Jesus commanded His Apostles to "Go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28:19). The Greek word for baptism is "baptize or, baptisma. The English word baptism is a transliteration of the Greek word. This is simply the closest English spelling to the Greek word. The translation of the Greek word baptize means to dip. Plunge, immerse, overwhelm or bury. This translation created a problem with the King James translation committee because their benefactor, King James, personally believed that the correct method of baptism was by pouring water on the believing subject. Not wanting to raise the ire of the one paying their salary, nor wanting to degrade their scholarship, they evaded the controversy by refusing to translate the word, settling on the method of transliteration. The religious world has been divided over this condition of salvation since that time. There are two Greek words that mean to pour or to sprinkle water on the subject. These words are "rhantize and chetize."

The word used for the act of baptism is also aptly described in each context. In writing to the brethren at Rome, Paul described it in these words: "We were buried therefore with Him through baptism unto death; that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of Father, so we also might walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:32). Here, baptism is a burial and resurrection. Neither sprinkling nor pouring can suffice for this action, since we neither bury our dead by sprinkling or pouring dirt on top of them, leaving them partially exposed. This is why baptism took a sufficient amount of water for people to be buried or immersed in it. John the Baptist baptized people in the Jordan River because there was a lot of water there (Matt. 3:6). He baptized in Aenon near to Salim because there was "much water there" (Jn. 3:23). Philip, the evangelist and the eunuch both went down into the water where Philip baptized him. Then they both came up out of the water (Acts 8:36-38). The baptism took place in a large enough body of water for Philip to immerse the eunuch. Jesus refers to His sufferings under the figure of a baptism. He spoke not of a sprinkling or pouring level or degree of suffering, but an overwhelming force—immersed in the agony of the cross (Matt. 20:22).

Those who were subjects to be baptized were those who could and had heard and believed the gospel message. They needed to realize that they had and were sinners to the extent that they must repent of these sins, and confess the name of the One in whom they believed. The only ones who could qualify for baptism and the salvation from their sins were those who could meet the foregoing conditions of faith, repentance and confession. This would automatically rule out infants and be accessible only to adolescents and adults. Also, since an infant could not knowingly sin to the point of being lost, they did not need to be saved. They were considered safe.

-Gene A. Ellmore-