Waters of Promise

Many Christians who practice believer baptism struggle to answer basic questions about it:

What does it mean to be baptized? How does baptism relate to faith? What does God do through baptism?

In Waters of Promise Brandon Jones seeks to answer these questions by drawing from Scripture, theology, history, and church practice. The resulting recovery of the link between covenant theology and believer baptism may change not only how you think about baptism but also how your church practices it.

Why did you write this book?
Growing up in a Baptist church I heard much about why we did not baptize infants. My pastor often presented baptism as a "first step of obedience" to Christ. Another common refrain was that God ordained baptism, so his command itself should be enough for us to do it. When I began studying theology I couldn't help but notice that baptism was an integral part of the Apostles' gospel message in Acts. The Apostles expected people to respond to the gospel by confirming faith in Christ through baptism. In other words, God indeed commanded baptism, but the Apostles considered it, and not some altar call or sinner's prayer, to be the faithful response to the gospel instead of a separate "first step of obedience" that would come some time later. Confirmation of someone's faith in Acts begins in the waters of baptism.
I also focused on vivid passages about baptism, such as Romans 6:3-5, Galatians 3:26-29, 1 Peter 3:19-22 that go beyond the fact that God commanded baptism and reflect on why God commanded it. What are things about it that make it a fitting symbol that confirms God's claim on us and our claim on him? Is the water significant? Is the fact that one receives baptism from the church instead of being able to do it herself significant?
These questions led me to some works by Baptist authors, mostly from Great Britain, that defend a robust view of the meaning of baptism by drawing from the biblical passages above. These Baptist authors were willing to embrace a sacramental understanding of baptism, not in a sense that baptism is necessary for salvation, but in a sense that God chose baptism, in part, so he could graciously minister through its physical aspects in a special way.
The British Baptist works clearly showed a biblical basis for their view, but they never clearly explained what baptism means, especially in relation to faith and salvation. As I tried to build on this biblical work, I found that covenant theology, something many people link exclusively with Reformed theology, was a mainstream part of Baptist theology in the past that allowed Baptists to make much of the meaning of baptism by seeing it as a confirming rite that marks initiation into God's people, the church. Thus, Waters of Promise is an attempt to give a clear view of the meaning of baptism that demonstrates its place within a greater framework of salvation and the church.

Why does it matter to reflect on the meaning of baptism?
As a theologian and pastor, one question I receive a lot is When should we baptize children who clearly believe the gospel of Jesus Christ? Two hundred years ago it was the norm to baptize youth who grew up in a Baptist church in their teenage years. For example, John Gill, who eventually wrote a commentary on every book of the Bible, had started college and knew several languages before his baptism at the age of seventeen. Since then, Baptists have baptized their children at younger and younger ages to where we are now seeing parents who send their kids to the baptismal waters before they send them off to kindergarten. Is this wrong? What age is right? Depending on whom you ask, you'll get several different answers. The reason for all the confusion is that Baptists in general do not have a clear understanding of what baptism means. The assumed position among many pastors and parents is that baptism means a child can now clearly explain the Romans-road version of the gospel. But is that all baptism means? Are there any duties of discipleship attached to baptism?
Other practical issues that come up are how baptism relates to church membership and when or if it is a good idea to "rebaptize" someone. Baptist churches are jumbled regarding their practices. I was once part of a church that would baptize someone through a means other than immersion if the candidate was unable physically to undergo baptism by immersion, but that same church refused to recognize as valid the believer baptism by another church that practiced baptism by pouring during winter months when they could not immerse in living water. That person had to get "rebaptized" to join the church. Likewise, people who were baptized as young children sometimes request to be baptized again as teens or adults, because they did not feel their first baptism was valid. In response, some churches will honor their requests while other churches will not. Confused yet? Me too. Once again, our practice of baptism is tied to what we think baptism means.

Who is the target audience of the book?
I wrote this book primarily for Baptists who are ministers or leaders in their churches. However, people who are simply interested in what Baptists believe about baptism may too find the topic interesting, especially people who study covenant theology.

"Historically, Baptists have been quite adroit in their defense of why only believers should be baptized and exactly how this ordinance should be carried out. What they have often forgotten is to explain what baptism means. This new study by Jones addresses this forgotten question. A careful reading of his work promises to broaden our understanding of baptism's biblical meaning."
--Michael A. G. Haykin, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

"When I was writing my doctoral thesis on British Baptist baptismal theology, I found almost no engagement with the British material on this side of the ocean. Over the last decade, that has begun to change, and Waters of Promise both narrates and advances that process. Jones's suggestion of a Baptist sacramental theology rooted in covenant theology adds a new (or perhaps old!) idea worth considering."
--Stanley K. Fowler, Heritage Theological Seminary

"Waters of Promise is a significant contribution that advocates the rediscovery of covenant theology, seeing in believers' baptism the Spirit's gracious work as a confirming sign and seal of initiation into the new covenant with God and his people. Jones's study is thought-provoking and a challenging contribution to an important subject."
--Anthony R. Cross, University of Oxford