THE

OF
History Part One:
From Paul
to Luther

BY JACK COTTRELL BAPTISM

F “Fifty million Frenchmen can’t be
wrong.”
Some may use this adage seriously,
but to others it is a sarcastic way of say-
ing that truth cannot be decided by
majority vote—a point driven home by
Paul in Romans 3:4, “Let God be found
true, though every man be found a liar”
(New American Standard Bible).
Historically, those associated with the
conservative branches of
Restoration Movement have enthusias-
tically accepted Paul’s admonition,
being content to hold on to certain the-
the
something wrong with the “minority”
view that baptism is the point of time
when God gives salvation. Surely, 50
million evangelicals can’t be wrong!
Yes, they can; and I believe they are.
Long ago I decided to accept the Bible
alone as my only norm for faith and
practice. And long ago I became con-
vinced that everything the New
Testament says about the meaning of
baptism can be summed up thus: water
baptism is the God-appointed time
when he first gives saving grace to the
believing, repentant sinner.
ological convictions, even if they per- Should we then just ignore the stan-
ceived themselves to be in the minority. dard evangelical approach to baptism? often, our historical perspective on this
This is no doubt still true for many. doctrine is much too limited. We tend
However, many among us recently seem THE MODERN EVANGELICAL to see ourselves within the context of the
to have adopted a very different attitude last 200 years. We know that the early
with respect to baptism:
VIEW OF BAPTISM IS Restorationists rejected the prevailing
“Fifty million evangelicals can’t be ACTUALLY THE NEW VIEW. denominational (e.g., Presbyterian,
wrong.” Baptist, Methodist) views of baptism,
The thinking is that, if practically the Not at all. We need to understand what and came to see baptism as having a key
entire evangelical world thinks God evangelicals are saying, and why they are role in the reception of salvation. Now,
bestows saving grace as soon as the sin- saying it. All our doctrinal convictions, two centuries later, some are wondering
ner believes and repents, then there while grounded ultimately upon the if they went too far. After all, was it not
must be some truth there. If evangelicals Bible alone, should be developed in full a bit presumptuous of the Campbells,
agree that baptism is simply the new view of past and present Christian Walter Scott, John Smith, et al., to reject
Christian’s obedient expression of or thinking. A knowledge of the historical the traditional consensus view of bap-
witness to his new status as a member of development of any doctrine is extreme- tism and come up with a new and oppo-
the body of Christ, then there must be ly valuable; it can enrich our under- site view? Why should we stick with
standing as well as help us avoid serious these innovators, rather than just blend
Jack Cottrell is professor of theological studies at doctrinal errors. in with the “50 million evangelicals”
Cincinnati (Ohio) Bible College and Seminary.
This is especially true of baptism. Too
▲

