We believe that people who follow Christ should identify their lives with Christ by being baptized.  Not only did Jesus allow Himself to be baptized by John the Baptist, but Jesus also commanded His followers to be baptized as well.  Baptism has been practiced by Christ followers since the time of Jesus.  During the Reformation period in the early 17th century, Anabaptists and Baptists alike began again to practice believer’s baptism by immersion.  There is no baptism in the New Testament other than baptism by immersion.

We at FBC Jasper, in obedience to biblical truth and in the consistency of Baptist conviction, continue to believe, teach, and practice believers’ baptism by immersion.

There are 5 points we would like to say to you, our web readers, about baptism.

1.Baptism does not save anyone.  It does not make a person right with God.

2.Baptism is an act of worship and a testimony of salvation that a person should do after trusting in Jesus as one’s personal savior.  That is why it is called “believer’s baptism.”  It follows conversion and it gives public testimony to the faith of the one being baptized.

3.The word “baptize” in the Greek New Testament means “to immerse or to go under.”  That is why we practice full body immersion and not sprinkling.  This has been the practice of Baptist people almost from their earliest days as a Christian movement.

4.When a person follows Christ in baptism, their act of submission to immersion identifies them with Christ, dramatically portraying both the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the new believer’s own death to an old life of sin and birth to a new life or righteousness.  Baptism is this kind of powerful symbol.

5.In obedience to the command of Christ, we baptize in the trinitarian words:  “in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”  (Matthew 28:19)