Theological Thursday --- Baptism

John the Baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism...(Mark 1:4)

Most of the debate surrounding baptism within the church focuses on things like adult or child, sprinkle or dunk, forward or backward, etc. But as a student in seminary I was more interested in something that people don't really question --- where did baptism come from? In the above verse, John the Baptist is proclaiming repentance and baptism, but never really explains what it is, which led me to believe that John wasn't the first person to use the word Baptism (or in the Greek "Baptizo"). So what was going on with baptism prior to John the Baptist coming on the scene?

From ancient writings outside the Bible we find many places that water is used in purification ceremonies. Water was the mode in which you could make something or someone clean. Prior to John the Baptist, there are a few writings that mention the ceremony of "Baptizo" (which literally translates as "immerse in water" --- so that solves the sprinkle/dunk debate!). Basically, Baptism prior to John, was a Jewish ceremony used on the Gentiles who wished to become part of the Jewish community. It was a way of cleansing the non-Jews from their "non-Jewishness".

So think about how radical it was for John the Baptist to appear on the scene and point the finger at the Jews as well and that they were now the ones that also had to repent and be cleansed! It was preparation for Christ's coming and His future death that would put us all on the same level playing field before God, and proclaimed the need for repentance and symbolic cleansing from our sins. So your Baptism is, was, or will be first and foremost a public proclamation that you have accepted Christ as you Savior and have trusted in His death and resurrection for the forgiveness of your sins. But for those who lived in the early centuries and knew what Baptism used to be...it was also a way of saying that you need Christ and are a sinner just as much as the next guy/gal and we are all now on equal standing before Christ, which continues to hold true today. What a radical message and shift that John brought to prepare them for Jesus!
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Because all of you are one in the Messiah Jesus, a person is no longer a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free person, a male or a female (Galatians 3:28).