Brother Mike,

Baptism of sprinkling or immersion; which one is most appropriate or more correct?

Please respond,

J____

Hi J____,

Thank you for your question. You ask:

“Baptism of sprinkling and immersion; which one is most appropriate or more correct?”

The short answer is that neither will cleanse you. This instead, is the baptism which really does cleanse us:

Mat 3:11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

Jesus Himself never baptized anyone with water.

Joh 4:1 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,
Joh 4:2 (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,)

It is very significant that we are told “Christ Himself baptized not”, simply because Christ told His disciples:

Joh 16:12 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

One of the “many things” Christ had to tell His apostles which they could “not bear” at that time was this:

Eph 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

The true “washing of water” is the true “fire”. Both are types and shadows of “the word” of God. Hence “the washing of water by the word”:

Jer 5:14 Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Physical water is “without a man”, and does nothing to a man’s heart, either good or bad. This is what Christ tells us concerning things that “are without a man”:

Mar 7:15 There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.

Mat 15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:

Mar 7:21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,

Likewise “there is nothing from without a man” that can cleanse a man, but “the things that come out of [a man, the fiery word of God “from the heart” (Mat 18:35)], those are they that [cleanse] the man”. Here is how God’s fiery words cleanse us from within:

1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Having been baptized in water twice while in Babylon, I can testify that my heart was not the least bit cleansed by that baptism. On the other hand, when God’s fiery word burned up all the wood, hay, and stubble, of the wicked thoughts that had the dominion over my mind and heart, then I was “baptized with the holy spirit and with fire”, and that was the baptism which cleansed me of my sins.

I hope you find these words and these verses edifying.

Your brother who is grateful for the spiritual, fiery baptism with which our Lord’s words baptize and wash us.

Eph 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.

Mike