[Uncle Chip]

Thirty five years after the death of John the apostle they were using the word baptize to mean immerse, sprinkle and pour.

Just because a word is used, doesn't mean it is used properly in accord with its meaning. And when it is used improperly, that improper useage does not change its objective meaning.

Just 10 years after the death of Christ, heretics were using the word "Christian" to describe their heresies. Did that make their heresies "Christian"?

Just because people call themselves "Christian" doesn't mean they are, and just because people call sprinkling "baptism", doesn't mean it is.

If as you say, the word has evolved, why are the two words: "baptize" and "sprinkle" defined differently in the dictionary. Why have the definitions not evolved?

The only place sprinkling means baptism is in the minds of those who want it to and who use the word improperly.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***The only place sprinkling means baptism is in the minds of those who want it to and who use the word improperly.****

Tell me, how many words in American English slang say one thing but mean something completely different.
Do you not think that the ancient speakers of Greek or Aramaic didn't have their slang also.
The word "bapize" was obviously a form of slang for "ritual cleansing".
Why else would the word "baptize" be used to refer to the Pharisees' ritual cleansing of cups.
And again, the NASB has a margin note that the Pharisees "sprinkled" (baptizo") themselves when returning from the market.

[editor-surveyor]

"The only place sprinkling means baptism is in the minds of those who want it to and who use the word improperly."

Let's peel this onion down to it's core: Sprinkling is convenient for those who wish to call their infant dedication rituals "baptisms." But we all know that the child has no understanding of the event, and thus it is not really a baptism as it is called out in the scriptures. Certainly they are not going to immerse the infant in a pool of water, and sprinkling is their only realistic option. If they did their dedications in a more scripturally affirmed way, this thread would not even exist.