“When two thousand people want to be baptized, that’s a lot of dunking, and lot of time. Clearly, baptism by fire hose is more efficient.” So begins a newspaper article telling the story of how the United House of Prayer for All People in Charlotte, North Carolina, planned to handle its yearly baptisms while their church building and swimming pool were undergoing renovations. The article reveals that a fire hose would be hooked up to a hydrant and all the people desiring to be baptized would stand in the church parking lot while church elders, with help from firefighters, hosed them off. Before you create a mental picture of these “baptisms” that is similar to the way political demonstrators were “hosed off” in the 1960s, the article assures readers that the hose would be set on a fine mist so that no one would be hurt. Well, there you have it — another example of people relaxing biblical requirements in the name of convenience. Consider the following points by way of response to what I call “The Hose ‘em Down Heresy.”

The Meaning of the Word “Baptize”

If one were to look up “baptize” in a standard English dictionary he might find in the definition an allowance for sprinkling or pouring water as a mode of baptism. While such may be a correct definition of the current usage of the word in the English-speaking world, it is not the way the word was used when the New Testament was written. The English word “baptize” comes from a Greek word that means to immerse, to plunge, to dip or submerge. Therefore, when inspired men commanded people to be baptized (Acts 22:16; 10:48; 2:38) they were commanding them to be immersed, not hosed down.

The Greeks had a word that meant “to be sprinkled” — the word “hrantizo” — and it was never used in the New Testament to describe baptism. If the Holy Spirit had wanted for us to hose down penitent believers, He would have used a word that conveyed that message. Yet in every case where you find the word “baptize,” or forms of it, in the New Testament, it comes from the Greek word that means “to immerse.”

Pertinent Bible Passages

Added to the evidence that comes from the definition of baptism are a couple of passages that shed more light on this question. Romans 6:4 says, “Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Colossians 2:12 speaks of being “buried with him in baptism, in which you also were raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.” One would need help to misunderstand what these verses say about the action of true baptism. It is a burial in and raising out of water.

Regardless of building renovations, numbers of people involved, or any other unforeseen circumstances, the Bible simply does not authorize baptism by fire hose.

Eddie Parrish