Another rationale for infant baptism is the analogy drawn by Paul to circumcision.
Circumcision was performed on infants, as a mark of their membership in the Jewish community. Then at the point of the bar mitzvah, the person becomes an adult member of the communitry.
Baptism is similar. In my tradition (ELCA Lutheran), infants are baptized into membership in the Church and thereby become part of the Body of Christ. Then, after receiving the “instruction in the Christian faith” promised by the parents and sponsors in the ceremony of baptism, they make public affirmation of their faith (it used to be called “confirmation”) and become adult members of the Church.
We also baptize by pouring water on the infant’s head instead of total immersion.
Other traditions can differ from mine without being wrong.
Not really sure, but the biblical example appears to be immersion. I doubt that I’d feel I’d been baptized if I was just sprinkled. But some aren’t able due to handicaps or whatever so perhaps sprinkling is valid in that case. Also, I’ll give some of my thoughts on infant baptism. I lean toward the belief that it’s not necessary, but perhaps there’s nothing wrong in doing it in that it represents the parents intentions to bring the child up in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord”. Babies can’t make a decision for Christ obviously but neither do I believe they are lost. I may not exactly know what will happen concerning them but I know God will do what’s right, that’s really all I need to know.
My church (Evangelical Anglican, with a distinct emphasis on the first of those words) views baptism as a sign of your commitment to Christ, and of turning away from your old life. So it makes sense to do it as an adult, because you can’t really make that sort of decision for your child - you can only try to bring them up right, and hope for the best. The key Bible verses on the matter would be the ones in Acts and so forth, where there’s a number of instances of one-or-other group who “Believed and were baptised”. The believing and the baptising go hand in hand.
Having said that, there’s no officially enforced policy on infant baptism … my WAG would be that about half of parents deliberately don’t baptise their kids so that they’ll have the opportunity to make their own decision later, and half do get their kids dunked.
As for methods, my own feeling would be “the more water the better”. John used the River Jordan, after all. My cousin-in-law got baptised recently in a swimming pool. We have a bath, but it’s really not big enough if you’re more than about 5" tall.
I don’t think of baptism as a magic Get Out Of Hell Free Card - more as a matter of obedience. If Jesus showed by his example that he thought baptism was A Good Thing and we are trying to follow his example as much as possible, then obviously we ought to be baptised too … and stick as closely to the biblical models as makes sense in our society. But like Shodan said:
I’m with you, Aspidistra, and I will say it one more time.
Steve Wright has already said a lot about the way Anglican church handles baptism, but I can’t resist adding my bit. Last weekend, I was re-reading Ellis Peter’s The Heretic’s Apprentice which dealt a bit with baptism, so it’s been on my mind. Yes, it’s fiction, but it fits with my knowledge of history. If I’m wrong, someone please correct me. The doctrine of Original Sin has been around since the early middle ages. That states that since the Fall of Adam, all people are sinful, and they cannot be redeemed/get into heaven without Christ’s grace. Infants were baptized as young as possible so that they could be saved. One of the heresies in the book I mentioned is believing that unbaptized children would still be admitted to heaven.
Getting back to the present day, I’ve got my Episcopal Book of Common Prayer next to me, so let me first quote the official policy on Baptism from the Articles of Religion
What I take all this to mean is baptizing anyone is welcoming that person into the Fellowship of Christ, specifically the Anglican/Episcopalian one. Children born to Episcopalian families are usually baptized shortly after birth, but adult converts to Episcopalianism are also baptized. It’s usually done as part of an ordinary Sunday morning church service, during which the entire congregation welcomes the new 'Piscy into the church and vows to support him in her Baptismal vows. God parents are supposed to be chosen to help support the parents in raising children within their faith. In practice, they’re more likely to be good friends or a sibling of the parents. Since for us baptism is symbolic, we do sprinkle, but believe me, for some babies, sprinkling is enough! Actually, I’ve sometimes wondered what it must be like for the poor kid to be picked up by a stranger and have water sprinkled on you (and mind you, some of them are sleeping up until this point!). We use ordinary tap water for the baptism, but it’s blessed as part of the service. One touch a former priest of mine did was adding some water from the Jordan River to the water in the font. I particularly like this.
Conscious affirmation of one’s faith in Christ is done at a ceremony called “Confirmation” in which you repeat your Baptismal vows of your own free will. Since there are classes leading up to this, I think the idea is that you also know what you’re getting into. I was confirmed at 11 or 12, and it was a very important and moving sacrament.
In addition to baptizing adult converts to the Episcopal church, the is also an option for Reaffirmation of Vows. This is optional, not required, but 9 years ago, after undergoing a health crisis and some major changes, I did do this quietly on a Wednesday morning, because I felt the need to reaffirm my formal commitment to Christ.
Here’s one thing I’d like to throw out to the Teeming Millions. A friend of mine who’s now a fellow Episcopalian spent a lot of years living down South and was a Southern Baptist for years. At one point, she changed churches while remaining within the same denomination. Nevertheless, her new congregation insisted she be re-baptized. I get the impression that she and her pastor thought this was rather foolish and unnecessary, but, for the sake of the people she’d be going to church with, she did it. Just to make this clear, this is not intended to be dergatory, but we both found it curious. Comments anyone?
Hmm, well I can tell you that I was baptized twice. Since I wasn’t really saved the first time I decided to bet baptized again later when someone else was doing it, otherwise I might not have thought of it. Wish I could remembe more details but it was a long time ago and my memory isn’t real good anymore. If she was a true born again Christian the first time she was baptized I don’t see a need for a second baptism, nor do I see anything wrong with it if she wants to do it.
