I wasn't brought up in a liturgical church such as the Church of England or the Roman Catholic Church. Since becoming a Christian at the age of thirteen, I have only been involved in non-conformist churches, all of them Pentecostal in character, if not in name. So I was bemused (and to be honest, a little amused) by a report in the Dail Telegraph on 17th February 2022 with the title, "Baptisms declared 'invalid' after priest gets word wrong"!

THOUSANDS of baptisms have been declared invalid and will have to be repeated after a Roman Catholic priest used a single incorrect word.

Father Andres Arango, a priest in Phoenix, Arizona, resigned following a church investigation found that, for two decades, he had used the words: "We baptise you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

Instead, he should have said "I baptise..."

In a message to parishioners, Bishop Thomas Olmsted, of the diocese of Phoenix, said: "The issue with using 'We' is that it is not the community that baptises a person.

"Rather, it is Christ, and Him alone, who presides at all of the sacraments, and so it is Christ Jesus who baptises."

In a statement, the diocese said: "If you were baptised using the wrong words, that means your baptism is invalid, and you are not baptised. You will need to be baptised."

Apparently rather more than baptisms is in jeopardy since the church in question regards baptism as the first of the sacraments and so some people baptised by Fr Arango over the past 20 years may also have to repeat other sacraments such as marriage.

It's not all bad news however! Some members of his parish have said that they want Fr Arango to stay on as their priest and have started a petition calling for this.

What can I say...?

This tale is several steps away from my own church experience. I don't subscribe to the concept of a priest who represents the Lord Jesus in sacraments practiced by the church. I do believe in leaders who exercise leadership in the church, but this is not at the expense of the priesthood of all believers. No Jesus-follower needs a third party to mediate for them with the Lord Jesus.

I don't accept infant baptism either. I think that the Bible clearly teaches believers' baptism by full immersion. Many Bible-believing and Spirit-filled believers who belong to evangelical and charismatic churches within traditional denominations seem to put this issue to one side as not being of first order importance. I find that a little troubling as few things are as important as clarity on how we should come to faith in Christ: repent, believe, be baptised and be filled with the Holy Spirit. I worry that our collective understanding of baptism has receded in recent times across all kinds of churches. I shall write about this in future posts.

Notwithstanding these significant issues, the article nevertheless then asks two intriguing questions. Is it the community (or church) that baptises a person? And is it only Christ Jesus who baptises in water?

I find myself looking at Matt 28:16-20. This is the Great Commission of Jesus to his disciples, and to every successive generation of believers.

Verses 19 & 20 say:

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'

Surely then baptism is conducted by disciples who baptise new disciples?

I understand that the New Testament views baptism as the gateway or "entrance" into the church. The theology of baptism is rich and deep.

For instance, I acknowledge that God is working "behind the scenes" as someone is buried in the waters of baptism. And so baptism always seems to be linked by scripture to the believer's new life.

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Romans 6:4

Romans goes on to link this burial with Christ in baptism with resurrection into an overcoming life. Of course, this can only be the work of Christ, not the person doing the baptising. So we baptise another, but God is the one working "spiritually" in a significant way in the rising of the one baptised from their watery grave!

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin---because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

Romans 6:5--7

The theology of baptism is wonderfully deep; deep like the water that should be involved!

Does Jesus do any baptising?

Jesus is the one who baptises in the Holy Spirit. For John the Baptist this was a defining characteristic of the promised one, Jesus - see Luke 3:16. And on the day of Pentecost, Peter stated that the filling of the disciples with the Holy Spirit (together with all the phenomena that accompanied it) was a direct outcome of the ascension of Jesus, His glorification and His agency:

Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

Acts 2:33

What do you believe about baptism? Is it really an important issue or is baptism more a matter of preference or even indifference?

Have we forgotten that God is involved in baptism? Perhaps our friends in Arizona are wise to take care in how they conduct them since baptisms are a holy setting for the works of Christ Himself!