IMB & Baptism on True Baptism

Very True

ROFL..and thank God for that.....if that were the case the call for being fruitful and multiplying may have been a hard command to follow.

I am considering this issue myself. I was baptized as an infant. I then had condfirmation classes about 13 years later (yes, I was raised with church as an integral part of my life.) I see someone said we are to remember our baptisms. I had only formed primitive memory when I was baptized (short-term etc.) I cannot remember it. I remember confirmation clearly of course. Reading my paper. Even the gist of its text. The special article of clothing I wore. (a light blue skirt with a lace cover--it still fits!)
I did go to the Baptist church however as I missed church in the morning due to having cramps.
They said my baptism was not valid...
I asked God for a sign, a vision. I got one, but didn't understand it.
A dream...yet I felt I was still half-awake.

It was like a split-screen effect. On the left side, it was blue. There were bubbles and water, and I was floating upwards. On the right side, it was a reddish-orange, and there were flames, and I was floating downwards. (Yes, still floating, not quickly falling or anything like that.)
On neither side did I come to any harm. I just silently passed my surroundings. I woke up totally for a minute, scared. I didn't understand this. Can anyone help me figure this out?

Pax,

Briana

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I hope this isn't straying too far from the topic.

I was baptised as an infant in a presbyterian church. Later, when I was about 7 my family moved interstate and we started to attend a Baptist church because it was more family oriented. We moved states again and continued to go to a Baptist church as my sisters and I liked it better than the more traditional presbyterian church. My problem is that I was baptised as an infant but was never confirmed. This means that I cannot become a member of my current church.

I see my infant baptism as my true baptism and do not want to be rebaptised just for the sake of membership but then again I don't understand how it works when I was never confirmed formally. Has anyone else been in the same situation?

Baptism of infants was classically on the occasion of their entry into God's covenant with them, and their dedication to holiness. The idea of "remember your baptism" is the fact that you have come into covenant with God. It's not to remember the event as if you felt it, experienced it, and lived it.
Since the First Century the baptism of small children has been valid. Hippolytus in 235 mentioned positively the baptism of small children with not yet the ability to talk.
I'm intrigued. I've never had the experience of reading something like this and feeling I know what it symbolizes. On first read the imagery seems to symbolize the two images of baptism -- The purity and cleansing of the Spirit Who lives in you, I'm sure you recognize. But also recognize the second image: you are buried with Christ in baptism, wherein He descended to Hell or death for you, on your behalf.

To me this has a unique connection with your worry on baptism. It is not the undergoing of baptism as an adult that's so important. The Spirit's work is important; Christ's work is important.

So in the second image, your baptism long ago was a signing up to Christ experiencing death for you, and for the Spirit of God coming alongside your life and bringing you to repentance. Experiencing what baptism represents is in some cases trying to live through the one thing you're trying to avoid: we're baptised into dying with Christ so that we may rise and live with Him.

Your baptism is being experienced this very day as you walk in the Spirit. Water and Spirit are not separate. The Spirit has baptized you and feeds you in the sacraments spiritually received by you (1 Cor 12:13), and the result is clear: you are a member of Christ's body, the church.

Thirdly, you note yourself that you didn't come to experience harm. And baptism (in the whole, not simply the water but also the answer of a good conscience before God, by the Spirit) is intended to prevent your harm. Remember, the sinful person cannot endure God's presence. Yet you're indwelt by God, the Spirit. The blue is a point of contact there for the present. But your punishment Christ has already endured in the past. The red is a point of contact there for the past.

It's not the experience of water that you're asked to remember, but to be reminded of these things: your indwelling with the Spirit; your death with Christ; and your protection by God. Your experience is already here: the Spirit you experience every day.

Do you remember the Last Supper? No. And yet Jesus tells you to "Do this in remembrance of Me." It's your knowledge and relationship with Christ you're called on to remember here. You may project back to what God was doing in baptism, much as we all do with the Last Supper. But we don't have an experiential memory of it.

The remembrance is like God saying, "Remember that you signed a commitment to Me." The sign -- the signature -- is your baptism.

Yes, and it gets even more twisted for me and my wife.

My wife was baptized in infancy. She would not be permitted membership in a Baptist church without rebaptism.

Only the smallest subset of Reformed Baptist churches ever accepts infant baptism as valid. The chances yours would do so are one in a million.

But like I said, it gets more twisted. I was baptized in a Baptist church. But I no longer believe in believer-only baptism. Therefore I can't be a member of many Baptist churches! Many (though not all) Baptist churches here not only require believer-only baptism -- they require a belief in believer-only baptism as the sole valid form of baptism.

It really depends on your church which is the case, so you'll need to check.

Including by immersion?

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Oh, you never got an answer ... the OPC accepts all modes of baptism as valid.

Guess what? This is crazy weird -- but I prayed to recall some memories from when I was an infant, and as visual acuity and memory had not developed by that time - I managed to get three memories...

1) Coming wet out of a squishy tunnel (Guess what it is.)
2) Taking a bath in the sink
3) A few splashes on my head that seemed large to me (but I was small!) [guess on this too!]

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That's generally correct. It also includes Catholic baptisms, something I haven't reconciled with, yet. I'm not sure why the OPC recognizes Catholic baptism.

Soli Deo Gloria

Jon