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

This article first appeared in CHRISTIAN STANDARD® on June 20, 2004. CHRISTIAN STANDARD® grants permission to reproduce, for free distribution, up to 1,000 copies of its articles for ministry or educational purposes.
7
J U N E 2 0 , 2 0 0 4 (391)
 who are continuing the traditional view? receive the washing with water,” as in Christ” (“A Treatise on the Merits and
What I will say now may surprise John 3:5. “We have learned from the Forgiveness of Sins,” I:55). The “apos-
some, but the truth is this: the modern apostles this reason” for baptism: “in tolic tradition” teaches the “inherent
evangelical view of baptism is actually order that we . . . may obtain in the principle, that without baptism . . . it is
the new view, an interpretation of bap- water the remission of sins” (“First impossible for any man to attain to sal-
tism that was invented only in the early Apology,” 61).1 Tertullian (A.D. 145- vation and everlasting life” (ibid., I:34).
1520s. It was created by the Swiss 220) said, “Happy is our sacrament of Thomas Aquinas represents medieval
reformer Huldreich Catholic thinking.
Zwingli (1484- He declared that
1531), developed “no one can obtain
further by John salvation but
Calvin, and accept- through Christ. . . .
ed throughout But for this end is
most of the baptism conferred
Protestant world. on a man, that
Until Zwingli, the being regenerated
entire Christian thereby, he may be
world for the first incorporated in
1,500 years of its Christ. . . .
history was in agree- From the time of the apostle Paul (left), through Augustine (center) and Martin Luther (right), there was a Consequently it is
1,500-year consensus on the meaning of baptism.
ment: water bap- manifest that all are
tism is the God-appointed time when water, in that, by washing away the sins bound to be baptized: and that without
he first gives saving grace to sinners. of our early blindness, we are set free Baptism there is no salvation for men”
Exceptions to this belief were extremely and admitted into eternal life” (“On (Summa Theologica, 68:1).
rare, limited mostly to medieval dualist Baptism,” iii). Also, “The act of baptism
sects that rejected all physical forms of . . . is carnal, in that we are plunged in MARTIN LUTHER
worship. water, but the effect is spiritual, in that Many have assumed that because
My plea here is that in developing our we are freed from sins” (ibid., vii). Cyril Martin Luther opposed the Catholic
own convictions concerning baptism of Jerusalem (A.D. 315-386) said, doctrine of the sacraments and champi-
today, we will not limit our historical “When going down . . . into the water, oned the Protestant doctrine of justifi-
perspective to contemporary evangeli- think not of the bare element, but look cation by faith, he must have been the
calism, or even to the last 200 years. for salvation by the power of the Holy one who rejected baptism as a salvation
Rather, let us be aware of the entire Ghost” (“Catechetical Lectures,” III:4). event. Nothing could be further from
scope of Christian history. Let us under- Many more examples could be cited. the truth. Luther’s view of the meaning
stand what the original and true con- of baptism stands in direct continuity
sensus view was, and who the real inno- AUGUSTINE AND THOMAS AQUINAS with the New Testament, the early
vators are. Augustine (354-430) introduced a lot church fathers, and the Catholic schol-
In the rest of this article I will survey of new ideas into Christian thinking, ars who preceded him. He regarded
the history of the meaning of baptism but the saving significance of baptism baptism as a mighty work of God in
up to and including Martin Luther—a was not one of them. Here he was sim- which the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
1,500-year biblical consensus. In the ply continuing to teach what those pour out the full blessings of salvation
next article I will explain how Zwingli before him had taught. Baptism, he upon penitent believers.
changed everything. said, is nothing else than salvation itself Specifically, Luther asserted that for-
(“A Treatise on the Merits and giveness of sins is initially bestowed in
EARLY WRITERS Forgiveness of Sins,” I:34); it “brings baptism. In his “Small Catechism”
The pre-Augustinian writers were salvation” (Letter 98, “To Boniface,” 1). (IV:6), in answer to the question “What
practically unanimous in their teaching We are “saved by baptism”; “the salva- gifts or benefits does baptism bestow?”,
that baptism is the point of time when tion of man is effected in baptism” he says first of all, “It effects forgiveness
salvation is given. Justin Martyr (A.D. (“Against Two Letters of the Pelagians,” of sins.” This is part of the work of bap-
110-165) said that new converts “are III:5). We are “joined to Christ by bap- tism; in it “the forgiveness takes place
brought by us where there is water, and tism”; indeed, a person “is baptized for through God’s covenant” (“The Holy
are regenerated. . . . For . . . they then the express purpose of being with and Blessed Sacrament of Baptism,”

8
(392) C H R I S T I A N S T A N D A R D This article first appeared in CHRISTIAN STANDARD® on June 20, 2004. CHRISTIAN STANDARD® grants permission to reproduce, for free distribution, up to 1,000 copies of its articles for ministry or educational purposes.
 15). Forgiveness takes place in baptism that baptism is for salvation: “Through sus.” It is the view that baptism is prin-
because that is where the blood of baptism man is saved” (ibid., 6). In cipally the time when God himself is
Christ is applied to the sinner: answer to the question of the purpose of bestowing upon the penitent, believing
“Through Baptism he is bathed in the baptism, i.e., “what benefits, gifts and sinner the benefits of the redeeming
blood of Christ and is cleansed from effects it brings,” he gave this answer: work of Christ. This is the New
sins” (E. Plass, editor, What Luther Says, “To put it most simply, the power, Testament’s own doctrine of baptism,
I:46). effect, benefit, fruit, and purpose of and it was affirmed to be such by 15
According to Luther baptism brings centuries of Christian writers.
not only forgiveness of sins but also a If this view sounds strange to the
new birth, a change in the inner man LUTHER CLEARLY majority of modern Protestants, it is
that actually eradicates sin. For “it is PROCLAIMED THAT BAPTISM because this biblical consensus has
one thing to forgive sins, and another been replaced in most denominations
IS FOR SALVATION.
thing to put them away or drive them with the alien interpretation of bap-
out. . . . But both the forgiveness and tism that originated in the 1520s in the
the driving out of sins are the work of Baptism is to save” (“The Large mind of Huldreich Zwingli. How this
baptism” (“The Holy and Blessed Catechism,” IV:23, 24). One is bap- happened will be described in the next
Sacrament of Baptism,” 15). Thus it is tized so that he “may receive in the article.
appropriate to speak of baptism as the water the promised salvation” (ibid., ________
time when “a person is born again and IV:36). 1
All the quotations given here—and more—can be
found and documented in chapters 1 and 2 of Baptism
made new” (ibid., 3). I refer to the view of baptism and the Remission of Sins, edited by David Fletcher
In short, Luther clearly proclaimed described here as the “biblical consen- (Joplin: College Press, 1990).

This article first appeared in CHRISTIAN STANDARD® on June 20, 2004. CHRISTIAN STANDARD® grants permission to reproduce, for free distribution, up to 1,000 copies of its articles for ministry or educational purposes.
9
J U N E 2 0 , 2 0 0 4 (393)