BAPTISM
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Is
it necessary for Salvation? If you can, yes. But there will be people in heaven
who had special circumstances who came to Christ and could not be baptized.
Christ
emphasized, baptism is necessary! It's in the Bible. (See John 3:5).
" I am telling you the truth," replied Jesus,"that no one
can enter the Kingdom of Heaven without being born of water and the
spirit".
There are a number of similarities between a marriage ceremony and baptism.
Baptism is the entrance into the Christian family. One takes the name of
Christ (Christian). God designs that this is to be a life-time experience in
which one's personal relationship
with Him is ever improving and very personal. Salvation through the shed blood
of Jesus on Calvary is the theme of the gospel (Romans 3:25; 5:9; Ephesians.
1:7; Colossians 1:20; Hebrews 9:22; Revelation 1:5; etc.). You can depend upon
it by faith through His grace.
By baptism we confess our faith in the death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and testify of our death to sin and of our
purpose to walk in newness of life. Thus we acknowledge Christ as Lord and
Savior, become His people, and are received as members by His church. Baptism is
a symbol of our union with Christ, the forgiveness of our sins, and our
reception of the Holy Spirit. It is by immersion in water and is contingent on
an affirmation of faith in Jesus and evidence of repentance of sin. It follows
instruction in the Holy Scriptures and acceptance of their teachings. (Matthew
3:13-16; 28:19, 20; Acts 2:38; 16:30-33; 22:16; Romans 6:1-6; Galatians 3:27; 1
Corinthians 12:13; Colossians 2:12, 13; 1 Peter 3:21.)
Baptism
demonstrates true repentance. Such repentance is a turning to believe, follow,
and obey the Lord Jesus Christ, and is the only kind of repentance that will
save us. A repentance which refuses the command to be baptized in water is
unknown in the Bible. To mentally assent to the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ,
but refuse to obey His words is mock repentance which will not save anyone. True
repentance must lead a person to the waters of baptism. Thus we see the saving
importance of a believer's baptism. In baptism we identify ourselves with the
death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Jesus died, bearing our sins and
paying the penalty for them in Himself. He was buried, taking our old life into
the tomb with Him. He was raised from the dead, that He might give to us by the
power of God, His new life, a supernatural resurrection life of peace and joy
and victory over all that previously bound us.
Colossians 2:12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are
risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him
from the dead.
Does it take a priest or a pastor to baptise?
You must understand the baptism is taking place in the person being baptised.
It's what HE believes is happening, and it is HE who is repenting of past sin,
and it is HE who is accepting Jesus and the Holy Spirit into his heart. It is HE
who is taking off the old man and putting on the new man and looking forward to
a life of sinning less because the holy spirit is now within him. Who is
dunking him under the water is irrelevant. The only case for having a priest or
a pastor do the baptising is that the person being baptised may feel it
"took" much more than by being baptised by a regular common Christian.
In truth Yahweh doesn't care who does the dunking as it is in the heart of the
person being baptised whether or not it took or not.
Are
there any prerequisites for it?
Among the prerequisites for baptism noted in the Scriptures are belief in Jesus
Christ as the Son of God (Acts 8:36,37) and repentance (Acts 2:37,38), and being
of sufficient age (usually ten or older) to know what this is really all about.
Acts
16:30-33 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be
saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,
and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that
were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their
stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
Acts
8:36-38 And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain
water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be
baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.
And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he
commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water,
both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.
a.
The practice of the Catholic church is to sprinkle babies and new converts into
the church.
b.
"The most ancient form usually employed was unquestionably immersion. This
is not only evident from the writings of the fathers and early rituals of both
Latin and Oriental churches, but, it can also be gathered from the Epistles of
St. Paul.... In the Latin church, immersion seems to have prevailed until the
twelfth century.... Infusion and aspersion, however, were growing common in the
thirteenth century and gradually prevailed in the western church." - The
Catholic Encyclopedia Volume 2, page 261:
c.
Jesus was immersed. Mark 1:9-10 And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus
came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan. And
straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the
Spirit like a dove descending upon him:
_____________________________________________
The origin of the word “immersion”
Matthew 28:19 “Go
therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit”.
The question is simple; do you love
Jesus? Jesus said in John 14:15 &
15:14 if you love me you will keep my
commandments. The first two commandments Jesus gave His disciples after His
resurrection instructed them to preach repentance and remission of sins to all
the nations in His name, (Luke 24:46-47),
and to go into all the world and make disciples baptising (immersing) them in
the name of the Godhead, Matthew 28:19.
Besides the other scriptures that
will be presented hereafter and which delve deeper into the Biblical reasons for
immersion, the issue disciples have to address when making other disciples is,
whether or not immersion is necessary and secondly whether or not the word
baptism means sprinkling with water or submergence beneath water. With regard to
the first; baptism is necessary simply because Jesus commanded it. If you love
Him you will obey His commandment. If you don’t think it is necessary, just
refuse to obey His commandment.
Disciples should be aware that you
cannot teach “Jesus” without teaching immersion. When Philip was instructed
by the angel to get into the chariot of the Ethiopian Eunuch he found the man
reading Isaiah 53. In Acts
8:35 Luke records that Philip taught the Eunuch “Jesus”, beginning from
this chapter in Isaiah. There is no mention of Philip teaching the Eunuch about
immersion, and yet the Eunuch stops the chariot by a river and both he and
Philip go down into the water and Philip immerses him. Now where did the Eunuch
learn about immersion? Obviously from Philip’s teaching about Jesus, for you
cannot teach Jesus without teaching immersion. Note also in Acts
16:31-33, that Paul told the convicted jailor if he believed in Jesus he
would be saved and Paul took him aside with his whole household and taught him
Jesus from the word of God. Following the teaching he and his household were
immersed immediately. Here is another case of not being able to teach
“Jesus” without teaching immersion. The jailor would have only heard about
it when Paul told him about salvation from the word of the Lord. When teaching
sinners about Jesus, one cannot exclude immersion.