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The New Testament does speak of gospel baptism "for the remission (forgiveness) of sins," of course (Acts 2:38), and Christians of most denominations acknowledge the same each time they recite the Nicene Creed. But the Apostles, evangelists and earliest followers of Jesus spoke of baptism in many other ways as well. How this particular phrase, found in a single biblical passage concerning Christian baptism, became a universal and almost-exclusive formula among Churches of Christ is an interesting story.
The early- to mid-19th century was a time of intense religious revival, feelings and debate in the United States. That era saw the creation of several indigenous American religious groups, including the Stone-Campbell "Restoration Movement," the Millerite Revival or Adventual Movement, and Joseph Smith's founding of the "Latter Day Saints" (Mormons). Among the established churches, an ultra-rigid, creedal, hyper-Calvinism fiercely competed with the "revivalism" which marked the Second Great Awakening. Alexander Campbell and his associates sought a hearing amid all those dissonant voices.
Calvinists then commonly believed in a "secret election." That meant that no one, however devout or humble, could ever be assured that he or she was among God's chosen people. Revivalism often sought assurance of salvation through a charismatic-type experience, a better-felt-than-told inner peace in response to prolonged and anxious praying. Preachers invited people to come to the "mourner's bench" at the front of the church where they would agonizingly "pray through" to an assurance of salvation.
Although Barton W. Stone had been a leader of the Cane Ridge (Ky.) Revival and believed in extraordinary spiritual manifestations, the logical and pragmatic Campbell prevailed in influence as their two movements coalesced and finally merged. What evangelism needed, Campbell concluded, was a uniform, scriptural point of formal conversion, at which new believers could be assured that their sins were forgiven and that they were indeed among the chosen People of God.
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Alexander Campbell wisely saw the need for an objective touch-point, a spiritual milestone, at which the believer could grasp God's promises and claim assurance of heavenly pardon. This he found in the first gospel sermon reported in the Book of Acts. When the hearers on Pentecost were convicted in conscience and panic-stricken for their sins, Peter told them to "repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). Campbell saw here the solution to the hyper-Calvinist anxiety growing out of God's "secret election," and to the revivalist converts' quest for an often-elusive and subjective sense of peace.
Baptism was eminently scriptural, Campbell observed, ordained by Jesus himself. It was also clear, objective, historical and personal. Campbell saw it in much the same way many evangelicals today view "the sinner's prayer." It was the initial act of commitment to Christ. It was how faith reached out with empty hands to receive God's grace. It had no merit of its own, although it formalized the reception of God's forgiveness accomplished through Jesus' sacrifice. Campbell's friend, the great evangelist Walter Scott, popularized baptism far and wide as the believer's official moment of conversion, and "baptism for the remission of sins" quickly became a hallmark of Restorationist preaching.
Neither Alexander Campbell nor his father Thomas, nor Barton W. Stone, Walter Scott nor Isaac Errett -- all founding fathers of what became Churches of Christ, Christian Churches and the Disciples of Christ -- believed that baptism itself saved anyone. None of them doubted that God forgave genuine believers who were not "properly" baptized. These men did not think they were the only Christians. It was a tragedy of history that many of their spiritual descendants turned the formula of "baptism for the remission of sins" into a basis for separating from other Christians, even denying that other believers were Christians at all.
By the grace of God, that grievous situation is rapidly changing among many Churches of Christ today, as we move nearer the intent of our founding fathers and closer to the teaching of the New Testament itself. At the same time, I happily commend to fellow-Christians outside our Restoration Movement the New Testament practice -- rightly understood -- of baptism "for the remission of sins."
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