Seminarial Sophistry

"Any Form of Re-baptism is a Compromise," says the heading of an article by Wayne E. Ward of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary published in the August 31, 1967, issue of the Western Recorder.

The article is calculated to give aid and comfort to the enemies of Baptists by encouraging recognition of alien baptism. No doubt many nominal and unfaithful Baptists may consider the article an example of religious sophistication. In fact, however, it is rather sophomoric.

"Some people have said to me, You have emphasized believer s baptism by immersion; wouldn't you throw a church out of the association if they received some other kind of baptism? " So Dr. Ward begins his article, and continues in his first paragraph:

"Here is my answer. You see, I have always voted to baptize a person by immersion when he comes into a Baptist church, even though he may have been a born-again Christian believer for many years without ever having received New Testament baptism. But even that is a compromise, because baptism really means the sign of beginning the Christian journey. If he has been a genuine believer in Christ for many years, it is impossible to make baptism mean for him what it meant in the New Testament the sign of rising to walk in a new life with Jesus."

The only compromise involved here is Ward's. After quoting a question, he says, "Here is my answer," and then gives no answer at all, except by implication. He could have said "Yes" or "No." Instead, he wrote about 400 words without saying either, though we may read "No" between the lines.

"Baptism," he says, "really means the sign of beginning the Christian journey." But this is only part of the meaning of baptism. To say that baptism "really means this, without mentioning other and more important meanings, is extremely misleading. If any man thinks that his baptism is no more than "the sign of beginning the Christian journey," that man s baptism is really more a sign of ignorance than of anything else.

Of course the primary meaning of genuine baptism, which is to say scriptural baptism, which is to say Baptist baptism, is its testimony to the historic death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Whatever other meanings true baptism may carry are involved in, dependent on, and subordinate to this symbolic testimony. A teacher in a Baptist seminary ought to know this.

Dr. Ward s second paragraph reads as follows: "If another Baptist says, Well, I know he was baptized with the wrong form; but at least, it was performed upon a believer at the beginning of his Christian journey and Jam not going to make him go through a ritual just to get the form right when it is 30 years too late for the real meaning then I realize that he is making a compromise in one direction while I am leaning in another. I like my compromise better than his, because I think the form of baptism is an eloquent witness to the gospel which I simply cannot give up."

Suddenly he has switched from discussing a sign "of beginning to insisting upon a sign "at" the beginning. A professional teacher ought not to imagine that all his readers will be so stupid as to follow him in his confusion of the prepositions "of and "at."

Only Catholics, Campbellites, and other baptismal regenerationists believe that the act of baptism is simultaneous with the beginning of what Dr. Ward aptly calls "the Christian journey." If, as the Bible teaches and as Baptists have believed for 19 centuries, baptism is an act of obedience by previously regenerated believers, then it is less important whether it be after an interval of 30 seconds or 30 years than that it be a genuine act of obedience. Dr. Ward may compromise all he wants to, but on this point real Baptists, by whatever names they may have been called, have for 19 centuries refused to compromise.

Third paragraph from Dr. Ward: "But, it is literally impossible to baptize a person at a later stage of his Christian journey without modifying the New Testament meaning to some extent. We are in a situation today that simply did not exist in the New Testament, and we have to apply the teachings as carefully as we can in order to preserve the real meaning of the New Testament in a changed environment."

Remove the desperate appeal to the axiom that no two situations in time or space are exactly alike, and there is not a single fact left in the above paragraph. Dr. Ward forgets that Christ s commission to His church extends to "the end of the age" as well as to "the uttermost part of the earth." (Mat. 28:20; Acts 1:8.) Away with double-talk about "modifying the New Testament meaning"! We do not "preserve the real meaning of the New Testament" by disobeying Christ, but by doing what He commanded!

"If my fellow Baptist," writes Dr. Ward in his fourth paragraph, "together with his church congregation has prayed and studied God s word and come out with an application to baptism, the Lord s Supper, or church membership in which he is honestly trying to preserve the vital truth of the New Testament in a changed situation, I am going to bind him to me with cords of love, even when he differs with my conclusion and I will listen to him to see if I may have been wrong.

Now, who is not in favor of love? And surely love will cover a multitude of sins. Yet it remains true that love "rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." (I Cor. 13:6.) And regardless of double-talk, men do not "honestly" try to preserve the truth by destroying it with the excuse of a "changed situation." "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments." (I Jn. 5:3.)

Fifth and last paragraph of this exhibition of seminarial sophistry reads as follows: "This is what it means to be a Baptist. What glorious and exciting fellowship in which to study and apply God s word to the needs of today s world. God grant that we may never kill it by authoritarianism!"

Countless Baptists of previous generations, as well as many today, have had somewhat different ideas of what it means to be a Baptist. Fellowship with mystery Babylon and her daughters (Rev. 17:5) may be exciting, but to some of us seems something other than glorious. And, however strange the idea may have become to Dr. Ward, some Baptists still believe that the best way to apply God s word to the needs of the world, today or any other day, is to obey the word rather than to try to please the world. "What it means to be a Baptist"! We are reminded that in religion as in other phases of life, the label is not always conclusive evidence of the contents.

Finally, Dr. Ward fires a parting shot from his ultimate weapon, the dreadful bogeyman, "authoritarianism!" But Jesus declared that all authority was given to Him in heaven and on earth. We either believe Him and respect that authority, or we do not. Some men may prefer the authority of denominational bonds, or perhaps of ecumenical ambitions.

Others may prefer the authority of ancient traditions or of modern fashions, of human reasonings or of fleshly lusts. But Baptists in legitimate succession from him whose voice cried out in the wilderness of Judea are happy to hail the authority, the complete, final, eternal authority of the Lamb of God, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Teacher and Lord, Bridegroom and Head, of His church. His word is our law, to obey Him our delight. God grant that by His authority we may ever kill all fellowship with the powers of wickedness that hate Him and despise His truth!