Baptism

Baptism

Sorry, but I'm still relatively new to Christianity and I'm just commenting on this topic out of curiosity.

I'm not sure that I qualify as a "hardsheller", but isn't every Christian that gets baptized supposed to be baptized in Christ's name (or am I mistaken about the fundamentals of Christian baptism)?

 

Sorry, but I'm still relatively new to Christianity and I'm just commenting on this topic out of curiosity.

I'm not sure that I qualify as a "hardsheller", but isn't every Christian that gets baptized supposed to be baptized in Christ's name (or am I mistaken about the fundamentals of Christian baptism)? </font>[/QUOTE]First of all welcome to Christianity. Care to share your testimony with us? That is, what influenced you to become a Christian?

Regarding Baptism,
In Matthew 28 Jesus was with His disciples giving them final instructions prior to His ascention to the Father's right hand. He said to them (paraphrase), 'Go, make disciples everywhere, baptise them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.' It is not clear that any pronouncement during the act of baptism need accompany the baptism, but it seems logical that such a declaration should be said immediately prior, during, or immediately after the candidated is baptised thus applying the authority Jesus gave to the disciples to the baptism.

 

Thank you. I'm glad to be in the "fold".

I began to get my questions about Christianity answered.

I was exposed to Christianity as a child, but being the kind of child who liked to ask probing questions and seek answers to those questions, I became frustrated with my Christian teachers who seemed very comfortable with quoting biblical verses, usually from the King James version of the Bible - the language of which I found incomprehensible, while discouraging probing inquiry on the part of their students into what was being taught. That early childhood experience with Christianity provided me with the lasting impression that Christianity was a deceitful religion that claimed to have all the answers, but could deliver none. To make a very long story short, I eventually became interested in "religious ideas" enough, after listening to sermons preached by theologians such as Dr. D. James Kennedy, et al., to search for answers on my own. By contacting the offices of those theologians, I was introduced to seminary teachers and students who could finally answer many of my questions. As I came to understand more about Christianity, my long held bad impression of it, and in particular, my impression of its relevance to my life, changed.

But the ritual act of baptism is engaged in as a response to God's choice to save us and not as a prerequisite for our salvation.

 

Yes, that is quite correct. Baptism cannot save us, as there is no salvific power in baptism.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[/QUOTE]Yes, that is quite correct. Baptism cannot save us, as there is no salvific power in baptism.
[/QB][/QUOTE]
Could you cite any Church teaching, over the first 1500 years of the Church, that backs that statement up? Just wondering...

 

As far as I know, almost all Christian denominations (from Catholics to Pentacostals and everywhere in between) baptize "in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit."

However, I believe that Churches of Christ (perhaps others???) baptize in the name of Jesus only.

 

Could you cite any Church teaching, over the first 1500 years of the Church, that backs that statement up? Just wondering... [/QB]</font>[/QUOTE]No, I cannot cite any church teaching, period, that backs that statement up.

There is one baptism that does have the power to save and that is spirit baptism, Not water baptism as it is assumed this thread is about. No one has ever entered heaven through water, else the scriptures would clearly say that salvation is by baptism. However, since the scriptures do not say that, especially the scriptures that are the recorded words of Jesus, it is reasonable to believe that water has no saving power, therefore water baptism has no saving power.

NNE allows one's self to be baptised except they first have faith in Jesus. So if it is water baptism that saves, why is faith necessary? Conversely, If it is Faith by which one is saved, why is water baptism necessary?

Scriptures say that it is faith Plus NOTHING whereby man is saved.

Salvation is a spiritual thing, not a physical or natural thing. Just look at all the occupied graves. Not one spirit remains in the ground!

Spirit is totally impervious to nature, Water has no effect whatever on spirit. Spirit is impervious to mass, no amount of mass can separate human spirit from God's spirit, and vice-versa.

Just using the God given ability to think things through.

Any more thoughts?

 

Hercules, what's you point? If you are not going to make a point, stop reposting other's posts.

 

Your behavior is disruptive and immature! Either join the discussion, or leave!

 

Hercules, what is irritating Yelsew is that you first quote somebody else's post with no comment from your end. And then, you post your comment separately.

If you want to reply with a quote, when you click on quote and get the box where you have the other comment which you want to reply to, the one surrounded with the codes, do not hit the "add reply" button. Instead, right after the [/quote]or [/qb] code, whichever comes first, type what you want to say, and then, hit reply.

Cheers, now.

 

Hercules, Alias Lewis Mixon, please keep all your correspondence to me on this baptist board BBS. I have blocked email from you. I do not enjoy being bombarded with your multipage, cut-n-paste, plagerized emails.

It is not the Christian way of doing business, but rather, that of an immature zealot.

Sorry if that sounds harsh, but let the truth be known about you.

 

Wow, being "outed" is such a tramatic experience! What will all my fan's think? , but being compared to or associated with such TG&Y as Ozzie Osborn? Really now Hercules, that's quite a stretch of the imagination!