The mode of Baptism

I hope this is an offend to you, this is only a joke, please do not take this seriously, this is the way some of us gone through, theological debates, and we have win, win situation, that sprinkling and immersion are accepted in Christianity.

One day a Presbyterian old pastor said, less water more faith, more water less faith, he was talking about the mode of baptism.

This is only a joke again, this is a man made story, a Presbyterian pastor asked the baptist pastor, "If the river is very shallow, the water reach only the toe, can this be a baptism"

The baptist pastor said, "No"

The Presbyterian pastor asked again, "If the water only reached knee level, and so the man immersed the knee into the water, is this a baptism?"

baptist pastor, "No."

And the Presbyterian pastor asked the baptist pastor again, if the water reach until waist level, only the waist level immersed into water, can we call this a baptism?"

The baptist pastor, says, "No."

And so the Presbyterian pastor asked the baptist pastor, again, if the water level reached until the chest level, and the man only immersed until the chest, the rest not immersed into water, can this be called a baptism?"

The baptist pastor, says "No!"

The Presbyterian pastor asked again, "what about if he immersed only reached until neck level, the water only reached the neck, can this be called a baptism?"

The baptist pastor, says, "No."

The Presbyterian pastor, asked again, "what if the water reached the nose level, immersed until nose, the head is not yet immerse, can this be called a baptism?"

The baptist pastor says, "No."

The Presbyterian pastor asked him again, "what if the water reached the forehead level, immersed until only the forehead, the top of the head not yet cover with water, can this considered a baptism?"

The baptist pastor says, "No."

The Presbyterian pastor asked him, "Then to what level, does a immersion be called a baptism?"

The baptist pastor, says, "The water must reached the top of the head, the water must immersed the head top."

The Presbyterian pastor, says gladly to the baptist pastor, "Aha, I see, the top of the head is the most important part, that is why, I use a little water for sprinkling the head to baptize the man, less water more faith, the water wet the whole head top, that is enough, and this can be called a baptism! No need to immersed a man totally into the water! So the mode of sprinkle is more biblical and practical than immersion!"

The baptist pastor disagreed with the Presbyterian pastor in sprinkling the man, so the baptist pastor, asked the Presbyterian pastor some questions back.

The baptist pastor asked, "what if you go for a shower, what if the water only washed your toes, can it be called a shower?"

The Presbyterian pastor replied, "No."

The baptist pastor asked him again, "what if you only wash your body until the knee cap, and you did not wash the other part, can it be called a shower?"

The presbyterian pastor says, "No."

The baptist pastor asked him again, "what if you only wash your body until the waist level, and you did not wash the other part of your body, can it be called a shower?"

The Presbyterian pastor says, "No."

The baptist pastor asked him again, "what if you only wash your body until the chest from the toe, can it be called a shower?"

The Presbyterian pastor says, "No."

The baptist pastor asked him again, "what if you only wash your body from toe until the neck, can it be called a shower?"

The Presbyterian pastor, says, "No, the shower is not completed."

The baptist pastor asked the the Presbyterian pastor again, "what if you only wash your body until the nose level, can it be called a shower."

The Presbyterian pastor, says, "No, the shower is still not completed, even we wash from the toe until the nose level."

The baptist pastor asked him again, "What if he washed until the forehead level, can this be called a shower?"

the Presbyterian pastor says, "No, this is not a shower, even thought he washed the toe until the forehead. It is not complete!"

The baptist pastor asked him again, this time he is quite happy with the answered he received, "WHAT IF HE ONLY WASH HIS HEAD TOP WITH WATER, CAN WE CALLED THIS AS A SHOWER?"

The presbyterian pastor says, "No!???"

Lastly the baptist pastor asked him, "what if he use the water to washed the whole body, from the toes until the top of the head, is this is a shower?"

The Presbyterian pastor says, "Yes, now this is called a shower, because he washed his body completely."

The baptist pastor says to the Presbyterian pastor, "You are right in saying that, that is why you need to wash your whole body, you must not only sprinkle the head! You must use much more water to wash the body, until the whole body is washed, this is proven, the man must immersed into water totally!"

TECHNICALLY, The writer in this case agreed with the baptist to immerse the man into the water wholly so that the baptism is completed, more water is needed in the baptism, more water is more faith, and it is also biblical, I put this in term of technically, but it is not compulsory! Not compulsory, why, let me write down this part of debate and then you see the second part. This is only for you to think when we are in debate.

One day Jesus washed his disciples, he said, those who had taken the shower or bath do not need to washed the whole body, only he had to wash the feet, because the feet are unclean, after a day walking on the street. Jesus proposed to us to washed the whole body in the bath! What about the baptism?

John 13:10,
Jesus answered, "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you." 11 For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

The Lord said a bath, mean a man whole body is cleansed with water.

Can we compared an immersion with a shower? Quite hard for the Presbyterian pastor to accept the out come of their discourse and debate. Maybe you will not agreed with me in comparing baptism with a shower, you may argue with me that is wrong! This is only technically an argument!

But I tell you the truth, Paul compared our baptism with burial service! Romans 6:4, Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

We are buried with him by baptism....How to buried a man? Are we going to bury a man, what kind of burial, until the toe level? Bury a man to the knee level, is this a burial? No. What if the soil cover until the waist level, is this a burial? No! What if the soil cover the body until the chest level, can we call this a burial, no! Then what if cover the body until the neck level? Nose level? Forehead level? No, the burial is not complete! So what is a burial, a burial means all part of the body is put under ground!

"This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burial)

Technically speaking the baptist has their say! But as I told you in the beginning, this is a kind of debate easily be found in seminary, where we do not take this seriously in the church now a day, we treat this kind of debate lightly. We accept immersion and sprinkling, both as the correct mode of baptism.

What matter most is, the man is truly saved or not? Does he believes Christ as personal Savior or not?

I think, you better forget what I wrote here.