Waters of Creation: A Biblical-Theological Study of Baptism

by Douglas Van Dorn

This is the one book on baptism that you must read. It was seven years in the making. The author believes that until a new approach is taken, separations over the meaning, mode, and recipients of baptism will never be bridged. This new approach has very ancient roots in the Church Fathers and even far earlier. It traces the origin of baptism deep into the OT Scriptures. When understood properly, we discover that baptism is always the sign that God has used to initiate his people into a new creation. Baptism in the NT is not “new.” Rather, it derives its origin from OT predecessors. When we understand that baptism comes from baptism, especially in its sacramental expression in the priestly covenant, reasons for the NT practice begin to make perfect sense. Now Baptists have an argument that infant Baptists can finally understand, because the argument begins in the same place. Yet, our conclusions as to the mode and recipients of baptism fall in line with historic Baptist practice, because the precedent for baptism is baptism, not circumcision.

Genres: Theology

228 pages, Paperback

First published June 26, 2009

Reviews

[Kristin Nare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars just because parts were difficult to grasp, but it's a very good book. I have a much better understanding of baptism now. Van Dorn makes a brilliant case for baptism being inaugurated in the Old Testament, and its counterpart, Christian baptism, being fulfilled and continued in the New Testament. If you want a good understanding of why we shouldn't baptize babies, but rather confessing adults, read this book. But you'll get a whole lot more than just that.

[Joshua Jenkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. More Baptists need to think this way.

[Rachel Ramey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, someone is asking the right questions! For some unfathomable reason, most of the Church seems to either disconnect New Testament baptism from the Old Testament entirely, or to connect New Testament baptism to Old Testament circumcision, which simply does not make sense. Circumcision is circumcision. Baptism is baptism. As both existed side-by-side in OT times, it is strange to conclude that with the NT, one suddenly morphed into the other. Yet paedobaptists rightly recognize that baptism is a *continuation* of something. This book makes sense of all that, and more.

The argumentation is rock-solid and rooted in the Scripture, first and foremost. As in his other books, Van Dorn does a superb job of pulling out the things we *would* have seen in Scripture had we looked more closely at the Scripture itself without any of the presuppositions trained into us. He draws in additional evidence from the church fathers and from ancient commentators to demonstrate that the points he's making are not novel. There is an amazing richness here in the typology of baptism that will be appreciated by credo- and paedobaptists alike. All this is done in such a way as to be very readable (I think my middle schooler could follow this without any difficulty), and respectful toward his paedobaptist brethren.

I do think the strength of the argumentation begins to weaken at the final point, where Van Dorn aims to convince us that Christian baptism is ultimately rooted in the Levitical covenant. There, in my opinion, a few inconsistencies begin to creep in, and the argument for this point does not carry the same weight as the earlier arguments do. This has the effect of leaving me somewhat unconvinced of credobaptism based on his argument (ironically, as I was credobaptist prior to reading the book). It is not solidly convincing of paedobaptism, either; this last point merely remains less developed than necessary, in my estimation, to complete the process of making everything clear.

I always felt that, as the writer of Hebrews calls washings an "elementary" teaching, we must be overlooking something extremely obvious to make baptism so complicated. Getting back to the roots of baptism and how the earliest believers would have understood it does a good deal to make the doctrine once again seem elementary.

[Joshua Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

[Adriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved the book. Never saw things from that perspective and also just very edifying with the types and anti-type patterns.

[Lucas Bradburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful book giving a biblical theology of baptism. I appreciated the study on the Levitical Covenant and its importance in understanding a Biblical theology of Baptism and the comparison of the various OT & NT Temples. I only disagree with the author's assumption of one covenant of grace under different administrations, which weakened his credobaptist argument, which could be be strengthened by a 1689 federalism view. I'll have to read his more recent book on covenant theology to see where he expands upon what he has written in this book.

[Jacob · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was pretty terrible. There was a long setup as though the author was going to do something no one had ever done before, and then... he concludes with some pretty standard credobaptist fare. Not that that is bad in its own right, but I didn't think there was anything really novel about this. Also, the writing was terrible, and the frequency of exclamation points insufferable.