There is nothing more serious than a person responding to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and being baptized for the remission of their sins. It has eternal consequences! The spiritual component of baptism is beyond the comprehension of the physical mind. Then there is the physical component. You must immerse someone in water. That is where many things can happen behind the scenes.
Whenever I baptize someone, I generally wear "waders" that come to my chest. Many times water would pour over the top of them as I bend down to immerse the believer. This would soak my shirt and pants! I baptized one lady and was very careful not to go below the water line. My clothes remained dry. I was so proud of myself. When she came up out of the water, she was so full of joy that she hugged me tightly. Water was squeezed from of her clothing and ran down into the waders soaking my shirt and pants! While preaching at a Gospel Meeting at another congregation, I assured the audience that warm water was prepared in the baptistery. If they wanted to be baptized, they could come on down. One fellow did. There was no water in the baptistery! The kind men of that church quickly filled it with cold tap water. It was a freezing night in October! The guy turned blue in the icy water. He spent a couple of days in the hospital the next week with pneumonia! Whenever he sees me now, he announces to the crowd around us that I am a lying preacher!
There are those that witness baptisms and conclude that they are unnecessary or even foolish. I certainly would not call Jesus "foolish" when he said in Mark 16:16 "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." In fact, it is very foolish to refuse to be baptized! Even if the water is cold and your preacher gets wet
Whenever I baptize someone, I generally wear "waders" that come to my chest. Many times water would pour over the top of them as I bend down to immerse the believer. This would soak my shirt and pants! I baptized one lady and was very careful not to go below the water line. My clothes remained dry. I was so proud of myself. When she came up out of the water, she was so full of joy that she hugged me tightly. Water was squeezed from of her clothing and ran down into the waders soaking my shirt and pants! While preaching at a Gospel Meeting at another congregation, I assured the audience that warm water was prepared in the baptistery. If they wanted to be baptized, they could come on down. One fellow did. There was no water in the baptistery! The kind men of that church quickly filled it with cold tap water. It was a freezing night in October! The guy turned blue in the icy water. He spent a couple of days in the hospital the next week with pneumonia! Whenever he sees me now, he announces to the crowd around us that I am a lying preacher!
There are those that witness baptisms and conclude that they are unnecessary or even foolish. I certainly would not call Jesus "foolish" when he said in Mark 16:16 "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." In fact, it is very foolish to refuse to be baptized! Even if the water is cold and your preacher gets wet