As usual I’m up late at night picking theological “fights” with people I don’t even know. On this particular night the lucky blogger was Pastor Leo Acosta from Miami, Florida. Mr. Acosta (and his friend Mike) has been more than friendly toward me as I “gently” challenged his view that Christian Baptism is a “mere symbol” of the inward reality of the Christian experience of conversion. In his post my interlocutor espouses a traditional Baptist view regarding the meaning of baptism, and for his kindness and humility I am thankful.
Pastor Acosta asserts:
Christian baptism is, according to the Bible, an outward testimony of what has occurred inwardly in a believer’s life. Christian baptism illustrates a believer’s identification with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.
Read his short post on the meaning of baptism, along with the following interaction and debate as I argue for a stronger and more scriptural view of baptism and tell me what you think. Pastor Leo’s post can be seen here.
Thanks for weighing in.
Given my recent discovery that Pastor Acosta is cutting and pasting his responses from http://www.gotquestions.org I will no longer be interacting in the discussion on his site. I will be glad to do so here at Vintage where our thoughts might not be “original,” but at least they are properly cited! Carry on.
Chris,
I did wake up with this topic in my heart as last night I was up trying to figure out how I can answer you and give you my best explanation as to my views on baptism, but to a certain degree I just didn’t understand what you are asking. I was even on a phone conversation with a fellow blogger earlier this morning trying to understand your views and questions. I was trying to find a resource to best try to relate my views. I am sorry if I was not able to do so after our interaction, be blessed.
Pastor Leo,
It would serve you (and your readers) well if you will cite your sources rather than passing them off as your own work. Plagiarism is not cool. Some digestion of sourced material and at least some interaction with sourced material will go along way towards theological and intellectual integrity.
Sincerely,
Chris Gates.