There is a lot of opposition in the religious world to the Bible’s teaching on baptism. The Greek word baptizo is where we get the English word baptize. It means to immerse. Yet if you look up the definition of baptize in an English dictionary, it will likely include the act of sprinkling along with immersion. Why? It is because sprinkling is commonly accepted in the religious world, and has been for some time.
J.S. Sweeney (1834-1908), a gospel preacher, was debating the Scriptural mode of baptism with a man named Jacob Ditzler. Ditzler tried to make the argument that sprinkling was authorized and used a dictionary to make his point. Sweeney’s humorous yet brilliant response is recounted below:
Jacob Ditzler and J.S. Sweeney were having a debate on the scriptural action of baptism. Ditzler showed that a secondary meaning of the word “baptize” was “to wash or sprinkle” (according to dictionary definition). In reply Sweeney showed that a secondary meaning of “believe” was “to have an opinion” and a secondary meaning of “saved” was to be “pickled.” He gave the resulting translation of Mark 16:16:
“He that hath an opinion and is sprinkled shall be pickled.”
Sweeney then raised the question, “Is it our aim to see what we can make of the scripture or is it our aim to find out what God has said?” (From The Gospel Guardian, November 26, 1964, edited)
The above example of Sweeney was taken from an article by Jerry C. Ray called The Elder’s Children. He used it to illustrate the point that when we study the Bible, we should not immediately throw out the most natural reading of the text. Yes, figurative language is sometimes used. At times the context may demand a secondary meaning of a word. But we should carefully consider each passage we study, rather than immediately try to find a way to use a passage to “prove” what we already believe.
Peter warned about those who “distort [twist, NKJV]…the Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16). Ditzler tried to twist the Scriptures to support sprinkling as an acceptable mode of baptism. People today twist the Scriptures to support the beliefs and practices of the churches of men. Our goal in studying the Bible should be, as Sweeney said, to find out what God has said, not what we can make the Bible to say. Let us be careful that we approach the Bible honestly so that we may be “approved to God…accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
