1. (John A. Broadus {1827-1895} was for thirty-six years professor and later president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

2. The above quote is from page 11 of his book "The Duty of Baptists To Teach Their Distinctive Views".

3. Broadus strongly believed that there were valid reasons for Baptists remaining separate from Protestant churches and these reasons should be taught to the people in our Baptist pews.

1. "That are the benefits we receive by baptism, is the next point to be considered.

2. And the first of these is, the washing away the guilt of original sin, by the application of the merits of Christ's death. ... By baptism (sprinkling) , we who were "by nature children of wrath" are made the children of God.

3. And this regeneration which our Church in so many places ascribes to baptism is more than barely being admitted into the Church, though commonly connected therewith; being "grafted into the body of Christ's Church, we are made the children of God by adoption and grace."

4. This is grounded on the plain words of our Lord: "Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John iii. 5.)

5. By water, then, as a means, the water of baptism, we are regenerated or born again; whence it is also called by the Apostle, "the washing of regeneration." ...

6. Herein a principle of grace is infused, which will not be wholly taken away, unless we quench the Holy Spirit by long-continued wickedness.

1. Question 94. WHAT is baptism?

2. Question 95. To WHOM is baptism to be administered?...... the INFANTS of such as are members of the visible church, are to be baptized.

1. The addition of "infant baptism" (sprinkling) to the Word of God-- for it certainly is not there-- is fraught with mischief.

2. Without faith or even consciousness, as in the case of babes, how can spiritual benefits be connected with the sprinkling of water?

3. 'Baptismal regeneration' rides in upon the shoulders of infant baptism.

4. C. H. S. "We find a class of persons who are the children of former converts, and who have been baptized as infants, and are therefore called Christians.

5. Aqueous Fluid to an Infant's Brow! The following is from Spurgeon's sermon, "UNPURCHASABLE LOVE"

a. Little do our friends know how much mischief they do by teaching infant baptism. I believe it to be the root and pillar of Popery.

b. It is an invention of man, against which Christians ought to protest every day, because infant sprinkling is a practical denial of the need of personal godliness.

c. It puts into the Church those who are not in the Church.

d. It gives religious rites to the unconverted.

e. It teaches men that because their mothers and fathers were good people, therefore these baptized infants are Christians; whereas they are not, they are heathens, and as much heathens as if they were born amidst the Hottentot’s kraals.

f. They are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity, notwithstanding all their ‘parents’ excellence.

g. To give Christian ordinances to unconverted persons is to pervert the testimony of God’s Church.

a. I am sorry to say that there is much craftiness and trickery to be met with in the religious world.

b. Why, there are those who pretend to save souls by curious tricks, intricate maneuvers, and dexterous posture making.

c. A basin of water, half-a-dozen drops, certain syllables and - Heigh! Presto! -the infant is a child of grace, and becomes a member of Christ, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven!

d. This aqueous regeneration surpasses my belief. It is a trick which I do not understand- only the initiated can perform the beautiful piece of magic, which excels anything ever attempted by the wizards.

1. The Substitution of Sprinkling for Immersion "It is a commonplace among scholars that the counsel of Ravenna in 1311 was the first council to put sprinkling on a par with immersion. This permission to use sprinkling, saying Schaff-Herzog Cyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, was favored by the growing rarity of adult baptism. Up to this time, sprinkling was only allowed in case of the sick, and gradually for infants."

1. They (those that sprinkle) earnestly teach that the children of believers "are sanctified by being born of religious parents," are "born within the church, and have by their birth inheritance in the covenant," "are federally holy," and for these and like reasons, are baptized.

2. If what they say is true, then the infant offspring of believers are not naturally depraved. On the other hand, they all earnestly teach that "every one" is wholly depraved. "Every man" descended of Adam, is "defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body," all "are naturally indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil."

3. They cannot at the same time be holy and corrupt, sanctified and depraved, in the gospel covenant and "naturally indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil." Both these propositions cannot be true.

4. Paul the apostle declares this whole hypothesis untrue. "The children of the flesh," he affirms, "are not [therefore] the children of the covenant" (Gal. 3:12-20).

5. But pedobaptists allege, that the children of the flesh of believers, are the heirs of the covenant, and for the very reason that they are the children of the flesh.

1. 1. Tyndale's 1526 & 1534= "I baptize you in water"

2. Matthew's Great Bible of 1539= "I baptize you in water."

3. The 1568 Bishop's Bible "I baptize you in water."

4. The K. J. V. "I indeed baptize you with water."

5. Rotherham's Emphasized Bible "I indeed am immersing you in water."

6. The American Standard Version = "I indeed baptize you in water."

7. The 1987 Green's Literal Translation = "I indeed baptize you in water."

8. Henry Burrage noted: "In those passages in our English version (K. J. V.) where we find the words 'with water,' as in (Mt. 3:11), 'I indeed baptize you with water,' the Greek has 'in water'" (Jerkins, Baptist Doctrines, Pg. 153).

9. S. E. Anderson observed: "The K. V. V. of (Mt. 3:11) reads, 'I baptize you with water,' but the Greek has it, 'I immerse you in water'" (Biblical Baptist Beliefs, pg. 17).

10. M. L. Moser, Jr., a K. J. V. defender, wrote: "If we should say that John immersed in water, are we to be considered as Bible correctors?" (Baptist Challenge, June 1989, pg. 16).

11. Mr. Spurgeon's remark concerning his baptism: "My mother said to me, one day, 'Ah Charles! I often prayed the Lord to make you a Christian, but I never asked that you might become a Baptist!' I could not resist the temptation to reply, 'Ah, mother! the Lord has answered your prayer with His usual bounty, and given you exceeding abundantly above what you asked or thought.'" (autobiography, Vol. 1, pg. 69).

12. We agree with Pastor Dallas Bunch's tract on "An Honest Question for Every Protestant to Answer," wherein he contends that "No competent and honest scholar would teach that the word translated as 'baptise' in the New Testament means anything other than to dip, to submerge, and to immerse."

1. He says on pg. 18 "Pre-christian Judaism already knew baptismal bathings in the form of immersion, the Levitical bathings (Lev 14:8,9) and the baptism of heathen who came over to Judaism, the so-called proselyte baptism. On pg 21, he says: "The baptism of John looked forward to the Lamb of God; the baptism of the Apostles looked back to the completed sacrifice of the Lamb."