Baptism: A Guide to Life from Death

If you write a book on Baptism the chances are I will give it a positive review. I love this topic and reading about it always fills my spirit with life and peace. I was provided a digital copy free of charge from the publishers for reviewing purposes. I was not required to give a positive review. -- I may have to order a physical copy for my shelf. I am a fan of the Christian Essentials series of which this book is a part. The nature of this series is short accessible works on the essentials of the Christian Faith. Meaning, this great little book on Baptism was simply too short. It could have easily been a 250 page book rather than a 120 page book. Each chapter I was wishing it dove a little deeper into the waters. If you are a preacher needing some guidance or further help crafting some sermon on Baptism each chapter in this book could easily be adapted into a sermon highlighting a different aspect of the Sacrament of Baptism. Liethart, doesn't spend time being distracted by the debates and divisions found in discussions around this topic. It is his desire to bring unity around this topic rather than further division. Liethart writes, "This book is a small contribution to the effort to reunite a church divided by baptism. My approach is oblique. I don’t offer any nice knock-down arguments. As currently framed, the controversies are insoluble anyway. To arrive at unity, we need to recover the baptismal imagination of earlier generations. We need to start at the foundation and work our way up." That Baptismal imagination is seen page after page with a seeming barrage of simply beautiful statements regarding baptism. Here are just a few.. "The Greek philosopher Thales was right: Water is at the base of everything! Baptism lays the foundation of a new world, the city and kingdom of God." "Baptism points to Jesus, who rose from the dead as the firstfruits of the age to come. As it points to Jesus, baptism tells the world, “Behold, a new creation has come!” To the baptized, it’s performative speech, effecting what it declares: “Behold, you are a new creation!” As more and more are baptized, baptism forms the church as the locus of new-creation life in a dead world." "Baptism calls us to resist every tyrant, petty or potent, in the name of Jesus. We’re certain our Commander will conquer and reign until all his enemies are beneath his feet (1 Cor 15:25). Baptism makes us new creatures in Christ by placing us on the winning side." Get yourself a copy, read it with your friends and let the beauty of baptismal imagination be sparked in you.

I've read the article in my explorer and have found it to be irresponsible and misleading. the one thing that baptism is I have not seen, that baptism is burial of the old man Adam and the resurrection of man to the newness of life through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit . Sinless Christ did it to show us what will happen when we baptism, again receive the Holy Spirit as he did. To mention the word " poured" is n poor taste. Is it that we cannot visualize people on the day of pentecost being immersed in Jerusalem? in any case the scripture never said that the 3 thousand were baptized in Jerusalem. to mention baptism in the Jordan was also misleading since the water stopped flowing. Noah's and the Red Sea baptism are considered as such because of the burial effect of the non-stop rain covering the ark on all sides in one case and the reds was like an open grave with water on both sides (and probably mist on top). the real cleansing of Christians are done by the blood as far as I know and not the water of baptism. who's really watering down baptism?