Baptism

Baptism

Baptism is a crucial part of the Christianity faith as it is a ceremony which enables individuals to enter the faith and become a member of its religious institution. Christians believe when an individual is baptised it marks the beginning of their life as a Christian. Christians do baptism as was directed by Jesus who was also baptised in the River Jordan by his cousin, John the Baptist and he asked that his fellow believers follow in his footsteps. Baptism is also known as christening and normally occurs when the baby is an infant. However, in Baptist and Pentecostal churches believe this choice should be made by the individual and is known as the believer’s baptism and often happens when people are teenagers.

In the infant baptism parents place a promise to the church and god to ensure the child faithfully follows the Christian faith. The priest then makes a cross sign with hand gestures over the childes forehead, and holy water is then poured from the front of the head onto the baby’s head three times. Each time the water is poured it is mean to symbolise the trinity; which are the father, son and Holy Spirit. Water is symbolic in the process of the Baptism as Christians believe that humans are born as sinners and these sins are removed through spiritual cleansing. In the Roman Church, the child is fully immersed in the water three times and also anointed with oil on the head and chest.

The views regarding the importance of Baptism differ among Christians. For example, the Churches of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church believe that the importance of baptism is to fulfil the requirement of salvation whereas for Anabaptist and Evangelical Protestants believe purpose is to achieve forgiveness and grace. However, baptism is not practiced by all Christians such as Quakers, Salvation Army and Hyper-dipensationlism don’t take part in this ritual. Quakers, justify that it is not vital to carry out a baptism as its purpose was already fulfilled through the spirit of Christ. Whereas Hyper-dipensationlism believe that the ritual has its roots in the Jewish-Christian church and therefore don’t practice it.