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Born of Water: What the Bible Really Says About Baptism
Born Of Water discusses the Biblical verses that talk about water baptism in the New Testament. In each chapter, the author presents multiple scriptures and then discusses the various interpretations of the scriptures and why they are correct or errant. The appendices are especially helpful including a study of conversion in the book of Acts, studies of the Greek in Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 2:38, common misinterpretations of conversion doctrines, and what the early Christians stated about baptism.
174 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 6, 2025
4.5
The last 3/5 of the book covered arguments against baptism and the early churches stance. Which was helpful but I wish it covered more scripture supporting baptism.
But there was lots of good content covering the great commission and conversion stories with some supporting scriptures from the epistles. Stresses the important of the cross, but also the necessary response to the cross of faith + obedience
The last 3/5 of the book covered arguments against baptism and the early churches stance. Which was helpful but I wish it covered more scripture supporting baptism.
But there was lots of good content covering the great commission and conversion stories with some supporting scriptures from the epistles. Stresses the important of the cross, but also the necessary response to the cross of faith + obedience
May 27, 2018
Born of Water probably isn’t that well known outside of the International Churches of Christ, the denomination of Christianity that Mr. Geissler belongs to. The ICOC itself is a relatively unknown denomination amongst mainline evangelicals but is usually noted for its view that baptism is an essential component for salvation because of their close adherence to biblical doctrine. What Born of Water essentially represents is an apologetic defense of the ICOCs position regarding baptism. Mr. Geissler seeks not only to explain why this interpretation of scripture is correct but how the leaders of early Christianity held this view.
If you’re familiar with apologetic literature then you’ll notice that this book contains much of the same features as other volumes in the genre. There is plenty of quotation from scripture, discussion about the meaning of words in Greek, history, and quotations from primary sources that are outside of the Bible. What all of this ends up building towards is a case study in what Biblical conversion looks like. Born of Water goes through the book of Acts and examines the conversions that take place as a way to begin build its case. What Mr. Geissler explains through this brief study is that baptism is part of a pattern of salvation because it’s never not mentioned in the eleven instances in which people were converted, through this it becomes implied that it is a core component in the salvation process.
This logic becomes further established through an analysis towards Paul’s epistles in the New Testament. Mr. Geissler pulls plenty of quotes from Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, and just about every nook and cranny of the New Testament to support his thesis. Pastoral Epistles aren’t story telling in the way that Acts is and instead are discussions on theology and doctrine so they serve as a much better intellectual example of what the very earliest leaders in the Church believed baptism represented. Among these quotations Mr. Geissler uses there are a few that stand out like Romans 6: 1-7 that go to great lengths to explain how baptism cleanses one of their sins and adds them to the Church. In my mind its these quotations from scripture that do much more to drive home the authors point than anything else.
At the very end Mr. Geissler pulls a lot of quotations from the early church leaders who lived at the tail end as well as just after the apostolic age. Pretty much all of these selections of the early leader’s writings confirm the purpose of the book and agree with one another, demonstrating a type of unity that hasn’t been seen in the Christian church since the reformation. Mr. Geissler puts together the case for baptism very well through the different sections of the book and brings his point home through these quotations from the early leaders, but Born of Water isn’t without it’s problems. In the first few chapters Mr. Geissler pulls a lot of quotes from the Gospels and Jesus. I found that the interpretations of these verses that Mr. Geissler puts forth don’t tend to line up with what the verse is actually talking about, Jesus didn’t spend a lot of time talking about the theological implications of baptism outside of his conversation with Nicodemus so most of the verses chosen aren’t even necessary to the overall point of the book. I found myself becoming doubtful of the author’s intellectual accuracy early on because of these missteps, and the risk to reward ratio of including these sections in the book just isn’t worth it.
Secondly, the book isn’t particularly long and its not as if the author had a lack of access to material on this subject. Given the fact that the actual argument being made in the book can be driven home by a few quotations from Paul and Jesus the actual theological argument can be put forth in something the size of a pamphlet, this ends up sort of undercutting the purpose of publishing an entire book on the subject. Everything an author does in their work has to have a justification and that certainly includes the reason for writing the piece in the first place, there was a section in the forward in which Mr. Geissler explains that he really wasn’t sure where to start on writing the book, and I think that explains why the book is so short. It was clear that he wanted to write something on the subject of baptism so other people could read it, but he wasn’t quite sure what to do when it came to its content. As a result, there is a lot of overlap where you essentially read the same arguments repeated over and over, just in different phrasing.
