What’s Baptism, and What Does the Bible Say?

No matter your denomination, you’ve probably asked (or have been asked) what baptism is. It’s been a point of controversy for centuries. Why do we baptize? When do we baptize? How should we baptize? What is baptism anyway?

One really awesome thing about Logos 5 is its ability to connect you to every Bible verse on baptism (and thousands of other things). This way, you can dig into the Word and see what it says about important issues.

What the Bible says about baptism

Let’s say you’re listening to (or crafting) a message on Ephesians 4 and you come to verse 5: “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.”

You might wonder, “What is baptism—really?” It’s easy to start exploring what the Bible says.

Start with a Bible Word Study

This is a smart way to get the definition of the word before diving into everything the Bible says about the practice. Just right-click “baptism” and run a Bible Word Study on the lemma. (What is a lemma? Find out here.)

This will bring you definitions from all your Greek dictionaries and show you every place where your Bible mentions this Greek word. You’ll see that the word literally means “to dip” or “immerse,” but obviously there’s more to baptism than being underwater.

Next step: the Topic Guide

Now it’s time to get a better feel for the subject. You can open the Topic Guide, enter “baptism,” and immediately see key passages on baptism and a host of related topics, verses, media, events, and more!

The Topic Guide is one of the big time-saving features of Logos 5. It connects you to plenty of information on a single topic in seconds! You could stop here, but some folks may want to do even more Bible study on baptism.

If that’s you, you’ll love running a Morph Search.

Now let’s get the big picture

You have an idea of what the word “baptism” means. Now we get at the real question: what is baptism? One way you can know is by using Scripture to interpret Scripture: find every time the Bible mentions the word “baptize,” “baptism,” “Baptist,” etc. Sound extensive and complicated? Good news: it’s really easy to do: just run a Morph Search for the root!

This brings you every single mention of the Greek root in your Bible! Plus you can grab its uses in multiple translations. If you prefer the ESV and you want to share what you find with a NASB fan, it’s really easy to do.

Just by using these simple Logos 5 tools, you’ve found every time the Bible uses this word for baptism. You’re ready to study what baptism means for yourself!

Get established in the Word with Logos 5

Baptism is just one topic you can study for yourself with Logos. If you don’t already have Logos 5, get it now.