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Philosophy/religion

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Christians - where do you stand on Baptism?

129 replies

harrisey · 17/09/2006 23:00

I've been a christian for 20 years. I was christened as an infant but came to faith myself at the age of 16 adn joined the church at 18. But as I have always gon to churches that do infant baptism, the question about whether i shoud be baptised as a believer never came up. Neither dh or I agree wih infant baptism and our 3 children have not been baptised. But it never seemed to be a big deal.
We have recently moved house and have chosen to go to our local Baptist church - not baecause of their stance on Baptism but because we like the style of worship, the preaching, fantastic ministry team, the childrens work is excellent etc ... I went to the evening service tonight and 3 people were being baptised. It was an amazing service and they said that it was one of the few instructions that Christ gave to his disciples "..go into all the world and make disciples of all nations baptising them in the name ..." etc. And Jesus himself was baptised.
Totally confused. Would fell a bit weird to be dunked after all this time. I dont really feel any 'need' to do it, but it does seem to be an instruction.... It is something that both dh and I have thought about on and off for a number of years.
Have any of you been naptised as an adult? Or chosen not to be for any reason? Just wondered what youthought about it.

OP posts:
Bobsdad · 19/09/2006 13:33

Aww Bloss, are you going all Hillsongs on us?

cod · 19/09/2006 13:34

Message withdrawn

cod · 19/09/2006 13:36

Message withdrawn

Blandmum · 19/09/2006 13:37

Cod, too slow, joke already done

cod · 19/09/2006 13:38

Message withdrawn

Blandmum · 19/09/2006 13:39

Nice to see some real repentance

MarsLady · 19/09/2006 13:41

Harrisey... I don't go in for the whole baby baptism thing either, what worked for us to have the babies dedicated. So instead of the whole water from the font thing we stood and publically dedicated the children to God and made a promise that we would bring them up in the Christian faith. We feel it is important for our children to make their own choices, but obviously we would want them to become Christians and and it is our lifestyle it is something that they get to see, warts and all!

We spoke to the Vicar at our church and he was happy for that to happen. We've had some lovely services for each of the children. hth

(I confess to not having read the thread so don't know what it is that you have decided).

housemum · 19/09/2006 14:17

Sorry haven't had time to read the whole of the thread, but here goes my view:

  • I believe in infant baptism as a way of including that child in the Church family that you are bringing them up in
  • The children cannot speak for themselves, that's why theor godparents acknowledge their responsibilities, but that is the point of confirmation, to acknowledge when you are ready the belief that you are a member of the Church

my 13 year old was confirmed last year because she felt ready for it and understood what it meant. She was in a class ranging from 11 to adult, depending on when people felt ready. Both children were baptised as babies.

(The 3 year old is fascinated by religion which is quite sweet - particularly in a Communion service when she asked me in a v loud voice, "what's in God's sandwich" as she saw the bread being blessed!!! )

bloss · 19/09/2006 21:56

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Waswondering · 19/09/2006 22:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

bobsmum · 19/09/2006 23:52

Argh flags....

our previous church liked flags, or rather about 3 people in our previous church liked flags and I think we were all meant to like them too - made you more holy if you waved them in people's faces. That's the impression I got . Ours were silver lamee (eurgh).

housemum · 20/09/2006 00:29

Have never heard of flags but please, noooooo. I still find it hard to deal with the Peace - at old but welcoming Church I used to go to you would politely shake hands etc with the people either side of you and possibly in front or behind. Now I keep expecting a conga to break out as people spend 5 minutes going to everyone and having a chat on the way - wait till coffee, can't you??!!

PS please don't think I'm an old stick-in-the-mud - I love the modern hymns, fine with clapping so long as it's not half-hearted & wishy-washy. not so sure about the hand-in-the-air-while-looking-pained/stressed bit but hey that's OK if it floats your boat.

harrisey · 20/09/2006 12:56

bloss -I am afraid Hillsongs might well have something to do with it.

OP posts:
bobsmum · 20/09/2006 15:28

Couldn't resist sorry

Flagworship.com

Much silvery gold shinyness

Waswondering · 20/09/2006 15:29

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

bobsmum · 20/09/2006 15:30

Click on the Flag store - there's one for all the family!!

texasrose · 20/09/2006 16:09

I was particularly tickled by the his and hers flags...!

harrisey · 20/09/2006 18:19

This thread is definitely degenerating!!

OP posts:
harrisey · 20/09/2006 18:23

But the family kit has enough flags for the whole Harrisey family ,,,oh no! ....Mr Harrisey .... don't go ......

OP posts:
alexsmum · 20/09/2006 18:26

sorry haven't read all the thread but just the op. isn't this the point of confirmation, to renew the vows that were made on your behalf as a baby?
why not just get confirmed?

roisin · 20/09/2006 18:27

Very funny flag site - thanks for that.
I can appreciate that for certain people waving a flag around a bit might be fun, but a "life-changing DVD" ..?!

starshaker · 20/09/2006 18:54

i personally dont believe in baptisim in a baby as they have no idea whats going on. being baptised is about acknolaging that you have died to the world and you are being buried with jesus and raising as a new person ready to keep walking with god. you need to BELIEVE that jesus was the son of god and he died for your sins and rose 3 days later. an infant cant do this.

i was baptised at the age of 15 and it was my choice because i felt thats what god wanted me to do.

harrisey · 20/09/2006 19:40

Been thinking about the flag thing - hope we havent offended any 'flag ministers' with all of this.

Isn't it amazing the different ways people worship? From my happy-clappy-handraising-charismatic church to where I lived before where the majority of churches dont even have an organ and people sing unaccompanied psalms and nothing else. From full-immersion baptism to infant sprinkling. Its quite amazing when you start to think about it.

OP posts:
Bobsdad · 20/09/2006 20:12

Alexsmum, the thing about confirmation is, you can only get it done in the same denomination that 'baptized' you as an infant. The Baptist church has no concept of confirmation, for example, because it only baptizes those who confess faith for themselves.

This all begs the question, if confirmation allows an adult to own for themselves, vows made on their behalf when they were an infant, what's the point baptising the infant in the first place... ? There certainly is no scriptural imperative to do it; the Bible often commands that people believe and be baptised and never explicitly states that children are, or ought to be, baptised.

There is an interesting study on the subject to be found here which makes a very good point about one of those 'household' baptisms in Acts ... At Acts 11:14, the entire household of Cornelius is baptised. This is often used as an argument in favour of infant baptism, as 'entire' would logically mean any children present would also have been baptised. Of course, the passage itself does not make clear either way (nor do any of the other household baptism references in the NT). However, Acts 10:44-48 gives us further information about the conversion of Cornelius and his household. It says that everyone who heard, received the Holy Spirit. If there were infants in the household, as some argue, then the meaning of this passage demands we believe that they, too, listened to Peter preaching, believed him, and received the Spirit. I suggest, most humbly, that such a scenario is daft. There clearly were no infants involved in the baptism of the entire household of Cornelius.

Waswondering · 20/09/2006 21:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.