How should I be baptized?
Baptism in the New Testament was by immersion in water.
- Matthew 3:16 “As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water”
- Acts 8:37-39 “The eunuch said, look, here is water… then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. …They came up out of the water…”
The word “baptism” means “to dip, to immerse”. The following are the most reputable Greek dictionaries (or lexicons) and their definition of the Greek word “bapto” from which we get the word “baptism.”
- Kittle’s Theological Dictionary of New Testament Words: “to dip in or under”
- Thayer’s, Greek-English Lexicon ‘to dip, dip in, immerse”
- Liddel and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon: “dip”
The founders of three major denominations agree that New Testament baptism was by immersion.
- Martin Luther: “I would have those who are to be baptized to be entirely immersed, as the word imports and the mystery signifies.”
- John Calvin: “The word ‘baptize’ signifies to immerse. It is certain that immersion was the practice of the ancient church.”
- John Wesley: “Buried with Him, alluding to baptizing by immersion according to the custom of the first church.”