The first Baptist church was started in Amsterdam in the Netherlands in early 1609 by John Smyth. The Baptist Church pursued a community of believers with the model of the New Testament church, and attempted to reform baptismal theology under the beli...
The first Baptist church was started in Amsterdam in the Netherlands in early 1609 by John Smyth. The Baptist Church pursued a community of believers with the model of the New Testament church, and attempted to reform baptismal theology under the belief that only the practice of biblical baptism could establish a biblical church. However, changes in biblical baptismal theology are being detected in the 21st century Baptist Church. As history proves, changes in baptismal theology witness the loss of the New Testament meaning of baptism. For this reason, this paper is meaningful in reconfirming the biblical baptismal theology by re-examining the history of baptism in the 17th century Baptist Church, which emerged from the early church calling for the restoration of biblical baptism.
This study attempted to analyze the meaning of baptism in each era by examining the Bible and the writings on baptism by central theologians in each era. In each era, the theological and philosophical thoughts of that era influenced their understanding and practice of baptism, so the ideological basis for the theologians of each era was presented, and how each idea influenced their understanding of baptism was also presented. Based on the analysis, the meaning of baptism as understood by each era was revealed.
The research method of this study is as follows. First, in order to clarify what the Bible says about baptism, the verses of baptism recorded in the New Testament were examined hermeneutically. In addition, when necessary, researcher tried to convey the meaning of the text accurately by clarifying the meaning of the original text used in baptism.
Second, in order to understand baptism in each era, researcher analyzed the primary data written by representative theologians of each era and revealed the definition of their theology of baptism. Then, by comparing their baptismal theology with the biblical Baptist theology, researcher examined the errors of the baptismal theology of each era. In particular, in the baptismal theology of the religious reformers who attempted to reform the sacraments, the limits of their sacramental reform were revealed through comparison with the biblical baptismal theology.
Lastly, while describing the meaning of baptism in each era, researcher looked at how the understanding of baptism in each era was affected and how it affected the era before and after. Along with this, the attempt at baptismal reform and its results were described. Through this, the history of baptism from the early church to the 17c Baptists was recorded.
Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to reaffirm the biblical meaning of baptismal theology by studying the process of transition of baptismal theology from the early church to the 17th century, to prevent the reoccurrence of misinterpretation of baptismal theology, It is proposing a restoration of biblical baptismal theology.