Topics / Covenants and Ordinances
The gate, and what the covenant actually says
Baptism
Immersion, by authority, at the age of accountability, as the entry to a path rather than the end of one. The Greek settles the mode; Mosiah 18 settles the terms; and Moroni 8 settles the question of infants in the strongest language in the canon.
20 min2 sections
Mode and meaning
King James renders it “baptize”
The Greek word for dipping cloth in dye or sinking a ship. It was transliterated rather than translated into English, which is how the mode came to be a matter of debate — had the King James translators rendered it 'immerse,' the argument would have had nowhere to go.
Full lexicon entry →
The meaning follows the mode. Romans 6:3–5 reads baptism as a burial and a rising, which requires going under; and 3 Nephi 11:26 preserves the Savior's own instruction to immerse. D&C 20:73–74 gives the words and the manner.
The terms
8As ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another's burdens, that they may be light;
9Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death…
10…what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?
It is striking how much of the baptismal covenant is about other people. Bearing burdens, mourning with mourners, comforting — the obligations to God are stated once and the obligations to the congregation three times.
Principle
Baptism is a gate rather than a destination, and the covenant it seals is largely a set of obligations to other people.
What this topic holds
Baptism is by immersion, by one having authority, at or after the age of accountability.
Little children are alive in Christ and need no baptism; the doctrine is condemned in the strongest terms in the canon.
Check your reading
3 questions01What does the Greek baptizō mean?
02What is most of the baptismal covenant in Mosiah 18 about?
03What does Moroni 8 call the baptism of little children?
Where to go next
Sources
- Gospel Topics, "Baptism"
- Mosiah 18; 3 Nephi 11; Moroni 8; D&C 20 — The primary texts.