Always in Training

Let's talk baptism.

Some of us believe that baptism should be done by full emersion and some believe in sprinkling. There is actually some really interesting background concerning baptism. When the non-Jewish converts began to take over the Christian movement, baptism was an issue that required explanation for the purpose of continuity. So, someone wrote out the process in the second century allowing for baptism to be done in a number of ways, which is why there is so much confusion today.

For the Jews, there was only one way—a person would get in the water with no clothes and no assistance. The person would spread his or her arms, legs, toes, and fingers to make sure the water cleansed every part of the body. No one got in the water with them and, when they were done, they would walk out alone, while the priest would offer them a hand as they came near the shore to help them out of the water.

The non-Jews, not fully understanding the ancient Jewish ritual, said that a person could be fully immersed, but only in running water like a river, unless there was no river. Where there was no running water a person could be baptized in still water, unless there was no still water. Where there were no lakes, ponds, rivers, ocean, large bathtubs…large bodies of water, a person could have water poured over his or her head three times for each of the members of the Trinity. In other words, for the non-Jews, as long as you use water, it doesn’t matter how or where you are baptized.

Baptism was an ancient Jewish activity that was actually not a ritual at all, but more of an act of respect and preparation for entering the Temple, kind of like taking off your shoes before walking on the carpet in a house. Every Jew would go into the pool before entering the Temple where they would give their offerings.

John’s baptism was a bit different than the typical baptism, because it was a cleansing of sins, not just a cleansing of dust on the body. Still it was done in the ancient Jewish way, which meant “you go it alone.”

“Josephus records that John’s baptizing, was a secondary purification of the body after, and only after, purification of the soul was already achieved. It was ‘a consecration of the body implying that the soul was already thoroughly cleansed by right behavior.’ And that the latter meant ‘to practice justice toward their fellows and piety toward God.’”—John Dominic Crossan & Jonathan L. Reed, Excavating Jesus: Beneath the Stones, Behind the Texts, page 116

I am learning that we often debate and defend understandings of which we really have very little historical understanding at all. It's like we show up to a battle without prior knowledge of where or who we will be fighting. Often we suit up, grab our rifles, and start firing, only to find that the enemy is microscopic. It's really sad when the warrior refuses to believe that he can't kill germs with an M-16, so he just keeps shooting and believes he is winning. Even more sad is the one who fights when there's no battle.

This is a great place to add another John Maxwell nugget. John said that he talks with many supervisors who say their number one frustration is when they spend time and money training someone only to have them leave. Maxwell said, "There is something far worse than to train someone and have them leave--not train them and have them stay."

The same could be said of untrained soldiers of God. God's soldiers are always in training, otherwise they are AWOL.

Forever learning,
Johnny