As I stated above, baptism is not an issue in Christianity that suffers from a lack of insight or information on the topic. The Water that Divides is quite a famous book within Christianity about the debate surrounding infant baptism versus adult baptism and it scrutinizes the positions using the New Testament, the same could easily be done here in regards to whether or not baptism is necessary for salvation. It could have been a book that traced the change in attitude from the early church to the word of faith and sinner’s prayer movements that began at the turn of the twentieth century, instead it settles for very little content.
If you’d like to invest the time to read the book then you’ll find that the information is quite good, and its well-reasoned. However, there are plenty of resources on the internet where you can get the same information without taking the time the read a book. I would say that above anything else Born of Water shows its value through the use of quotations by early Church leaders in the appendix, it’s a resource that one can easily draw on for discussion and debate when looking for primary sources about baptism other than the Bible. In the end it’s a solid book, but I’m not so sure that it had to be written.
If you’re familiar with apologetic literature then you’ll notice that this book contains much of the same features as other volumes in the genre. There is plenty of quotation from scripture, discussion about the meaning of words in Greek, history, and quotations from primary sources that are outside of the Bible. What all of this ends up building towards is a case study in what Biblical conversion looks like. Born of Water goes through the book of Acts and examines the conversions that take place as a way to begin build its case. What Mr. Geissler explains through this brief study is that baptism is part of a pattern of salvation because it’s never not mentioned in the eleven instances in which people were converted, through this it becomes implied that it is a core component in the salvation process.
This logic becomes further established through an analysis towards Paul’s epistles in the New Testament. Mr. Geissler pulls plenty of quotes from Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, and just about every nook and cranny of the New Testament to support his thesis. Pastoral Epistles aren’t story telling in the way that Acts is and instead are discussions on theology and doctrine so they serve as a much better intellectual example of what the very earliest leaders in the Church believed baptism represented. Among these quotations Mr. Geissler uses there are a few that stand out like Romans 6: 1-7 that go to great lengths to explain how baptism cleanses one of their sins and adds them to the Church. In my mind its these quotations from scripture that do much more to drive home the authors point than anything else.
At the very end Mr. Geissler pulls a lot of quotations from the early church leaders who lived at the tail end as well as just after the apostolic age. Pretty much all of these selections of the early leader’s writings confirm the purpose of the book and agree with one another, demonstrating a type of unity that hasn’t been seen in the Christian church since the reformation. Mr. Geissler puts together the case for baptism very well through the different sections of the book and brings his point home through these quotations from the early leaders, but Born of Water isn’t without it’s problems. In the first few chapters Mr. Geissler pulls a lot of quotes from the Gospels and Jesus. I found that the interpretations of these verses that Mr. Geissler puts forth don’t tend to line up with what the verse is actually talking about, Jesus didn’t spend a lot of time talking about the theological implications of baptism outside of his conversation with Nicodemus so most of the verses chosen aren’t even necessary to the overall point of the book. I found myself becoming doubtful of the author’s intellectual accuracy early on because of these missteps, and the risk to reward ratio of including these sections in the book just isn’t worth it.
Secondly, the book isn’t particularly long and its not as if the author had a lack of access to material on this subject. Given the fact that the actual argument being made in the book can be driven home by a few quotations from Paul and Jesus the actual theological argument can be put forth in something the size of a pamphlet, this ends up sort of undercutting the purpose of publishing an entire book on the subject. Everything an author does in their work has to have a justification and that certainly includes the reason for writing the piece in the first place, there was a section in the forward in which Mr. Geissler explains that he really wasn’t sure where to start on writing the book, and I think that explains why the book is so short. It was clear that he wanted to write something on the subject of baptism so other people could read it, but he wasn’t quite sure what to do when it came to its content. As a result, there is a lot of overlap where you essentially read the same arguments repeated over and over, just in different phrasing.
As I stated above, baptism is not an issue in Christianity that suffers from a lack of insight or information on the topic. The Water that Divides is quite a famous book within Christianity about the debate surrounding infant baptism versus adult baptism and it scrutinizes the positions using the New Testament, the same could easily be done here in regards to whether or not baptism is necessary for salvation. It could have been a book that traced the change in attitude from the early church to the word of faith and sinner’s prayer movements that began at the turn of the twentieth century, instead it settles for very little content.
If you’d like to invest the time to read the book then you’ll find that the information is quite good, and its well-reasoned. However, there are plenty of resources on the internet where you can get the same information without taking the time the read a book. I would say that above anything else Born of Water shows its value through the use of quotations by early Church leaders in the appendix, it’s a resource that one can easily draw on for discussion and debate when looking for primary sources about baptism other than the Bible. In the end it’s a solid book, but I’m not so sure that it had to be written.
February 21, 2016
A very clear and thorough discussion of one of the most important and misunderstood components of salvation.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews