Waters of Creation: A Biblical-Theological Study of Baptism

Doug Van Dorn does it again. He brings a fresh perspective to an issue that has had the church universal in heated debate for centuries, yet he does so with truth that is as ancient as creation itself. Everyone, paedobaptists and credo Baptist’s alike, who reads this book will have to question their position from reading this Scripture-filled, Christ-exalting treatment of baptism. Thankful for this volume and again for Doug’s faithfulness to the Word of God.

I like how Van Dorn makes this click and make sense thing all the scripture together. This is a book I am going to re-read again and again.

I have "elderly" eyes and didn't realize the print would be so small. I am enjoying the book slowly as I can't read much at a time.

Van Dorn gives us insight and understanding, ultimately things to ponder and be amazed about, in particular how incredible God is. He touts this as a book about baptism, but among other things he provides great insight into the history of Temple and the Holy of holies, the very presence of God.

This is an excellent book! The arguments between paedo-baptists and credo-baptists are almost always staged on the grounds of covenant membership and mode. Van Dorn, however, appropriately and biblically reframes the entire discussion to where it should have been all along - the origin of baptism in the Old Testament. This removes the unwarranted connection of circumcision to baptism (indeed baptism predates circumcision) and rightly places OT baptism as the counterpart to NT baptism.Parts I and II are honestly worth the price of the book. In those two parts Van Dorn demonstrates how baptism is related to the various biblical sanctuaries throughout redemptive history. It is really a biblical theology of sanctuary. His chart at the end of the book graphically portraying these sanctuaries is also very helpful.In Parts III and IV he relates baptism to covenant, particularly the covenant with Levi (Malachi 2:4, 8). Most covenant theologians seem to have subsumed this under the Mosaic Covenant but Van Dorn makes the argument that we need to see it as a covenant in its own right, separate from the covenant given at Sinai. In this way baptism is related to entrance into the priesthood (Ex 29:4-5).Only have having established the OT origins of baptism does he talk about the implications for NT baptism in Part V. Aside from a few typographical errors in the text which don't take away from the books purpose, this has to be one of the best books on baptism that I have read! Definitely add this one to your library!

Finally, someone is asking the right questions! For some unfathomable reason, most of the Church seems to either disconnect New Testament baptism from the Old Testament entirely, or to connect New Testament baptism to Old Testament circumcision, which simply does not make sense. Circumcision is circumcision. Baptism is baptism. As both existed side-by-side in OT times, it is strange to conclude that with the NT, one suddenly morphed into the other. Yet paedobaptists rightly recognize that baptism is a *continuation* of something. This book makes sense of all that, and more.The argumentation is rock-solid and rooted in the Scripture, first and foremost. As in his other books, Van Dorn does a superb job of pulling out the things we *would* have seen in Scripture had we looked more closely at the Scripture itself without any of the presuppositions trained into us. He draws in additional evidence from the church fathers and from ancient commentators to demonstrate that the points he's making are not novel. There is an amazing richness here in the typology of baptism that will be appreciated by credo- and paedobaptists alike. All this is done in such a way as to be very readable (I think my middle schooler could follow this without any difficulty), and respectful toward his paedobaptist brethren.I do think the strength of the argumentation begins to weaken at the final point, where Van Dorn aims to convince us that Christian baptism is ultimately rooted in the Levitical covenant. There, in my opinion, a few inconsistencies begin to creep in, and the argument for this point does not carry the same weight as the earlier arguments do. This has the effect of leaving me somewhat unconvinced of credobaptism based on his argument (ironically, as I was credobaptist prior to reading the book). It is not solidly convincing of paedobaptism, either; this last point merely remains less developed than necessary, in my estimation, to complete the process of making everything clear.I always felt that, as the writer of Hebrews calls washings an "elementary" teaching, we must be overlooking something extremely obvious to make baptism so complicated. Getting back to the roots of baptism and how the earliest believers would have understood it does a good deal to make the doctrine once again seem elementary.