Baptizers Beware

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q31nA6LCMxE

Watch the above video from Youtube if you're looking for a good laugh. It's what every middle school boy has dreamed of doing, but this one had the guts to do it.

Baptism is an interesting topic among Christians. It seems to be the equivalent of the debate over whether to eat "unclean" foods in the early church. There are those who cannot fathom how anyone would believe that baptism is NOT essential for salvation; and there are those who just as equally cannot fathom how someone could think that it IS essential for salvation. What a sad issue to be so polarized on. It's a practice given to us by God to physically join in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. It's the putting-into-practice Paul's call to offer our bodies as living sacrifices - to die, be buried, and to raise again just as Jesus did. It marks the beginning of a journey; the first step in surrendering one's life to the leading of Jesus. It's unfortunate that so many have used this debate as a platform for their "We're-Better-Than-You" attitude.

A friend at church handed me a copy of Rubel Shelly's "Loving the Person Who Isn't "One of Us."" In it Rubel has these comments concerning baptism:

"I have a dear friend who is pastor of a Pentecostal church. A while back he made this confession to me: 'Rubel, time was that I would not have considered you my brother in Christ because of the way you were baptized. My church tradition took Acts 2:38 to be a 'pattern' that required us to say 'in the name of Jesus Christ' as a verbal formula when we immersed somebody. And because you were baptized 'in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,' I could not honor your baptism.'

Can you imagine it? We both believed that Scripture was the Word of God to humankind. We both confessed Jesus Christ to be Immanuel, God come in the flesh. We had both repented of our sins. We both believed it was necessary to be immersed in water for the remission of sins. But he thought my baptism didn't count because the "formula" somebody said when I was put under the water invoked the Trinity instead of the name of Jesus only! Can you imagine the arrogance of that?

Here's what I told him: 'Dear brother, I felt exactly the same way about you. Because of how I was taught to interpret Acts 2:38, I would not have considered you my brother in Christ. I could not honor your baptism. I can certainly forgive you your arrogance in judging me if you will forgive my arrogance in judging you!'"

What is that?!?!? A Pentecostal quoting Acts 2:38? That's OUR verse. I'm pretty sure Peter had already founded the CofC when he spoke those words. What's a Pentecostal doing using Acts 2:38 to debate baptism with churches of Christ? I'm kidding, of course.

Perhaps the most amazing thing in all this is that this was written back in the 1980's!!! This is new ground for a lot of CofC folks even today, much less in the 80's! Thank you, Rubel, for being a pioneer in leading churches of Christ out of our arrogant exclusivism.

*****CORY JONES IS IN NO WAY, SHAPE OR FORM ENDORSING THE ACT OF CANNONBALLING INTO THE BAPTISTRY BEFORE ONE IS BAPTIZED. HE IS HENCEFORTH HELD UNACCOUNTABLE FOR ANY AND ALL ACTS OF CANNONBALLS, CORKSCREWS, SWANDIVES, JACK-KNIVES, FLIPS, FLOPS, TWISTS, OR ANY OTHER PLUMMETING OF ONE'S SELF INTO, OVER, OR THROUGH A BAPTISTRY.*****