So then we come to the next one. You notice it says that the foundation here is: the Doctrine of Baptisms; so in other words, the teaching concerning baptisms is the thing that becomes the foundation in your life.
The word ‘doctrine’ just means literally ‘to teach’ or ‘to instruct’; but when we think of that, we think from a Western viewpoint. We think like this: I've got something to learn, and so I've read the book, I've got some information, that's it. But from a Hebrew point of view: doctrine was something you believed, and put into daily practice. There was no such thing, in the Hebrew culture, that doctrine and lifestyle were separated; that is a Greek concept. So when it says about the doctrine, it's talking about beliefs which you live out in your life. So the beliefs, the teaching, the insight concerning baptism, is something for you to live out daily in your life; and as you live it out, a foundation for building, a life with God, is established.
When most people read that, they overlook the word doctrine straight away; and they just think: baptism - oh I've been baptised. But when you look at their life, it's evident that they're not living with the foundation properly established. They've had an experience; but the foundation has not been properly put in their life - that's why they can't stand. So the foundation here is the teaching that surrounds baptisms - plural, more than one baptism.
So God wants us, if we're going to grow and mature and have insight, to understand: what is the teaching associated with baptism; and then embrace that insight, and begin to live that out.
Let's have a look at the word baptism first of all. Mark 4:20, and the word baptism of course is a word, when you read it, you think: baptism, oh, I don't know. I'm from the Anglicans or from the Catholics, well you take the child and you sprinkle on them - that's what baptism meant for me, when I was growing up. If you've been to Pentecostal Church, maybe you're like me, and you went down the river, and got baptised in a river, so that's what it means to you.
The word baptism is - this is what happened: King James, when he got it translated, didn't want to offend the local church of his day, so he said: don't do anything that'll upset them. So what they did was, they just translated the word Baptidso and made it Baptism - so they never really translated it. If you really want to understand what the word is, you've got to see how they used it; so in Mark 14:20 it tells us that Jesus said: “ one of the 12 who dips his finger in the water with me”. That word ‘to dip into the water’ is the word bapto, the word baptism, so “to dip into the water”. So bapto is the root from which baptism comes, It means you dip into something. It's never a sprinkling on - it's always an immersion into something.
In another scripture, Luke 16:24, the man in hell cries out: “Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and give it to me to drink, because I'm tormented”. So notice “dip the finger into water” - so it's an immersion. If a boat sank, it was bapto, it was baptised - it sank into the water. If you dye a garment, you bapto it - you put it into the dye, and it comes out changed.
So always the thinking and understanding, to a Hebrew reading, this is very, very simple: to baptise someone, is to immerse them completely into something. You are always baptised into something. So as we look at the word, and what these different baptisms are, I want you to think that you are placed into something – bapto. If you put your hand in the water, you're immersed and surrounded by water; the water has an effect on you - you get wet.