Teleios
recently completed a survey of visitors to the Instagram account,
GodsHolyScriptures. 189 individuals participated, of whom 61% were <18 years,
74% evangelicals and 50% from the southeast or Midwest USA. In total 86%
believed that they were saved by grace alone and 40% believed they could not
lose their salvation.
We asked
about baptism history, method and significance. The results validated my
experience discussing baptism with younger people: they often appear confused
over the significance of baptism and what scripture says about it.
Here are
the top 4 answers regarding method of baptism and some associated meanings:
Ø Immersed as an adult (32%) - Strong
differences in the rite of baptism exist across denominations. Unsurprisingly,
immersion baptism, which perhaps most closely represents the regenerative work
of the Holy Spirit, is preferred strongly by Baptists. They believe generally
the rite should be performed after salvation when the convert is old enough to decide
responsibly.
Many Christians
believe it symbolizes primarily a commitment to God by the new believer which
was true also in or survey (20%).
Ø Sprinkled as a child (23%) - This form of
baptism is preferred by several traditional denominations and is generally
believed to convey either:
· Forgiveness of the sin
nature, and prior sins, allowing for a fresh start and working towards
salvation, combined with grace (Catholic viewpoint)
· Salvation in infants
too young to make a decision for Christ. This protection lasts to the time of
the age of responsibility (Presbyterian viewpoint).
· Commitment by parents
to raise a child in a Godly manner leaving the responsibility to the child to believe
and be baptized as an adult (various individual churches).
Ø Never been baptized (19%) - Although this
group might be seen by Christians as disobedient, the epistles, which contain the
injunctions to the church, do not command water baptism. Water baptism is seen
as an example at least once (Acts 8), and maybe more early in the book of Acts (speculative).
In Scripture, It was performed in almost exclusively among early Jewish Christians
early in the church.
Of course, salvation
itself is by grace alone with no added works required (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Ø Spiritually baptized
by the Holy Spirit at Salvation (15%). This choice is closest to the meaning
of baptism in the Epistles. The apostle Paul
explained that spiritual baptism ‘identified’ us (βαπτιζω, baptizoo) in the death
and life of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Baptism represents the
regeneration by the spirit to a new person who can serve our Lord. This
regeneration appears to occur at salvation accompanied by the sealing of the
Holy Spirit (Romans 6:2-9, Colossians 2:11-13, Ephesians 2:4-7). Indeed, 68% of
the participants in our survey believed baptism represented the regeneration of
the Holy Spirit in their lives (Titus 3:5).
The rite
of baptism is a very controversial topic and often elicits strong emotions from
people who believe one way or another. I have tried comment in a scripturally
based and transcultural manner. Christians are free to participate in water baptism
out of faith, by the method they choose, to demonstrate their commitment to our
blessed Savior.
Join us
again next week as we continue to look at the fascinating results of Teleios
research and what they tell us about the truth of scripture and our Christian
culture.
WC
Stewart
Response policy - The purpose of the comment section is to promote discussion that
is encouraging, propels the further search of Scripture and raises interesting
and thought provoking Biblically related questions. You may feel free to
disagree with me in a constructive manner using appropriate language. I reserve
the right to remove your comments if they are profane, pornographic, libelous
or I do not consider them constructive or consistent with the policy
stated above. By posting you no longer own your comments and you are granting
me an unrestricted worldwide license to use your comments.
Copyright © 2016 Teleios, Inc. All rights
reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment