Thoughts about baptism > Likes and Comments

A couple of references to baptism in this group earlier this month, on another thread, suggested to me that this subject deserves a thread of its own. So this will be the place where we can share, and discuss, all of our thoughts about baptism and the various issues that surround it.

For us as Christians, the Apostle Paul regarded our shared experience of baptism as one of several commonalities that obviously ought to bind us together in unity (Ephesians 4:5). But ironically, in the modern church, differences of opinion about it have become one of the major incitements to, and excuses for, our spectacular disunity. :-( That it's ordained in the New Testament as the initiatory rite of Christian believers, and that it's done with water, nobody questions. But sadly, that seems to about exhaust the areas of agreement.

The most fundamental question is over the place of baptism in Christian salvation. Given that baptism in the New Testament is frequently shown as accompanying salvation, and is associated with it, is it essential to salvation?

Then there is the question of who should be baptized. Can small children and infants, who are not intellectually capable of understanding the Christian gospel, let alone accepting it, be baptized? (Are they subject to eternal damnation if they die unbaptized?) By the same token, can the comatose, or the profoundly mentally handicapped who also have no understanding of the gospel, be baptized? And what about the idea of proxy baptism for dead people who never heard the gospel?

There are also significant and strongly held divisions over the mode of baptism: how the water is applied, and what's said when it is applied. Does it matter whether the baptized person is immersed, or if the water is simply poured or sprinkled over or onto him/her? Is the immersion (or pouring/sprinkling) to be done once, or repeated three times? In Matthew 28:19, is "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" a statement of the authority by which we are to baptize, or a mandated verbal formula? Do the references to baptism "in the name of Jesus" mean that Jesus' name has to be explicitly said aloud in the process of baptism? How important is it that the action be "done correctly?"

Finally, given that Christians have a lot of disagreements about water baptism, is it a good idea to just do away with it? (There are Christian believers, such as the Quakers, who take exactly that position.)

This short summary sets out the main areas of disagreement about baptism that I'm aware of. (Some group members may be able to identify others.) We can use this thread to discuss any or all of these.