Category Archives: Baptism

According to John’s Gospel, how is someone saved? (John 1:12-13) Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human … Continue reading →

A hendiadys? Now, Morris’s idea that “water and Spirit” means something like “spiritual seed” is more possible that it appears at first glance. He is arguing for a figure of speech known as a hendiadys — where two adjectives or … Continue reading →

Nicodemus Born or begotten? We considered Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in the “before” post. But we need to consider Nicodemus further. He’d never read a Gospel or Romans. The only baptism he knew was John the Baptist’s, if he knew … Continue reading →

We don’t usually think of this as a baptism passage. And maybe it’s not. But there are good reasons to think that baptism is at least in the background. (John 4:7-15 ESV) 7 A woman from Samaria came to draw … Continue reading →

[This is taken from Born of Water, my book on baptism. It’s edited, but not greatly changed. But after I loaded this into the blogging software, I re-thought my position. And so I thought it might be helpful to post … Continue reading →

Lydia and Crispus (Act 16:13-15 ESV) 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had … Continue reading →

Samaria Phillip the Evangelist, the deacon, not the apostle, went to Samaria and made the first Christian converts there. But there was a problem — (Act 8:14-17 ESV) 14 Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received … Continue reading →

Yes, I know, I’ve skipped John, but we have to cover Acts first, because Acts is also by Luke, who is part of the Synoptic tradition. We need to see how Luke puts it all together. Baptism in the Spirit … Continue reading →

Pre-Pentecost baptisms by the apostles (John 3:22-26 ESV) 22 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. 23 John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water … Continue reading →

The baptism of Jesus (Mat 3:13-17 ESV) 13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.  14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you … Continue reading →