Our Lord Jesus Christ is recorded to have said in Luke 7:28: “Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist…”

A good number of professed students of the Scriptures do not share the opinion of Christ as to John the Baptist. Rather than being a blessing to some religious groups, John is a burden. He is a problem to Pedobaptists and ultra-dispensationalists. Non-denominationalists do not care for him. All these seem to relegate John to the background, to put him in the Old Testament dispensation, to deny his baptism was Christian baptism. But serious readers of the sacred Scripture cannot do this. Christ said John was the greatest born of women, the greatest of all prophets. Dare we make him any less than Jesus Christ did? God forbid.

The Gospels make it clear that John was the first New Testament Baptist. He was not John the Mormon or John the Methodist. He was not John the Catholic or John the Campbellite. Rather, he was John the Baptist. God was the first one to call John “the Baptist” (Matt. 3:1), and this makes the name Baptist a heavenly name. He was not called the Baptist because he baptized, for God called him “the Baptist” before he preached or baptized in the Jordan in Matthew 3:1. John was his proper name; the Baptist was the title of his office and expressed his mission into the world.

No one was called a Baptist before John, and he is so called 15 times in the New Testament. John’s friends called him such four times (Matt. 16:14; Mark 8:28; Luke 7:20; 9:19), and his foes so denominated him five times (Matt. 14:2,8; Mark 6:14,24,25). The Christ of God gave him this appellation five times (Matt. 11:11,12; 17:13; Luke 7:28,33) and the Holy Spirit called him such once (Matt. 3:1). John was called a Baptist because of the work he was sent to do.

The first Baptist made and baptized disciples (John 4:1). He refused to baptize those who had no fruits answerable to amendment of life (Matt. 3:8). John did not baptize in order to make disciples. Jesus authorized the twelve and the seventy to baptize disciples (John 4:1-2). Before leaving this world Christ commissioned His church to make disciples and baptize until He returns. We are called Baptists today for the same reason that John was. Jesus has sent us to make disciples and to baptize these disciples.