Immersionists: The Only Real Ministers!

Did you know that the Presbyterian theologian R. L. Dabney admitted in his Systematic Theology that he was not a member of the visible church and that Immersionists (those who baptize by immersion) are the only real ministers in the world?

He sure did!

It's in black and white in chapter 41 (p.774)!

I have the volume open and I'm looking at it right now with my own two eyes!

Here's exactly what he says:

"Again: it is preposterous that a man should receive and hold office in a commonwealth where he himself has no citizenship; but this unimmersed paedobaptist minister so called, is no member of any visible Church. There are no real ministers in the world, except the Immersionist preachers! The pretensions of all others, therefore, to act as ministers, and to administer the sacraments, are sinful intrusions."

What a shocking admission, eh?

Don't you see the obvious implications here?!!

Dabney is admitting that paedobaptists -himself included- are not members of the visible church! He plainly states that unless you are an immersionist, you are no true minister of Christ! He even confesses that it's sinful for paedobaptists to even act as a ministers or administer sacraments!!!

Okay, okay... Let me stop now. I've been deceiving you! (sorry!)

While these are Dabney's words, they actually lack the full context of what he was saying. What I did was "quote mine" R.L. Dabney's book in such a way as to show him saying that paedobaptists are not part of the visible church! Something I assure you R.L. Dabney would've never taught. Anyone well acquainted with Dabney would know this, but a novice or someone unfamiliar with the Dabney might actually fall for the gimmick.

What I want to demonstrate is that even though someone may cite an author -and provide chapter and page number as well- it is always helpful to check their sources (if possible) and see if what they are quoting is in context and if it's what the cited author was trying to convey in his work. I have encountered this ploy a number of times in the blogosphere. It happens not only with authors, but with Scripture as well. (And I imagine we've all been guilty of it to one degree or another!)

Either through ignorance or by design, not everything we see someone quote in an article may in context or being interpreted how the original author intended it to be understood. We must be careful not allow ourselves to be duped by selective citing and quote mining.

The fact is, a person can make a heretic out of just about anyone by ripping their words out of context. When citing something in an article or reading something that has been cited, remember: context is essential!

Now, what exactly was Dabney saying above?

Well, it certainly wasn't what I tried to make you think at first! Below is the entire argument in full context -with emphasis added to the sentences I took out of context above so you can see how I misused his words!

"The odious ecclesiastical consequences of the Immersionist dogma should be pressed; because they form a most potent and just argument against it. All parties are agreed, that baptism is the initiatory rite which gives membership in the visible Church of Christ. The great commission was: Go, and disciple all nations, baptizing them into the Trinity. Baptism recognizes and constitutes the outward discipleship. Least of all, can any Immersionist dispute this ground. Now, if all other forms of baptism than immersion are not only irregular, but null and void, all unimmersed persons are out of the visible Church. But if each and every member of a pedobaptist visible Church is thus unchurched: of course the whole body is unchurched. All pedobaptist societies, then, are guilty of an intrusive errors when they pretend to the character of a visible Church of Christ. Consequently, they can have no ministry; and this for several reasons. Surely no valid office can exist in an association whose claim to be an ecclesiastical commonwealth is utterly invalid. When the temple is non existent, there can be no actual pillars to that temple. How can an unauthorized herd of unbaptized persons, to whom Christ concedes no church authority, confer any valid office? Again: it is preposterous that a man should receive and hold office in a commonwealth where he himself has no citizenship; but this unimmersed pedobaptist minister so called, is no member of any visible Church. There are no real ministers in the world, except the Immersionist preachers!

The pretensions of all others, therefore, to act as ministers, and to administer the sacraments, are sinful intrusions. It is hard to see how any intelligent and conscientious Immersionist can do any act, which countenances or sanctions this profane intrusion. They should not allow any weak inclinations of fraternity and peace to sway their consciences in this point of high principle. They are bound, then, not only to practice close communion, but to refuse all ministerial recognition and communion to these intruders. The sacraments cannot go beyond the pale of the visible Church. Hence, the same stern denunciations ought to be hurled at the Lord’s Supper in pedobaptist societies, and at all their prayers and preachings in public, as at the iniquity of "baby sprinkling." The enlightened Immersionist should treat all these societies, just as he does that ’Synagogue of Satan,’ the Papal Church: there may be many good, misguided believers in them; but no church character, ministry, nor sacraments whatever.

But let the student now look at the enormity of this conclusion. Here are bodies of ministers adorned by the Lord with as many gifts and graces as any Immersionists; actually doing the largest part of all that is done on earth, to win the world to its divine Master. Here are four fifths of Protestant Christendom, exhibiting as many of the solid fruits of grace as any body of men in the world, doing nearly all that is done for man’s redemption, and sending up to heaven a constant harvest of ransomed souls. Yet are they not churches or ministers, at all: Why? Only because they have not used quite enough water in the outward form of an ordinance! What greater outrage on common sense, Christian charity, and the spirituality of Christ’s visible Church was ever committed by the bigotry of prelacy or popery? The just mind replies to such a dogma, not only with a firm negative, but with the righteous indignation of an incredulus odi. When we remember, that this extreme high churchism is enacted by a sect, which calls itself eminently spiritual, free and Protestant, the solecism becomes more repulsive. Only a part of the Immersionists have the nerve to assert this consequence. But their dogma involves it; and it is justly pressed on all."

(R.L. Dabney, Systematic Theology p.774)