The Village Church, a Baptist group at Flower Mound, TX (and wherever else they have "campuses") recognizes sprinkling as baptism. That may not be exactly clear on the web page where they say, "If you were baptized as a believer prior to The Village, we don’t require you to be baptized again unless your baptism preceded conversion." But if one doesn't get the hint there, you can get a better picture from their Baptism Booklet: "For those who were sprinkled or immersed at an earlier age, it is important to understand that we should only be baptized once. If you trusted in Christ at that time, your baptism is valid and need not, indeed should not, be repeated. (p. 5)" "While we practice a baptism by immersion at The Village, we do not require the mode of immersion for membership. If a person was sprinkled or immersed (or a possible other mode) after conversion, he or she has met our requirement for membership. (p. 10)" Plainly, sprinkling = baptism IS NOT Baptist doctrine.
[Note: Though this church does not use "Baptist" in their church name, they can be found in the church search at SBC.net. For Southern Baptists, The Village's doctrine and practice is contrary to the SBC's own Baptist Faith and Message, which says, "Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer..."]
5 comments:
If Anabaptists are baptists, then there are baptists practice other modes.
I do understand that that would be a deviation from what Baptists from the English strain profess.
Hi, Will. Yes, I am speaking of capital "B" Baptists rather than the broader baptist family. Within our American Baptist family, where the background of this originates, the belief has been that immersion only is baptism. I'm not sure whether within the broader baptistic family if any of the groups restrict baptism to one specific mode as we do (or at least have). I remember reading a Church of God in Christ Mennonite tract that seemed to indicate that they believed only pouring was baptism. But not being familiar enough with them, I may have misunderstood.
Thanks Robert.
You might be interested in this:
The mode of baptism (affusion or immersion) has become a less controversial issue [among Mennonites] in the 1980s. Affusionist congregations occasionally grant immersion baptism to those desiring it. Some immersionists, including some Mennonite Brethren at least, are accepting by transfer of membership those believers earlier baptized by affusion. A number of Mennonite Church (MC) and General Conference Mennonite Church congregations have begun to accept by transfer of membership believers who were baptized as infants without requiring them to be rebaptized.
http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/B37ME.html/
When we joined a non-traditional Mennonite church in the 90's, my wife Bess was not required to be baptised, although she was baptised as an infant only much to our surprise, although she was examined as to her Christian conversion. I don't know how common this is among Mennonite Church USA churches, many of which are more "liberal" in their outlook. I was baptised by immersion as a teenager, and so there weren't any questions about my baptism.
I remember reading that there were a few Mennonites who were immersion only. Seems maybe some of these had a Russian background?
I'm not aware of any Baptists that would receive someone baptized as an infant, but some, as The Village, will received baptized by any mode, though themselves only immerse. In contrast, our church will only receive members who have been immersed.
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