Believer’s Baptism and a LONG Sermon!

AI-Generated Image

Disciples' History Moment for June 15, 2025

On June 12, 1812 Alexander Campbell, his wife Margaret, his father Thomas and wife Jane, and his oldest sister Dorothea, were baptized in a deep pool at Buffalo Creek. Of course, all had been baptized when they were infants in the Presbyterian Church, but, as infants, they had not professed their faith, nor were they immersed (the word “baptism” means “immersed”).

As a reminder, scripture calls individuals to “repent and be baptized.” So, baptism upon confession of faith is the response we make to God’s love in Jesus Christ and, in response, God forgives our sins (remission). Baptism is not “into” a particular church but into the whole church, the whole family of God.

What started this journey for the Campbells was Alexander and Margaret’s first child, Jane. What were they to do? She was an infant. Should they baptize her, knowing that baptism in the New Testament nowhere described an infant being baptized? The scriptures revealed that only believers who were able to profess that “Jesus is Christ” were being baptized. Thomas’ study helped him come to the realization that he and his family had not been baptized according to the examples given in the New Testament. So, he approached Matthias Luce, a local Baptist preacher, and asked him to baptize them. “All were . . . admitted to immersion upon making the simple confession of Christ required of the converts in the apostolic times. That is, “Jesus is the Christ.”

Thomas Campbell, being at the time the senior minister of the Christian Association of Washington, PA thought it proper to present, IN FULL, the reasons for their being baptized. It was a LONG sermon — SEVEN. HOURS. LONG!!

So long, in fact, that one of the church members left before the event was over, went to a gathering of men to train for the war against Great Britain in the War of 1812, returned in time to hear the last hour of Thomas’ sermon and then witnessed the baptisms!

Alexander would go on to publish several debates he had with other ministers about the scriptural basis for baptism for older believers by immersion versus infant baptism. Those debates were even longer than the seven hours of his father Thomas Campbell’s sermon that day!

Rev. Kevin K. Adams

Reference: The Memoirs of Alexander Campbell by Robert Richardson