Humorous as it might seem, there are some Baptist groups who seriously believe this teaching :that Jesus Christ is a Baptist. They claim since John the Baptist is “the Baptist” therefore when he baptized Jesus, Jesus is now a Baptist. What was initially a tongue in cheek response to stump another pastor of a different group, turns into a doctrine that some Bible Baptist (or IFB in the Philippines) adhere to. Samples of this kind of preaching are videos like this and this.
This kind of doctrine is problematic and brings lots of questions rather than answers. Here are my five reasons why I don’t affirm this doctrine:
John’s “The Baptist” title is not the name of a church or denomination. So what is it? Well it’s the occupation he is popularly known for: he baptizes people. Thus the title “The Baptist” or Baptistēs in Greek meaning “a baptizer”. His popularity is backed up by Scriptures in John 3: 23, Mark 1:5 and Luke 7:29. Due to his popularity, he earned the title “The Baptist”. But that’s not in a way to denigrate his role. After all, he is the forerunner to Christ prophesied by Isaiah. Jesus affirms John’s role . We wholeheartedly acknowledge that. What’s denigrating is attributing things John the Baptist is not by over spiritualizing or eisegete passages even if it’s done with good intentions. That doesn’t give honor to God who gave us His Word. Can we say that bringing our present day idea and inserting it into a 2000 year old passage of Scripture is an example of “rightly dividing the truth?”
There are certain individuals who have titles given to them because that is what they are known for, who they are related to, their character, or from what place they came from. Examples are Simon the Zealot, an apostle of Jesus, because of his involvement in a Jewish movement to overthrow the Roman government (Matthew 10:4); Simon the Tanner (or “a tanner” in the KJV, Acts 10:6 & 32) who hosted the apostle Peter in his house and made leather from animal skins (thus the title tanner); and Mary Magdalene (a woman follower of Jesus) who hails from Magdala (a place). Aside from giving them titles because of those factors mentioned, perhaps those titles (or nicknames) are given by New Testament writers to avoid confusion with other persons who had the same name. This makes sense because of how many individuals named Simon (9) John (4) or Mary (6) are mentioned in the New Testament.
The name “John” is a God given name (just like Jesus) given by the angel Gabriel to his father, Zacharias in Luke 1:13. In verses 14-17, the angel told more about John including his role, but the angel didn’t give the title “the Baptist”. If that is such an important thing, why did the angel miss out telling it to Zacharias (and to us)? If God didn’t give “the Baptist”, who then gave the title?
Let me add further that baptism in those days is not a unique activity exclusive only to the short ministry of John the Baptist. Teachers back then baptized their followers. In other words, other than John the Baptist, there are other “baptizers” running around during those times. I point this out to dispel unnecessary spiritualization of the work of John.
Some might argue that John’s baptism or title is an office or authority from God having a unique ministry only a true Baptist can do exclusively. Although I don’t agree with that, but it’s besides the point. The point is that having a “The Baptist” on John’s name doesn’t equate anything to the Baptist church. John the Baptist and the Baptist church are opposite poles from one another!
Here we can see the inconsistency of our fellow believers. They switch from the “The Baptist” to a title (or occupation) then to a denomination and vice versa when they talk about this topic. This is called the logical fallacy of equivocation. Fellow Baptist that hold to this teaching equates the title to a denomination that is non-existent on that time (more on that on Part 2) to a title of a person. They might not be aware of it or they might not be doing it on purpose, nevertheless it’s an error that we should avoid. It can shut the mouths of the opposing views from a debate but still it’s an invalid argument.
Jesus baptism is not for church membership – John baptized Jesus Christ not as his entrance to the Christian church. Jesus is not a member of a Baptist church. He doesn’t need to be in one either. Why? Because He IS the founder of the Church AND the Church wasn’t established yet!
We should not forget also that John the Baptist is the last Old Testament prophet (even though he was mentioned in the New Testament). As an OT prophet the concept or idea of the church remains a mystery to him (and so to other prophets) because God hid it to them, then when Christ came it was revealed (Matthew 16:18). To our fellow believers who adhere to this bizarre teaching, can you provide passages that hints John the Baptist understood what a church is, his part in building it and how it connects to his baptism specifically the baptism of Jesus? Is it possible that John unknowingly baptizes people (or Jesus) to a church he has no idea of or doesn’t exist yet?
Added to this are the original hearers and those who got baptized in the Jordan river, for sure they understood what John the Baptist intention was and what they are getting into. So does that include being a Baptist? Do these people know what the church is and being baptized by John the Baptist they are going to be a “Baptist” just like Jesus (if we follow what these Bible Baptist are teaching)?
When the people who came for the baptism ask John the Baptist what they will do then after baptism (Luke 3:10-14), it’s amazing that John didn’t mention being part of the Baptist church. If membership follows after baptism (which any Baptist will affirm) why then John didn’t include it in his reply aside from practical godly living he gave to them?
As you can see, a simple examination of Bible passages and common sense reveals this doctrine won’t stand up. But we are not done yet….(more on Part 2)
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Delighting Grace 