The Rickety Bridge and the Broken Mirror

Book excerpt: "John and Christ administered baptism totins corpore submersione, by the submission of the whole body The very word 'baptize' signifies to immerse entirely, and it is certain that immersion was the practice of the ancient Church." John Calvin "The Greek word baptizo means 'immerse' or 'plunge', and the word baptisma means 'immersion'." Martin Luther "Immersion of the whole body was used from the beginning, which expresses the force of the word 'baptize', whence John baptized in a river. It was afterward changed into sprinkling, though it is uncertain when or by whom." Ulrich Zwingli "Baptism is immersion in water." Philip Melancthon "It is true that there is no express command to baptize infants in the New Testament, no express record of the baptism of infants, and no passages so stringently implying it that we must infer from them that infants were baptized." B. B. Warfield "There is no Biblical basis for infant baptism-this tradition is simply an old error of the church." Karl Barth