Biblical Recorder - Questions for churches to consider

28. October 2008 by Marv Knox, Associated Baptist Press

To guide a 21st-century study of Baptist baptism, Bill Leonard, dean of Wake Forest University’s Divinity School, presented a set of questions about baptism for churches:

“Do those churches that accept baptism from other traditions have a way of incorporating new members liturgically and ‘covenantally’ into a believers’ church? Might a renewal of baptismal vows become a public profession of long-held faith in a new community of the faithful?”
“Can churches that require immersion of non-immersed, long-time Christians articulate a clear biblical mandate for doing so, especially when ‘New Testament baptism’ is given to those who have made immediate profession of faith?”
“Does immersion given to long-term Christians on the basis of a profession of faith require recipients to repudiate at least implicitly their earlier faith and the Christian tradition that nurtured them to grace?”
“Should immersion of long-time Christians at least be distinguished from the immersion of new converts?”
“Given that infant baptism is no longer mandated by state-based religious establishments, are Baptist churches that require immersion of all members prepared to declare that the churches from which would-be members come are ‘false churches’ or ‘mere societies’?”
“Given that the New Testament knows nothing of child baptism, can Baptist churches that require immersion of all members claim ‘the true New Testament baptism’ if they baptize children under the age of 12, when Jewish children confirm their faith?
“Given that many Baptist churches accept children — some even in the preschool ages — as members, how will they define the nature of a believers’ church?”
“If Baptist churches baptize children, especially very young children, can they commit themselves to ... helping children remember their profession of faith and baptism? Can they develop clear, intentional methods for ‘confirming’ the faith of children once they confront the moral and spiritual dilemmas of adolescence and adulthood?”
“What can some Baptist churches do to extricate themselves from the cycle of rebaptism given multiple times to professing Christians? If baptism is administered in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, when does rebaptism become an act of literally taking the name of God in vain?”
“As Baptists lose their culture-dominant status, how does baptism become a renewed sign of conscience and dissent in the world?”
“How might Baptist churches again become ‘a shelter for persons distressed of conscience’ and a prophetic community that distresses the consciences of members and non-members alike in response to the great issues, ideas and injustices of our times?
“Might the early Baptists’ radical understanding of conscience encourage us to an equally radical concern for voice — an environment in which everyone can speak even when the differences are vast and irreconcilable?”
“Might a recovery of Baptist dissent compel Baptists to articulate ideas that inform and challenge the church and the culture, even when they will never secure approval by a majority?”

Available online:
Baptism still symbol, but 'problems' need answers

Historian: Bible says it, but Baptists haven't settled it

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