Baptism - archeological, historical and biblical

The long history of baptism shows a constant development of the teaching of the Lord and his apostles. The changes or innovations which this ordinance experienced from the 1st and 2nd centuries of our era, made of baptism by immersion, conferred only on repentant sinners believing in Christ, a sacrament administered to infants, supposing to accomplish that which was to be symbolised. This evolution is very visible through the baptismal installations, which in the course of centuries underwent progressive shrinking. In a parallel direction, one can observe, on the doctrinal plane, a substitution of the sacrament for the symbol. Archaeology and the history of the Church witness in like manner a real deviation.

Publisher: Joshua Press
Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9781894400206

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In the modern English-speaking world, it was the Baptists who were the first to rediscover the biblical position on baptism, namely, that the Scriptures sanction the baptism of believers only. Since the emergence of the Baptist testimony in the British Isles in the seventeenth century, Baptists have written much on this important subject. What gives this work by Professor Buhler a somewhat unique quality is his deep knowledge of the archaeology of early baptisteries that has been gained on the field in archaeological digs. As he amply shows, the historical development of these baptisteries-from larger pools that could accommodate the immersion of baptismal candidates to much smaller fonts-reveals a movement away from the biblical understanding of baptism. —from the foreword by Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin