The Messiah's Baptism: Moving Beyond the Ritual Washing

The teaching that water baptism is required by the Lord for all believers is almost universal in Christian religion. Why question it? The earliest Jewish Messianic followers did, and their disputes with first-century author Tertullian (considered the Father of Latin Christianity) remain almost unknown today.

When they claimed that water baptism was no longer necessary for salvation, an angry Tertullian fought back in his treatise, On Baptism. With the full power of Rome backing him, these e...