:17-18). As Peter preached to Gentiles in the home of Cornelius, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, and Peter commanded them to be baptized (Acts 10:44-48; Acts 15:7-9). In Ephesus, Paul ran into a group of disciples of John the Baptist who had been baptized with water but had not received the Holy Spirit. Upon further instruction, they received the Holy Spirit and Paul then baptized them in the name of Jesus, since water baptism without the gift of the Spirit was not Christian baptism. Because of this close connection between baptism and the coming of the Spirit, we should not be surprised that many churches baptize by sprinkling or pouring, to symbolize the coming of the Spirit upon the baptisands. (This also explains why baptisms were often performed on Pentecost Sunday, the day on which the church recalls the outpouring of the Spirit by the risen Christ.)

2. The mode of baptism

Nothing specifically is said in the New Testament about the mode, or method, of baptism. Evidently there was no controversy on that matter in the early church. However, from the word “baptize”, from such passages as Romans 6, and from other evidence, immersion appears to have been the regular mode in the early church.

The first reference in Christian literature to the mode of baptism comes from the Didache, a teaching manual used just after 100 AD. In this church manual, immersion is preferred, but pouring is allowed: “Baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, in running water. But if you have not running water, baptize in other water. . . . If you have neither, pour water thrice on the head in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

The protest of the Anabaptists in the 16th century was not against sprinkling or pouring, but against infant baptism. They insisted that baptism should be upon confession of faith, and for that reason they rebaptized those who had been baptized as babies. They did not, however, immerse like the English Baptists began to do in the mid-17th century.

From the time of the Reformation up to the 19th century, Mennonites practised sprinkling or pouring. However, when the Mennonite Brethren Church was formed in 1860, immersion was accepted by them as the mode of baptism. Mennonite Brethren also insisted that believers who had been baptized by another mode upon confession of their faith had to be rebaptized if they wanted to become members of the MB Church. This restriction caused much grief and it was a step in the right direction when the General (North American) MB Conference decided not to require rebaptism of those who were baptized as believers, but not immersed. The official policy of the MB Church now is: Those who have been baptized upon confession of faith, regardless of mode, may join the MB Church without rebaptism and may transfer freely from one MB church to another (a decision reached in 1972 at the North American MB Conference). This, however, does not include those who were baptized as infants and later came to put their trust in Christ, even if they were confirmed. Their baptism is not recognized by the Mennonite Brethren Church because it is not considered to be “believer’s baptism”.

The fact that different modes of baptism are recognized by the Mennonite Brethren Church, provided it is believer’s baptism, does not mean, however, that churches are free to practise different modes. In the interest of unity and order, only immersion is practised. It is for this reason, too, that those who are ordained to the pastoral ministry should have been baptized by immersion.

3. Membership and baptism

The notion that a baptized believer need not become a member of a local church is foreign to the New Testament. Just as foreign is the thought that there could be believers who participated in the life of the church without first being baptized.

In the New Testament period, conversion, the gift of the Spirit and baptism, by which believers were publicly initiated into the church, are all one package. Nowhere is it suggested that baptism in water saves, but nowhere are baptism into Christ and baptism with water separated either. To be sure, Paul speaks of being baptized by one Spirit into the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13), but he then goes on to describe the Body of Christ as it was found in Corinth, where Jew and Greek, slave and free were members, and where believers lived in unity with one another. To be “in Christ” implies that one is also in the church – located in Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome and elsewhere.

An “invisible” church is not a New Testament concept, and it was only when the “visible” church became corrupt (when Christianity became the state religion) that the distinction between the visible church and the true invisible people of God became popular. In fact, this remained a special problem in all churches which practise infant baptism, where one officially becomes a member of the “visible” church by baptism before one has consciously confessed one’s faith in Christ (something not all who were baptized as infants always do). A believers’ church, in principle at least, baptizes only those who have put their trust in Christ and have received the gift of the Holy Spirit, and so the local church is the body of Christ in miniature. Paul never addressed an “invisible” church, but always wrote to saints in Christ who were members of a church at specific geographical locations.

When baptism is divorced from membership in the body of Christ (as represented in a local church), it loses its significance. In fact, there have been few churches in history that have divorced baptism from church membership. (The Christian and Missionary Alliance has, but efforts are being made even in that denomination to change that.) It would be a great pity if Mennonite Brethren churches should begin to separate baptism and membership.

Those who advocate the separation of baptism from church membership often appeal to the lone Ethiopian who was baptized by Philip without being added to a local church. That argument is almost as weak as when one argues from the repentance of the thief on the cross that baptism should be dispensed with altogether (as, for example, Quakers and the Salvation Army have done). Obviously there was no congregation on the way to Ethiopia that the traveller could have joined. Tradition has it that he established one when he got home. (Although such a tradition may be hard to support with historical facts, it suggests that it was assumed that those who came to faith in Christ became members of a local church by baptism.)

Michael Green writes perceptively: “There are three strands which taken together make [someone] a Christian. There is the human side – repentance and faith. There is the divine side – reception of the Spirit, adoption into the family of God, forgiveness of sins, justification. There is the churchly side – baptism into the body of believers. And all three belong together” (I Believe in the Holy Spirit, p. 132).

This paper was written at the request of the Canadian MB Conference Board of Reference and Counsel in 1972. It was later expanded and has been published in the book Finding Your Way (Winnipeg: Centre for MB Studies, 1999).

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Last modified September 20, 2000.

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