Baptism has long been a contentious issue among Christians. Just as some people believe that doughnuts should be sprinkled with sprinkles, and others believe they should be dunked in coffee, so some Christians believe they should be water baptized by sprinkling with water, and others believe they should be dunked in water, or immersed in water.

I personally believe the only Biblically substantiated method of ‘water baptism’ was by sprinkling, as it applied to Israel only. But Biblically, as we will see in this paper, today there is one fully engulfing baptism… and it is waterless. This dry baptism is the only baptism available today for all people who will trust in Jesus Christ to receive the salvation of the Lord.

Let’s now see “what saith the Scripture?” about baptism.

In Scripture, as pertains to Israel and Jesus’ “gospel of the Kingdom,” water cleansing of sins was often accomplished by “sprinkling” (Num. 8:6-7; 19:13, 18-22), but never by ‘immersion.’ In fact, God has promised sprinkling for the believing Jews after He gathers them back into their land for His millennial kingdom, saying…

“Then will I (the Lord) sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness…will I cleanse you” (Ezekiel 36:24-25)

We know it is commonly taught that the Greek word ‘baptismos,’ which is translated “baptism” in our English Bibles, means to “dip” or to dunk, but that’s not so. It’s true that ‘bapto,’ the verb form of ‘baptismos,’ means to dip, for that’s how it’s translated in Luke 16:24. However, as we see in the verse below, dipping was actually only the beginning of the process of Old Testament water baptism, as we see here.

“And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it (the water) upon… the persons that were there.” (Numbers 19:18)

The “hyssop” was a flowery bush that, when dipped in water, was capable of absorbing or holding enough liquid to then sprinkle it on people;

“For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,” (Hebrews 9:19)

So, in Israel’s water baptisms, the hyssop was immersed, and the people were sprinkled.

We know that Israel’s Old Testament ‘sprinklings’ were in fact ‘baptisms,’ for ‘baptismos’ is the word used to describe those “divers washings” (Heb. 9:10). Even the priests were “washed” (Exo. 29:4) with water from the laver (Ex. 40:11, 12), which was not used for immersion (Exo. 30:18-21).

John the Baptist did not immerse people in water as we see pictured in Bible movies scenes. We know John the Baptist must have baptized people in the same ‘hyssop way.’  This is obvious since the Jews who came to John didn’t ask John “what” he was doing, as they would if John was doing something quite new, as immersion would have been. Rather they asked “why” he was doing it (John 1:25). So, John stood in the Jordan so he could easily dip the hyssop and sprinkle the people who came to him to receive “the baptism of John” (Matt 21:25).

The Greek ‘baptismos’ is also translated “washing,” as seen here in Mark 7:4, which obviously could not be ‘immersion.’ “And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing (Greek baptismos) of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.”  Obviously, few (if any) households in Israel had a receptacle large enough to immerse “tables.”

Of course, today, under God’s grace economy, our hearts are washed “by…regeneration” (Titus 3:5). But while your heart was cleansed in this manner, to cleanse your “way” … your way of living… requires knowledge of “the word of God” “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to “thy word.” (Psalm 119:9)

You can only do so “by taking heed thereto according to thy Word.” Let’s take heed!

It is clear from the foregoing that in the Bible there were no total immersion baptisms with water performed in Israel, nor anywhere else in the Bible.

But, thankfully, during today’s age of “the dispensation of the grace of God,” there is “one baptism” (Eph. 4:4-5) for believers. And, it is not a ritual or rite of any religion or denomination. It’s is the personal spiritual experience of salvation.

As believers, we today enjoy the fruit of having been fully immersed or placed into “the one… body of Christ.” This occurred the very moment we first genuinely believed, trusting in Christ’s cross-work for us, thus receiving forgiveness of all our sins. We also then received the resurrected “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” to be our new innermost life.

We were thereby cleansed of all our sins and regenerated, making each of us a member of His one, multi-membered, body called “THE CHURCH… THE BODY OF CHRIST” (cf. Eph. 1:22b-23a).

“For by one Spirit are we all baptized (baptizo) into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:13)

Here in the above verse the word “baptized” is the Greek “baptizo,” meaning “to make whelmed or fully wet,” per Strong’s 907. ‘Whelmed’ in the dictionary means to ‘engulf, submerge.’  So, ours is an ‘immersion’ into Christ’s “one body” … NOT into water at all.

We should also note below that there is no baptismos (no ritual of dipping or sprinkling) here, but rather, according to the Greek, it is a “loutron,” meaning to be “bathed” in a cleansing and regenerating bath.

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing (Gk. loutron, bathed) of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;” (Titus 3:5)

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)

Thankfully, we were not only washed of our sins the moment we first believed, but also, we were thereby regenerated by “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” The very moment we first believed, we simultaneously “drank into (us Christ’s) one Spirit” (1Cor. 12:13, above), we thus became partakers of Jesus Christ’s resurrected “Spirit of life.” Now, for us, it is “Christ in you the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

We should not also that there is no such thing as water baptism in Paul’s epistles, except for Paul to mention that he had not water baptized anyone. As Paul grew in the many “revelations,” (2Cor 12:7) that he received from the Lord; the only baptism Paul was concerned with for the Gentile “body of Christ” It is that which we have discussed in 1Corinthian 12:13… an invisible internal baptism…. “by one spirit,” not Israel’s baptism with the spirit.

Today it is popular among many Evangelicals, fundamentalist, and Pentecostalist / Charismatics to say that today water baptism is a ‘testimony’ that has nothing to do with salvation, the Bible is very clear that the actual purpose of Israel’s water baptism, undeniably, was in fact to cleanse men by washing away their sins (Acts 22:16 cf. Mark 1:4; 16:16; Acts 2:38). So, this ‘testimony’ view to justify water baptism today is false.