Why We Left Lutheranism--The Mode of Baptism is Non-essential

But then Kittel turns his attention to baptizo. Here Kittel's insights show several things. The word baptizo is a Judeo-Christian term with the practice originating with the Jews and Jesus changing the focus to his death and resurrection into which we die and are raised again in baptism. It is a term exclusively used for the Christian sacrament and appears to have no relation to bapto of the pagan world.

The term is used in Jewish rituals to signify ritual purification and cleansing. Now dishes and clothes would be immersed. But couches and chairs? Would you really "immerse" them? Or to baptizo a house-how do you immerse a house?

Louw & Nida (Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament) write that the basic meaning of baptizo is "to enter the water" or "to undergo the ritual involving water." They also state: "Such expressions do not necessarily imply the quantity of water nor the particular means by which water is applied."

Strong's Complete Dictionary of Bible Words defines baptismos "as baptism, regeneration, washing."

Several scholars point out that there is nothing in the texts to indicate that John actually baptized by immersing. And if immersing were crucial to baptism, why didn't Jesus specifically state that when he instituted baptism? He certainly was clear about the details in the Lord's Supper! We don't know by what method the jailer at Philippi was baptized, but the layout of the city and where the prison likely was makes it doubtful that the family members would have been immersed. In fact, very few baptismal accounts actually say anything about the person actually being immersed in the water.

Lutherans have historically accepted, as the Church historically has, the three modes of baptism: immersion, sprinkling, and pouring. Pouring, it seems to me, has the same effect as immersion, only the baptized remains on land. But the important factor is that water is used as a sign that we are buried in Christ's death and raised again in our baptism. In baptism, God is working faith in our hearts and continues to work in our hearts throughout our lives.

But Lutherans tend to practice sprinkling baptism mainly because of Christian freedom. When a group makes it doctrine how the baptism must be performed, we are bound to practice our Christian freedom to combat false teaching. But I can see that in the future a Lutheran pastor might be compelled to baptize by immersion. This

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