I think being baptized when coming into the new church has to do with a couple of things:
most religions consider themselves to be THE religion/way
so, previous baptisms didn’t really count because the converted hadn’t found the way yet and now can really be cleansed.
any large change of life requires a ceremony, and usually some sort of celebration to commemorate said change, this is how it becomes an institution, and thus reality
I think people underestimate the power of making a promise in front of god and everyone while wearing your nicest clothes,
In fact, the kinship/community aspect of religion is the most powerful. Since we don’t really know anything about god, and “faith” is really a construction, it’s community that is the real strength of the church.
Being a part of anything is a huge motivator for human behavior, if it can have the added benefit of eternal peace, with some aspects of parental support, moral guidance, GREAT!
sorry if this hijacks the thread in any way
In some churches, baptisim has become the rite of adult membership in the same way the confirmation has for the Anglican church. A person from another church (or branch of the same church, according to cjhoworth’s story) needs to get re-baptised since baptisim (in that church) is required for membership.
Many Christians would see this as more than just unnecessary, quoting Ephesians 4 as justification of that view:
Having said that, the priest at our church will allow candidates that join the church to undergo a “reaffirmation of baptimal vows with immersion into water” rite, should they wish to, which seems to me to be so much fancy footwork…
I can’t speak for the other religions, but this isn’t true for the Catholics. As long as the form of the baptism was valid (basically done with water, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost), it’s assumed you’re in. New Catholics do have to go through Confirmation, tho.
Pretty darn sure it doesn’t apply to the Church of England, either… baptism welcomes you into the universal, small-“c”-catholic Church, not just a particular denomination.
[tangent]As I understand it, in fact, you remain baptised even if you’re excommunicated, don’t you? Excommunication means you’re not allowed to receive sacraments, but has no effect on those you’ve already received. Not that I know any more about excommunication than any other Protestant.[/tangent]
OTOH, I’d guess that the Baptists (Southern or otherwise) are particularly concerned with the nature of the ceremony… do we have any Baptists who would care to enlighten us on the matter? walor?
First off… the term Baptist here in the UK can mean different things. My particular church retains the Baptist title, but as I mentioned earlier, I’d describe us more as Evangelical Pentecostals.
We need to have been baptised to become a church member (although attendance at our church and church functions is not restricted to members only), but it doesn’t matter that the baptism may have taken place elsewhere. More important is that you have accepted Jesus as saviour had have declared this publically during a baptism service.
[slight deflection]However, a childhood Christening would not be considered in the same sense as an adult baptism… and so in my personal case, I was baptised five years ago, even though I was Christened 51 years ago (age 1).[/slight deflection]
I know that the Southern Baptists are different again. Indeed, I’m sure that even Billy Graham was baptised three times as he moved churches (someone may be able to confirm/correct this).
I’m an atheist myself, but was raised in the church of Christ, so I can speak to their views on the subject.
The churches of Christ view baptism as an essential element to salvation.
Several Biblical passages are cited in support of the proposition:
Because an element of understanding and commitment is involved, baptism is only believed to be a requirement for those old enough to understand its significance. (In other words, young children get a free pass into heaven.)
Oh and in response to the argument about the thief on the cross (he was not baptized, but Jesus promised him heaven): the churches of Christ take the position that Jesus was not dead yet, and so baptism was not yet a requirement (baptism being viewed as a symbolic burial and resurrection, commemmorative of the death and resurrection of Jesus). Cite:
These are also cited as an argument that immersion (i.e. burial) is required.
First off… the term Baptist here in the UK can mean different things. My particular church retains the Baptist title, but as I mentioned earlier, I’d describe us more as Evangelical Pentecostals.
We need to have been baptised to become a church member (although attendance at our church and church functions is not restricted to members only), but it doesn’t matter that the baptism may have taken place elsewhere. More important is that you have accepted Jesus as saviour had have declared this publically during a baptism service.
[slight deflection]However, a childhood Christening would not be considered in the same sense as an adult baptism… and so in my personal case, I was baptised five years ago, even though I was Christened 51 years ago (age 1).[/slight deflection]
I know that the Southern Baptists are different again. Indeed, I’m sure that even Billy Graham was baptised three times as he moved churches (someone may be able to confirm/correct this).
Don’t know if this helps or not but our Pastor leads us through elements of our personal testimony in front of the congregation… ‘How we came to Christ’. He then asks us to explain why we wish to be baptised and asks us to assert that we repent of our sins and accept Jesus as our saviour. That done, we enter the bath where an elder reads a passage that he has chosen for us and he then performs the baptism. As we exit, the praise band plays our chosen hymn/song and the congregation join in (heartily I might add).
In this sense, every individual’s ceremony is slightly different in its content and format… however the underlying principles are constant.
Oh yeah and the story of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40) is also used as an example of how early Christians practiced baptism by immersion. From that story:
…though the churches of Christ don’t do the whole O Brother Where Art Thou? down-into-the-river thing. They generally just have a nice big tank of chlorinated water behind the pulpit.
Actually, I’ve sometimes wondered what it must be like for the poor kid to be picked up by a stranger and have water sprinkled on you (and mind you, some of them are sleeping up until this point!). We use ordinary tap water for the baptism, but it’s blessed as part of the service. One touch a former priest of mine did was adding some water from the Jordan River to the water in the font. I particularly like this.