|
BAPTISM: Baptism, to the children of God, is to be buried, meaning that the old person of sin becomes dead and buried by the water. When they rise from the water, they emerge resurrected in the newness of life: having all their past sins forgiven, they have been born again, by the grace of God, to begin a new life. |
|
INFANT BAPTISM: During the time of Jesus and John the Baptist, only mature adults were baptized, usually around the age of thirty, after many years of scriptural studying. By the third century, the practice of baptizing children had become common. This practice has caused controversy from its introduction to this day. |
|
MODES OF BAPTISM: The early church had one form of baptism that was by total immersion of the whole body, including the head. There was a symbolic reason for full immersion (burial). In the late second and third century, other forms were introduced, such as pouring or sprinkling and, as a result, baptism, in most churches, has lost its true meaning. |
|
PREREQUISITE TO BAPTISM: To be baptized into the Christian today, one must make a confessional oath to observe its doctinal beliefs. In the early church, one had to accept Jesus as the promised Christ. Jews and proselytes understood through whom the Christ would come. Gentiles, having no knowledge of the background of the Jewish religion, brought in their own heathen traditions to form a false background of Jesus' birth. |
|
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT BAPTISM: – A question and answer format relating to the topic of baptism addressing who should be baptised, the meaning of baptism, the manner in which one should be baptised and other topics. |
|
REPENTANCE BEFORE BAPTISM: Most churches in Christianity have forgotten the meaning and condition of baptism. That meaning and condition is of a spiritually changed individual: being repentant of their past life of sin and sorry for the things done against God and our neighbour. |
Vistors: