Question: 

Is sprinkling an acceptable form of baptism?

Answer: 

This is a good question and should be useful to many religious people. In answering this question, let’s begin with a simple point about the term “baptism” that will help us in defining other Bible words properly.

If you look up the term “baptism” in a modern English dictionary it will define the word as it is used today. Thus, you may find modern definitions that include sprinkling, pouring or immersion. Yet, definitions change over time. We should not be content to define Bible words according to their modern usage. Instead, we should seek to find their original meanings as written by the inspired authors.

Thus, if you will look up the term “baptism” in a Bible dictionary it will be more profitable in understanding how the word was used at the time it was written. For example, Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words defines “baptism” from the Greek word BAPTISMA as, “baptism, consisting of the processes of immersion, submersion and emergence.” Thayer’s Greek Lexicon also defines the word in similar fashion. The terms “sprinkle” or “pour” are not used to describe the baptism of the first century. In fact, there were Greek words that could have been used if this was intended. However, the only term used to describe the baptism of the New Testament refers to immersion.

Besides the actual definition, other Scriptures will solidify this position. For example, when John the Baptist was doing his baptizing we read in John 3:23, “Now John was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized.” Why did he need a place with “much water?” Well, because baptism was by immersion. If baptism was by sprinkling or pouring, “much water” would not be necessary.

Notice also Acts 8:35,36, “Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, ‘See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?’” The Ethiopian must have been taught that the will of Jesus Christ was for men to “believe and be baptized” in order to be saved (Mark 16:16). Clearly, the element used in baptism was water. Yet, was it sprinkling, pouring or immersion? Just read on.

Acts 8:37-39 says, “Then Philip said, ‘If you believe with all your heart, you may.’ And he answered and said, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’ So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing.”

Notice they went “down into the water” and “came up out of the water.” That sounds like immersion. Or, as Colossians 2:12 phrases it we are, “buried with Him in baptism…” Now, if you bury someone do you just sprinkle a little dirt on them, or fully immerse them in the dirt?

Were you baptized in the way the Bible describes?

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