Does Jimmy Dunn Teach Baptismal Regeneration?

Last updated on: September 22, 2017 at 1:21 pm by Kermit Zarley

Does Jimmy Dunn Teach Baptismal Regeneration? 2017-09-22T13:21:47-07:00 Kermit Zarley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

James (Jimmy) D. G. Dunn is a Methodist, a moderate Evangelical, a distinguished New Testament scholar now retired, a very cordial person, and my friend. His doctoral dissertation became his first book, published in 1970. It is entitled Baptism in the Holy Spirit: A Re-examination of the New Testament Teaching on the Gift of the Spirit in relation to Pentecostalism today. In this book, I don’t think Jimmy is clear on whether or not he subscribes to baptismal regeneration, though I would say he seems to do so. In a later book about the Spirit, he does not subscribe to baptismal regeneration.

Here are Jimmy’s statements in Baptism that seem to me to endorse baptismal regeneration:

To me, Jimmy’s coined term “conversion-initiation” and his explanation of it, on p. 7, seem to indicate baptismal regeneration.
Jimmy says, “Baptism as an act eis to onoma Iesou Christou is man’s way of accepting God’s offer of salvation and of ‘clinching the bargain’ with God. When we look for God’s means of effect in salvation we find them in the Spirit and the gospel. We can therefore say that he [the Holy Spirit] is the vehicle of God’s saving grace as baptism is the vehicle of man’s saving faith” (p. 120). Well, Jimmy says if a person does not have the Spirit she/he is not saved. It must be concluded from the last clause in this statement that if a person has not been water baptized, she/he is not saved. I would say of Jimmy’s first sentence here that a person accepting God’s offer of salvation is by faith, and water baptism is merely an expression of that faith in which water baptism symbolizes Jesus’ death and our cleansing from sin—God’s forgiveness.
Dunn says, “The popular idea that conversion precedes baptism, and that baptism is a confession of a commitment made some time previously is not to be found in the NT” (p. 214). But in Acts people believed and right afterwards were baptized because they had repented/believed (Ac 2.38-41; 10.44-48; 16.31-33).
Jimmy says, “The second mistake of the Pentecostal is that he has followed the Protestant in his separation of faith from water-baptism. Conversion is for him Spirit-engendered faith reaching out to ‘receive or accept Jesus,’ so that a man is a Christian before his water-baptism. This may well accord with present Baptist practice, but it is not the NT pattern. The NT writers would to a man reject any separation of the decisive movement of faith (pisteusai) from baptism, either by way of putting the act of faith prior to baptism, thereby reducing baptism to a mere symbol,… Baptism properly performed is for the NT essentially the act of faith and repentance—the actualization of saving faith without which, usually, commitment to Jesus as Lord does not come to its necessary expression. As the Spirit is the vehicle of saving grace, so baptism is the vehicle of saving faith” (pp. 2226-27). In my book, Solving the Samaritan Riddle, I tell of my being saved and baptized twenty-two years, and I explain why this abnormality happened.

James Dunn soon wrote another significant book entitled Unity and Diversity: An Inquiry into the Character of Earliest Christianity. It was published in 1977, with a second edition in 1990 (the issue to which I refer here). In contrast with Baptism, I don’t think Jimmy says anything in Unity and Diversity that causes readers to think he subscribes to baptismal regeneration. Sometimes, he seems to write against the idea of baptismal regeneration without using this terminology. Numerous times in his section on water baptism (pp. 152-161), Dunn describes it as an “expression” or “expressing” of “faith” or “repentance and faith,” that is, conversion without saying “conversion” as the following reveal (emphasis his):

“water-baptism … is best understood as the expression of the faith” (p. 5).
“Baptism gives expression to faith,… It is false to say that water-baptism conveys, confers or effects forgiveness of sins…. it is the faith and repentance which receives the forgiveness,… In other words, water-baptism is neither the sole preliminary nor in itself an essential preliminary to receiving forgiveness” (p. 97).
“the attention which theologians have devoted to water-baptism … is to be regretted” (p. 102).
On Paul he says, “baptism is not at the heart of his salvation strategy … baptism had no indispensable role and only the gospel mattered” (pp. 119-20). Here Jimmy clearly rejects baptismal regeneration for Paul, and he quotes 1 Cor 1.14.
“If the NT is to be our rule, therefore, the rite of water baptism may not be given the central role in conversion-initiation. It symbolizes the spiritual cleansing” (p. 228).
Concerning “the first Christian baptisms … Baptism was an expression of repentance and faith” (p. 155).
Concerning “earliest Christian baptism … the first Christians … needed a tangible way of expressing faith” (p. 156).
“baptism did not serve as the expression or channel of God’s action” (p. 156).
“Christian baptism remained primarily the expression of man’s action (repentance/faith) towards God” (p. 157).
“Paul clearly thinks of baptismal immersion as symbolizing burial with Christ;… as symbolizing death and burial … baptism, symbolizing burial for Paul” (p. 158).
“Paul did not give to baptism the role which circumcision played in the Judaism of his time…. he argues against a ritualism without reality, but not in favor of a ritualism with reality” (p. 159).
“It was circumcision of the heart, not baptism, which had replaced the ritual act of old Israel,” referring to circumcision (p. 160).
“baptism is … the means of expressing commitment to Jesus as Lord” (p. 160).
“baptism was still the expression of man’s faith” (p. 160).
Concerning “infant baptism,” in the church “the chief means of accomplishing regeneration for so many centuries has had so little foothold in the NT” (p. 160).
“a primary function of baptism throughout the first decades of Christianity was to serve as a means of expressing the initiate’s faith and commitment” (p. 160).
“the new covenant equivalent of old covenant circumcision is the circumcision of the heart, the gift of the Spirit, not baptism; and membership of the new covenant is through faith in Christ Jesus, not natural descent” (p. 161).

The difference in the two books seems to regard Jimmy’s use of the words “conversion” and “forgiveness.” I view conversion as an inner transformation that occurs when people repent of their sins and believe in Jesus. God then immediately forgives them. Water baptism necessarily occurs afterwards. It symbolizes Jesus’ death with which the baptisand associates. So, baptism is a physical act that serves as a testimony to the baptisand’s inner faith in Jesus’ sacrificial death for his/her sins.

Book Reviews

Baptismal Regeneration

Christian conversion

James D. G. Dunn

Previous Post

September 18, 2017

Will God Ever Disband His Angelic Army?

Next Post

September 23, 2017 Paul Casey Leads the TOUR Championship

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Angels Billy Graham Blog Description Book Reviews Christian Living Christianity Christology Church History Current Events Deity of Christ? Disarmament Eschatology Evangelicalism Ezekiel 38-39 Film Reviews God Golf Gospel Harmonization Health History Holy Spirit Incarnation? Interview Islam Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Jesus Last Empire Literary Announcements Major Championship Winners Masters Monotheism My Books New Testament Old Testament Politics Primitive Weapons Ryder Cup Science Society of Biblical Literature The Bible The Restitution of Jesus Christ Trinitarianism Trinity? Uncategorized Unconditional Love? War on Terrorism

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does "Beersheba" mean?

Select your answer to see how you score.

House of the King Blessed Field Valley of Water Well of the Oath

Books by This Author Books by Kermit Zarley Blog

See All Titles »