Who Said It?
"There is not sufficient evidence from Scripture to justify the initiation of infant baptism.... Baptism is a Greek word, and may be translated immersion, as when we immerse something in water that it may be wholly covered.... they ought...to be wholly immersed, and then immediately drawn out, for that the etymology of the word seems to demand.... They who seriously want to be Christians, want to confess to the Gospel, in word as well as deed, these ought to have their names put in a ledger, and they ought to gather in a house apart for the purpose of prayer, the reading of the Scriptures, the administration of baptism, and to engage in still other Christian performances."
Martin Luther
Believe it or not, in the early part of the Reformation, Luther admitted
the truth of believers only baptism, baptism by immersion, and a church
for "serious Christians" (confessing believers) instead of the state
church that included everyone sprinkled as an infant. But then the
emperor issued a warrant that anyone was free to kill Luther. The
Elector of Saxony hid Luther in Wartburg Castle. During this time,
Luther seems to have decided that it was better to pull back the
Reformation from its logical and biblical conclusions (such as a church
composed of believers only, believers baptism, baptism by immersion, and
the separation of church and state—all
positions that he had been moving toward). We can only guess why he did
this, but likely he felt that without the support of the Elector of
Saxony and others (who would never have agreed to a church of believers
only and the separation of church and state), the Reformation might be
completely crushed (not to mention his neck being on the line).
The Luther of the later Reformation was definitely a different
Luther. At that time, he wrote: "How can baptism be more grievously
reviled and disgraced than when it is said that baptism given an
unbelieving person is not good and genuine baptism! What? Baptism
rendered ineffective because one does not believe? What more blasphemous
and offensive teaching could the devil himself invent and preach?"
Copyright © 2010 Peter Ditzel