What Does the Bible Say About Water Baptism?Намуна

The timing of water baptism

It has often been thought that you first must have done away with all sin in your life before you can be baptized. Or that you first have to follow a course before you can be submerged.

But that is nonsense.

In the Bible, we find different examples in which there were people baptized immediately.

Like Cornelius, the Roman centurion, and those who had come together with him, they were baptized immediately (Acts 10:47-48).

Acts 8:36-38

‘Now as they went down the road, they came to some water.
And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?”
Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.

And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.’

The jailer who guarded Paul and Silas, and all who lived in his house, were also baptized immediately (Acts 16:30-33).

When it comes to being born again and being baptized in water, you shouldn’t cut it into pieces by letting months or years get in between. That’s not how the Word teaches it.

You don’t first have to get your life in order. Your life is in order the moment you say ‘yes’ to Jesus!

As you can see, the Bible teaches us that people were baptized immediately.

So why would we do it differently?

We should just be obedient to the Word of God and it teaches us: ‘baptize immediately’.

This doesn’t mean that if there is a longer time in between for you, something is wrong. This only shows that there is no reason to postpone baptizing according to the Bible.

So you don’t have to postpone for all kinds of ‘made up’ reasons or rules. You can do it immediately.