IS SPRINKLING BAPTISM?

Hugo McCord

Not many people today are interested in the action of baptism. However, recently in a Bible class, a visitor, on hearing that sprinkling is not baptism, asked, “Then when did the practice originate?”

The first instance of baptism by sprinkling was in 251 A.D., when a sick man, Novatian, afraid he would die unbaptized, had himself sprinkled “in apprehension of death” (Neander’s CHURCH HISTORY, I, 325).

In 753 A.D. Pope Stephen III legislated that “in cases of necessity” pouring water on the head “was acceptable” (EDINBURGH CYCLOPEDIA, III, 245-246). The practice came to be called clinical or hospital baptism (baptismus clinicorun).

In 1311 A.D. A council of bishops meeting at Ravenna in Italy voted that either sprinkling or immersion was acceptable for everybody (George A. Klingman, CHURCH HISTORY FOR BUSY PEOPLE. The practice of sprinkling then took over universally (except in the GREEK CATHOLIC Church), and has spread into Protestant denominations.

A preacher in Indiana, in a sermon about 1840, criticized the statement that a preacher and a candidate for baptism “went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him” (Acts 8:38, KJV).

He said that the word “into” in the Bible is “a bad translation, for it says that Moses went up into the mountain.” So, he concluded, Philip and the eunuch “went down to, or near by the water,” where the eunuch was “baptized by pouring or sprinkling.”

Then the preacher gave an invitation for any one to speak. According to an old book by W. D. Frazee, REMINISCENCES AND SERMONS, a Dutchman in the audience, S. K. Houshour, arose and said:

Mister Breacher, I ish so glad I vas here tonight, for I has had exblained what I never pelieved before. Oh, I ish so glad dat into does mean only close py. We reat dat Taniel vas cast into te ten of lions, and came out alive.

Now, I neffer could pelieve dat, for the wilt peasts would shust eat him right up, but now it ish exblained. He vas shust close by. Oh, I ish so glad I vas here tonight. We reat dat de Hebrew vas cast into de firish funace and dat always look like a beeg story too, for day would have peen purnt up, but ish plain to my mint, for day vas shust cast py or close to the firish furnace. Oh, I vas so glad I vas here tonight. And den, Mr. Breacher, it is said dat Jonah was taken into de whalesh pelly. Now I never could pelieve dat, but it is all plain, he shust shumpt on to his pack and rode ashore. Oh, I vas so glad I vas here tonight.

And now, Mr. Breacher, if you will shust exblain two more passages. I shall be, oh, so happy dat I vas here tonight! One of them ish where it saish de vicked shall pe cast into a lake dat burns mit fire. O! Mr. Breacher, shall I pe cast into dat lake if I am vicked, or shust close py or near to, shust near enough to be comfortable? Oh, I hope you tell me I shall pe cast py a good way off, and I vill pe so glad I vas here tonight. De odder passage is dat vich saish blessed are day who do dese commandments, dat dey may enter in troo de gates into de city. Now, Mr. Breacher, if I vas good, shall I go into de city or only shust close py or near enough to see vhat I have lost. Please exblain and I shall pe so glad I vas here tonight.

On page 117 of Jack Wilhelm’s new book, CONTEMPORARY CONCERNS OF CHRISTIANS, published in 1999 by the Cox Creek Bookstore, Box 2816, Florence, AL 35630, are the following three quotations from a tract by Anthony E. Emmons, Jr., entitled A STUDY OF SCRIPTURAL BAPTISM, with the subtitle, “The Origin of Sprinkling”:

The church has always been tender toward the sick; and for that reason she introduced “clinical baptism.” (Karl Joseph Hefele, a Roman Catholic Bishop, in HISTORY OF CHURCH COUNCILS, page 153.)

Eusebius, the “father of church history,” tells of the first case of sprinkling: Novatian was deathly sick, and received what was called “clinic baptism,” water pured or sprinkled on him while in bed. Eusebius voiced protest. (THE NICEAN AND POST-NICEAN FATHERS, vol. 1, pp. 288, 289.)

The council of Ravenna, 1311 (A.D.), legalized the baptism of sprinkling, but the practise of “clinical” or bedside baptism had long been in use and had spread from the sick-room to the churches. (JOHNSON’S UNIVERSAL CYCLOPEDIA, vol. 1 page 488.)