…on the subject of

Baptism
of the children of Christians

I do not see that the expression “saved through water” (1 Pet 3:20) indicates that one must plunge the baptised person; one was saved through judgment; as others will be saved through fire. Nevertheless I believe that baptism should be by immersion, and it is this that I practice as much as possible. The Word says of Israel that they have been baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Cor. 8:2), which seems to present the two things: sprinkling and immersion; I believe faith needs both things. As to Acts 16, I find it a bit hazardous to decide whether Lydia was not or had not been married, and that the persons in her household had to be only slaves. Can one prove that she was not widowed, or that she had not had children? Verse 40 does not prove that there were men, several men composing her household. These could very well have been added since the conversion of Lydia (witness the jailor) during Paul’s stay in Philippi, and the brethren could have come together at Lydia’s house on the occasion of Paul’s departure. I find it hazardous to decide that these brethren in verse 40 were those who had been baptised in verse 15. [As to] the jailor and his own, it could not be said that there were no children in the house of the jailor.

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