How long does the typical Baptist
pastor wait after a sinner’s supposed conversion before the baptism takes
place? Five minutes? Ten minutes? To what lengths will a Baptist Church go to
make sure the person who is awaiting baptism has what seems to be a genuine,
orthodox, Scriptural conversion testimony, one that doesn’t sound like a
Mormon’s testimony, or a Church of Christ member’s testimony, or a Roman
Catholic’s testimony?
Sadly, it has been Baptist practice
for the last fifty or sixty years to get baptismal candidates into the tank as
fast as possible. But what if the person you are trying to get into the tank isn’t converted? Do you not care whether the baptismal
candidate is truly, or as nearly as you can tell, converted to Christ? And are
you willing to put off the baptism for a couple of days to make sure, or as
sure as you can be, that the hopeful convert is saved and is thereby qualified
to be baptized?
Why is it that Baptist pastors, for
all their professed concern about a regenerate membership, cannot see to it
that their baptismal candidates have at least some comprehension of the born
again experience? And I know that modern pastors complain that the press of
ministry makes it impossible for them to deal with and verify the testimonies
of baptismal candidates. But Charles H. Spurgeon dealt with each and every
baptismal candidate in his huge congregation before immersing them. And that
was in the days before automobiles, telephones, and all the other conveniences
that enable a pastor to accomplish more by the use of labor-saving devices.
The fact of the matter is that for the
most part pastors these days simply do not care about the spiritual welfare of
those they are funneling toward their dip tank. They have set personal and
Church goals for the numbers they want to baptize for the year, and anyone they
can get into the tank (even if they get them into the tank repeatedly) is to be dipped.
Why else is it that pastors
steadfastly refuse to consider asking the most basic questions of a baptismal
candidate before immersing him?[1]
How else can you explain a pastor’s unwillingness to be careful about his
obedience to Christ’s clear intentions that only converted people be baptized? And
how else can you explain a pastor’s callus attitude toward someone who, once he
has been baptized, may very well be permanently inoculated against the Gospel
for the rest of his life, either because he wrongly thinks he is a Christian
when he is not or because he thinks Christianity based on his sad experiences
is not real?
[1]
A pastor friend responded to my expressions of concern about baptizing
unconverted candidates by insisting he was always very careful. He assured me
that he always asked candidates “Are you saved?” as if anyone in the baptistery
would ever say “No” or would understand what such a question actually meant.
