Baptism - Who needs it?

I love the forums, they are like fertile breeding grounds for hub ideas, places full of people with opinions and scant knowledge, knee jerk reactions and spiritual snipers.

What fun!

Just been reading a topic on baptism, started a reply, realised I had enough for a hub, so no comment, just my commentary, and yours if you get to the back end of the hub!

The topic was:

"Do you believe babies should be baptized?"

http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/34015

Infant baptism is a futile gesture, it's a sweet little ceremony and those who do it feel better and secure, but it has no meaning.

God requires that the baptist has chosen baptism to declare their rejection of the world and acceptance of Christ as their Lord and Master, to illustrate that Satan no longer has any call over their lives and that they are set apart, called out, bond slaves to Christ.

My son wanted to be baptised at 13 years of age, I refused him and told him to ask again when puberty was past.

He was not understanding of what he wanted to achieve in being baptised, his aim was conformity to our church pattern, that's a dumb reason to be baptised.

I was dunked when I was a babe, it was worthless and I was an humanist for 41 years before I came to faith.

My first pastor was a baptism junkie, so he had me dunked a.s.a.p and far too soon, I got a 'John' baptism, a repentence of sin baptism, not a rejection of the world baptism, not a bond slave to Christ baptism.

It was a spiritual wash, not a marinade.

Baptism has two meanings, coming from the word [Greek: baptizo] and it has two functions also, as I said, John the Baptist gave a water baptism, a baptism from sin repented, but Christ baptises into the Holy Spirit, note I say 'into', not in the name of, which is a distinct difference in relationship.

In a physical sense, we baptise vegetables when we wash them clean of the 'sin' (dirt and poisonous chemical pesticides) they bring into our house, before we consume them into our body..... seeing any analogy here at all?

But we would also correctly use the word to mean when we 'baptise' those same (washed) vegetables in a spirit, which will change the very texture and nature of the vegetable as it is 'marinaded' in the spirit.

In a Christians case that is marinaded into the Holy Spirit, and that which is marinaded takes on the very nature of that which it is marinaded in.

Now most churches obviously do not understand this, and give folk a quick wash rather than a slow marinade, then wonder why the fruit spoils.

"Do you believe babies should be baptized?"

Obviously no baby can possibly comply with what Christ meant, and no ceremony, no matter how significant it seemed at the time to those conscious of it happening may have been, can offer spiritual protection to the child.

Worse still, the child is then told they belong to Christ, which is sorta true, but (and it's a big but) their 'natural' baby protection only covers them until they commit their first deliberate sin that remains unconfessed.... whoooooooah mamma.....

I leave it to you parents to remember how soon that was.

Infant baptism, like young scalp hunting evangelism, is actually more like an inoculation against Christ, than an introduction into the faith, because when puberty hits, Satan starts whispering in the young ears "Did God really say that?" and then when they leap into the sin bucket with both feet, Satan whispers again "Jeebus would be proud of you" and their early baptism or choice for Christ, becomes a burden to carry, and eventually dispose of.

So don't rely on infant baptism to 'save' anyone, read your bible, Christ clearly tells Nicodemus:

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

^{(John 3:5)}

Being born of water and the Spirit requires consent and full acknowledgement of what you are committing to.

My son finally came to faith without telling me, but that was fine, because I knew it was HIS decision, not mine.

He had swam in the rivers of sin and degredation, and made it safely to the other shore.

We reach a point where we have to offer our children up to the world for Satan to take a swing at them, if we have obeyed our parental commands, then they will not depart from God when they grow older, I note that there is a seeming 'gap' in the scripture, it does not say they will NOT depart from God period, punto, it says when they grow older, in other words, they come BACK.

We are commanded to:

Therefore you shall lay up these My words in your [minds and] hearts and in your [entire] being, and bind them for a sign upon your hands and as forehead bands between your eyes.

And you shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you rise up.

^{(Deuteronomy 11 18:19)}

If we are faithful in doing this, our children don't need infant baptism to ward off 'evil', they will grow up in the Lord and come back when they are old.

My son came back.

He was baptised in the Mediterranean INTO the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Now he is being marinaded into that self same Holy Spirit by Metro Ministries, in New York, under the tutelage of sound men of God, who practise what they preach.

If your 'infant baptism' was not sufficient because you did not know what was happening, but you subsequently came to faith, that all consuming faith that is Christ, then renew your baptism and show your rejection of the world system, which also seems to function in churches unfortunately.

Grab a brother or two and head to the ocean, a swimming pool, shucks, even a deep bathtub, and make that commitment that will set you on a pathway to the Kingdom of God, and on a collision course with the kingdom of the world. and get baptised.