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In chapter five of Vintage Church we answer the question, "What Are Baptism and Communion?" Part of that answer can be found in these excerpts from pages 114 and 130:

By virtue of reminding us of our connection to Jesus and his people, baptism and Communion are supposed to be incredibly meaningful. In Christianity, baptism and Communion have been sacred rituals practiced for thousands of years in every culture by people who, by faith, trust in Jesus alone for their salvation. Different words are used to describe these sacred rituals. The most common term is sacrament, which refers to an outward, visible sign of an inward, invisible spiritual reality. In this sense, there are many sacraments. But most often the term is applied specifically to rites instituted by Christ for his church....

The church will stay on mission as it reflects deeply on the sacraments as gospel dramas where the Word is spoken and made visible, and where the blessings of life with the triune God brought to us through the Word made flesh, who died for our sin and rose for our new life, are lived out faithfully in the sacramental community of the Spirit to the glory of God the Father.

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In this book, Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears discuss the essentials of what it means to be a biblical church. Find out more.

Among the differences which divide Christians baptism looms very large. Unlike other doctrines and practices of the church our differences on baptism fall along a number of lines at once. We seem unable to agree on any of the following: (1) Mode of baptism. (2) Proper candidates for baptism. (3) Proper administrators for baptism. (4) Effects of baptism.

Most agree on only two things: baptism requires water, and baptism is appropriate at the outset (in some sense) of the Christian life. Apart from these marginal agreements the word "baptism" is a symbol without meaning—and this after 2000 years of use! Looked at in this way, "baptism" bears all the earmarks of a grand tragedy. No wonder a few groups have ignored it altogether.

Provocateur Extraordinaire
Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) has always provoked extreme reactions. People have found it impossible to be neutral or indifferent toward him.

Many have been provoked by his most famous sermon--arguably the most famous sermon in American history--"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Lyman Beecher's wife, for example, upon hearing the sermon read to her, exclaimed, "Dr Beecher, I shall not listen to another word of that slander on my Heavenly Father," and stormed out of the room.

In point of fact, hellfire and damnation were not Edwards' specialty. Of 1,300 extant sermons, 655 are related to eschatology or the Kingdom of God. Only 155 of those even mention damnation and hell, and most not centrally. Edwards was obsessed by God's beauty not wrath.

Oliver Wendell Holmes was another modern reader revolted by the "Sinners" sermon. "Is it possible," he wrote, "that Edwards read the text mothers love so well, `Suffer little vipers to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of God'?"