Baptism by Immersion

It occurred to me that I'm close to having written more blog posts in the past six months (February to July) than were posted during the three years that I was on my mission (2009-2011). I suppose that writing a new blog post every day adds up a lot faster than writing home once a week.

The trouble with writing every day is that some days, like today, it's hard to think of things to write about. Theoretically, there are dozens of gospel-related topics one could write about, with several more messages nested under each other. For example, I could talk about ordinances in general, or I could talk about baptism. And under baptism, I could talk about the correct mode of baptism, the baptismal prayer, or why baptism is essential to salvation. Any one of those topics would make for a great blog post.

Then, I get even more options when I think about one gospel topic from the perspective of another. I could look at fasting from the perspective of obedience, sacrifice, gaining a testimony, the availability (and the prerequisite costs) of heavenly help, and so on.

That's literally more than a week's worth of possible blog post topics that I could write about, just off the top of my head. But in order to write about any of them, I'd need to have something to say, and it helps a lot to have a scripture, Conference talk, or Mormon Message video to back up what I say. That takes research. Research requires knowledge of what you're trying to research. Basically, before I even think about writing about something, I need to know what I want to write about. And I usually don't.

Sometimes, some scriptural topic has been on my mind for a few days or at least a few hours, and I can blog about that. Sometimes something shows up in my scripture study or reading of the Ensign, that I feel I can share. Sometimes not. Sometimes, the things I learn in my personal scripture study are things that I don't feel like I can share. But I still need to blog about something.

Okay. Baptism. What did I say up there? The correct mode of baptism. Here we go.

The baptism of Jesus Christ is the most famous account of any baptism ever recorded (which is saying something because (correct me if I'm wrong, but I think) all baptisms are recorded). The record is found in (and I'm already stuck doing research): Matthew 3: 13-17, Mark 1: 9-11, Luke 3: 21-22 and John 1: 29-34. And possibly other places, but the Four Gospels was the first place I thought to look.

According to the various records, Jesus went from Nazareth (Mark 1:9) to Bethabara (John 1:28) to be baptized of John the Baptist in the River Jordan.

And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: 

And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Matthew 3: 16-17

To some, the records seem to say that Jesus was immersed in the water, or was at least standing in the water, at the time of His baptism. I agree, not because I feel the scriptural accounts make it obvious (which I don't), but because modern revelation confirms that theory.

Baptism is to be administered in the following manner unto all those who repent— 

The person who is called of God and has authority from Jesus Christ to baptize, shall go down into the water with the person who has presented himself or herself for baptism, and shall say, calling him or her by name: Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. 

Then shall he immerse him or her in the water, and come forth again out of the water.
D&C 20: 72-74

The immersion is symbolic of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection (D&C 76: 21). In a personal way, it's supposed to represent a death of our old lives, and a rebirth into our new lives as Christians. The only good reason I can think of for being baptized in the first place is to follow Christ's teachings and example, so we're already following Jesus Christ by being baptized, and when we're baptized, we pledge ourselves to continue to follow Him (Mosiah 18: 13). For almost everyone, this would mean a change of lifestyle - an end of one way of living, and a beginning of living after the manner of Christ.

Much more could be said about baptism, specifically about the baptismal covenants, the need for the regular renewal of those covenants through the Sacrament, the need for proper authority in order to perform those ordinances, and other sub-topics that I'll probably think of as soon as I publish this post.

So, in theory, I should never be at a loss for things to blog about, yet I sometimes am. Sometimes, I'm just not thinking about spiritual things. I think I should probably change that. I've heard it said that we're not mortal beings having a spiritual experience - we're spiritual beings having a mortal experience. This seems to imply that all this spiritual stuff is pretty important. I could probably stand to focus more on spiritual matters than I do on... other things. It'd probably be better for me in the long run (and by "the long run," I mean "the eternities"). Good thing I have a blog to force me to think about these things.