Please, I am having problem on the issue of baptising an old man who is sick and cannot work. We were told during our training that the only accepted baptism is the one done in the river or stream. Now I have converted an old fetish priest, who is now sick, and he continues to ask for baptism. How do I do it? Emmanuel Dammy Coker, Republic of Benin, West Africa
A view that Bible baptism can only be done in running water (e.g., a river or a stream) is a view (sincere though it may be) that is narrower than what the New Testament teaches, and it is a view contrary to the practice of immersion at the time Bible baptism was initiated. The baptism of the New Testament is modeled after Jewish baptisms (immersions) that were performed usually in baptisteries or pools. One may baptize in moving water as John the Baptist did in the Jordan River (John 3:23), but baptisms may occur in pools as well. On the birthday of the church, about 3,000 were baptized in Jerusalem, which has no river or stream aside from the Kidron Brook; the Kidron is a dry creek bed or wadi, except when Jerusalem experiences heavy rains. Only baptizing in pools or baptisteries could have accommodated the 3,000 baptisms in Jerusalem about which we read in Acts 2. Any container of water sufficiently filled to completely immerse someone is satisfactory to accomplish New Testament baptism (immersion, Romans 6:3-5; Colossians 2:12). The following URL may be helpful since it deals with how the outward activity of Bible baptism corresponds to religious immersions under Judaism.
