Comments on: Should we baptise Evie?

By: Mel Lee

Mel Lee — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 21:09:23 +0000

We were thinking about it for Adelaide but more of an evangelical event for our friends…a chance to tell them the gospel but was worried about the whole C of E thing. We would rather not do a christening for the same reasons as you although not so well thought out. Dedication is a good thing to invite the non -believers to but still haven’t done it! Maybe we’ll do a double whammy when we have the next baby – seen that done before…job lot kind of thing and good excuse for a big party.
x Mel

By: Dicker

Dicker — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:58:46 +0000

I agree. I wasn’t trying to suggest that the traditional sense of believer’s baptism was that someone actually became a christian through the act of baptism, I just wanted to avoid the notion that only people who have articulated a confession of belief could be baptised, because obviously infants can’t make that confession…

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:43:28 +0000

I certainly don’t equate going through a ceremony with the actual moment a person enters salvation. I believe that baptism is an act of obedience, whoever initiates it, and that it is a sign (similar to circumcision) of belonging to God’s people.

In terms of the moment someone would be considered ‘saved’, and at what age they have to make the decision to follow Christ for themselves… well that’s all rather too much for me to think about right now.

By: Nat

Nat — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:18:11 +0000

Chris & I have thought about this in the past. Our church is pretty cross-cultural, as in, although it’s a Presbyterian church, it’s made up of a heap of people from different denominational backgrounds. This means that we have some people doing infant baptism, some doing dedications (my interpretation of which is for the parents & church to dedicate themselves in bringing the child up in the truth of the gospel) and then some adult baptisms.

I think that the conclusion I have made is that none of it makes any difference to you have a secure spot in heaven and therefore is a “non-kingdom” issue. I like the idea of having something as an opportunity of evangelism. The reason I don’t like infant baptism is because of the way, traditionally, so many people think that “getting their kid done” means that their child gets to go to heaven.

We haven’t done anything about a dedication or baptism for Hamish as yet, but, once again, would like to do a dedication purely as an opportunity for friends & family to see where we stand as Christian parents…that is, we are Christian because of what Christ has done for us and we hope & pray that our children will one day be able to make a concious decision that they would like Jesus as the Lord of their life also.

By: Lynette

Lynette — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:56:42 +0000

When we had the girls baptized it was after they became christians as an outward sign that they believed Jesus is their saviour
Others in our church have children dedicated where parents /friends promise to bring them up in a christian way

Love me

By: Dicker

Dicker — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:33:11 +0000

Do you mean “believer’s baptism” as in she’s a believer being baptised? Or as it’s traditionally interpreted, meaning “becoming a christian”?
I’m guessing you probably mean the former…
I just want to make a distinction from the traditional sense of “believers baptism”, because I don’t think Evie getting baptised later is her “becoming” a christian… I think she already is a christian. Her baptism later will be a confirmation of her christian faith.

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:46:59 +0000

I’ve spent a little bit of time thinking about this, but obviously nowhere near as much as you have.
I think my conclusion is pretty much the same as yours – I guess it’s pretty much Believer’s Baptism.