The "Plunge"

The apostle Paul had an explosive encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus - after he was saved, he didn't immediately go on a some sort of "synagogue tour" and speak to the masses. Now, as he relates in Galatians 1:
15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace,
16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,
17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days.
19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother.

In fact, word of Paul's conversion spread, but not by him, he writes later in the chapter. This can speak to us about the importance of spiritual preparation.

These days, baptism has become quite popular.  There have been a number of mass baptisms in recent days, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.  At college campuses, students have been baptized in lakes, fountains, and in the backs of pickup trucks. 

And, in the midst of the baptismal trend, it's helpful, I think, to recognize what baptism actually means. It's more than just a ritual or an act of superstition.  It's not a good-luck charm.  It's a visible expression of the change in the human heart through salvation by the power of Jesus Christ.  Our past lives have been washed away, and we are new creatures in Him.

Russell Brand is quite a piece of work - he's an actor who has gone public with his spiritual search. Recently, according to Fox News.com, he announced he would be "taking the plunge," i.e., getting baptized, and he followed through.  The Daily Mail reported on May 3:

Russell Brand announced this week that he has become a Christian, and was baptised last weekend. The Apostle Paul was baptised in Damascus whereupon the 'scales fell from his eyes' and his blindness was cured. The disgraced comedian's experience was apparently rather more prosaic: he says he was fully immersed in the notoriously dirty River Thames.

The Mail has learnt that the embattled Brand's spiritual rebirth — if that is what it is — has been mirrored by an upturn in his earthly fortunes. Thames Valley Police has closed its investigation into allegations by a woman that he stalked and harassed her between 2018 and 2022.

The article went on to say:

He told his four million Instagram followers that his baptism was an 'incredible and profound experience'.

He said: 'This is my path now. And I already feel incredibly blessed, relieved, nourished, held.'

However, Brand, whose wife Laura (daughter of golfer Bernard Gallacher) is Catholic, was strangely vague about into which church he has been received.

And one would have thought any cleric baptising as notorious a delinquent as Brand — who has spoken openly about his previous womanising and drug use — wouldn't hesitate to say so. But investigations by the Mail around Brand's home near Marlow, on the Thames in Buckinghamshire, found that nobody, even from a church he has attended, could offer any clue as to who baptised him or where.

Now, if Brand has indeed received Christ as His Savior, we still recognize that he is a baby Christian in sore need of discipleship.  The Daily Mail reported:

Anglican churches sometimes perform river baptisms including in the Thames, as do Pentecostal ones. According to Brand, he plucked petals from a flower to decide which church would baptise him, reciting: 'Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Pentecostal...'

A river baptism sounds like classic Brand — not for him a simple splash of water from a church font, it has to be melodramatic.

David Hoffman, writing at CBN.com, stated this:

In recent years, up until very recently, Brand has promoted many New Age ideas and philosophies across his social media platforms and hosted conferences on mediation and transcendentalism. He has also been a strong proponent of Eastern mysticism and spiritualities that are found in Buddhism and Hinduism. Many in the Christian world are split over whether his most recent baptism and conversion announcements are, in fact, sincere.

One of the biggest issues is that he is still promoting New Age ideas across his social media, and this week he promoted what practically all Christians would define as witchcraft. On April 29, 2024, the day after his baptism, he posted a video on his social media involving tarot cards. In the video, he shares about the specific meaning of the tarot card that he held in his hand and that certain symbols can serve as "tools for reflection and personal analysis." Ending the video, he asks viewers their view on synchronizing other spiritual practices with Christianity and jokingly asks if it is ok to "meddle in the occult arts."

Hoffman states, "No one expects perfection out of a new Christian. However, becoming a Christian is more than taking the plunge of baptism. When the Lord saves someone from serious spiritual error and deception, there is no way that He would allow them to continue promoting that deception to millions of followers under the guise that you can be a Christian and participate in what the Bible defines as witchcraft."

This underscores the importance of discipleship.  When a high-profile person comes into a saving knowledge of Christ, the immediate result would be for that person to take a significant amount of time to seek the Lord.  And, really, each of us needs the spiritual preparation for the ministry to which God has called us. 

That is a lifelong pursuit, if you think about it. We have been changed on the inside by the presence of Jesus and we testify to that change through water baptism.  The water isn't magical, certainly, but the transformation is supernatural, and it is amazing to see how people exhibit such great joy when they share that publicly through going into the water.  We're not saved through physical water, but we have been washed by the presence of Jesus within us, who cleanses us from sin and delivers us from our old life, bringing us into new life.