Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus' instructions to His apostles as found in Matthew 28:19. NKJV

The word "baptize" in its various forms is used over 40 times in the New Testament when referring to the baptism of the Christian era. It is used many more times than that when you include the baptism that John the Baptist taught, but for our purposes we only want to look at those instances in which a person was baptized in obedience to Jesus' command that we read above. In various places in the New Testament, we are told that baptism washes away our sins, that is places us into Christ, and that it is one of the elements that go into our salvation. 

Since we all want to enjoy the spiritual blessings that are found only in Christ, including the forgiveness of our sins and salvation, one can readily see that baptism is an essential concept that needs to be understood by all those who desire to be obedient disciples of Christ.

So, what exactly is baptism? Is it a "Christening", a manmade term that refers to the sprinkling of water? Is it a pouring of water, as is so often popularly portrayed in modern day movies, as well as in religious rites within our churches? Is it a complete immersion in water, as many will contend today? Or does it matter at all, since people in our modern-day churches refer to any sprinkling, pouring or immersion as baptism?

This is the very question that we want to answer in this two-part series, and the first part is going to involve the same encouragement that we gave in our last set of articles on the topic of the Sinner's Prayer. That encouragement is simply this: Take some time to study this very topic on your own, before you read what I (or any other person) have concluded on this particular study. Get yourself a good Greek lexicon such as Strong's Greek Lexicon, Thayer's Greek Lexicon, or one of the free online lexicons that you can look up various English words from your Bible and find out what the Greek definition of those words are.

I would discourage the use of a modern dictionary, for they are not going to discuss as much of what the word means as originally used, but more the way the word is used in our modern-day language. It's not that a dictionary can't help, but it can definitely be misleading for those who are seeking the meaning of the words as they were originally used in the Scriptures. You will not find that to be a problem with the lexicon, so that will prove to be more useful for the purpose of this particular study.

So, get you a good Bible concordance (blueletterbible.org is but one excellent free online source) and look up every time the words "baptize", baptism", "baptized", "baptizes". "baptizing", and "baptisms" are used. I like the Blue Letter Bible site because it has an easy-to-use interlinear tool that gives you the original Greek word that was used when translating the Bible into the various versions that we have available today.

Then, once you have found out for yourself what the Greek words are for "Sprinkling", "pouring", and "baptizing" are, and you compared them to all of the examples and commandments that we have concerning the Christian baptism, you will then likely know as much about this subject as your priest, preacher, or pastor. Unfortunately, in far too many cases, you will find that you actually know more than they do on the subject of how the word baptism is used in the Bible.

Well, that's the homework assignment for today. It will likely take you a few hours to do it, but you are not wasting your time on some sort of petty "trivia" expedition, you are doing your best to find out exactly what Christ meant when He commanded His apostles to make disciples of all men by baptizing them. Further, once you have this information in as accurate of a form as you can possibly achieve, it may just change your understanding on the meaning and the importance of baptism. 

I pray that God will assist you every step of the way in your search into what He wants you to do in order to be obedient and pleasing to Him. And be sure and come back tomorrow if you would like to see what my studies have revealed. Then, you can have a basis for comparison, because you will no longer just be taking someone else's word for this vital subject, you will be taking from God's Word everything that you can to help you understand exactly what He expects of us all when it comes to His commandments on baptism.