We are going to see what the Bible says about baptisms, and you will likely find some surprises there. For one thing, the New Testament speaks of at least seven different baptisms. Five of the seven may apply to you and me, today. Even the other two are included for our spiritual education, so we have a lot to explore.

We get to seven baptisms in two steps. First, we find everything that the New Testament describes with the same words, baptize and baptism. Second, we look at the three key elements in every baptism: someone who is doing the baptizing, someone (or more than one person)

1. 1  Using the preposition “into” may seem unusual at this point, but it reflects the understanding that the Greek “baptize” word practically means “to plunge, to immerse or immerse oneself, to bathe.” We will investigate a little further on in this study.
2. 2  Seven is the right number, though superficially two of the seven—the baptism of John and water baptism —seem to have the same combination of believer baptizing believer in water. As the study develops, passage after passage make it plain that to the New Testament generation of disciples, these two baptisms were quite distinct.

1. New Testament mentions seven different combinations of these three elements.