Many a baptist sect will present that baptism washes us clean of sin, or sins of the past. So do many charismatic sects
I'm not aware of a single denomination or church within the Baptist tradition that teaches that baptism washes us clean of sin.
Now, that baptism washes us of our sin is what the historic churches believe. But that's a very different thing than becoming "sinless". In Acts 2:38 when St. Peter was preaching by the power of the Holy Spirit he said, "repent and be baptized, all of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins"; this along with a number of other passages of Scripture makes it clear that there is forgiveness of sins in baptism.
Forgiveness =/= sinlessness.
St. John tells us, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8).
While I grew up in the Pentecostal tradition (Foursquare), I am not fully fluent in all the various strains of Pentecostalism or Charismaticism. The only Pentecostal church that I know that even regards baptism as doing anything at all are the Oneness or "Jesus' name only" Pentecostals, who believe in their particular idiosyncratic practice of baptizing in "Jesus' name only". So, sure, I can at least entertain the notion that there is possibly some groups within the fringes of Pentecostalism or Charismaticism which teach baptism conveys impeccability. But I'm not aware of any. And, those would, again, be on the fringes; not any mainstream, historic tradition of Christianity.
Lutherans don't even have an immersion baptism. Neither do the orthodox.
The general practice in Lutheranism is, in keeping with Western historical practice more generally, baptism via the mode of affusion rather than immersion. The Orthodox, however, very much do baptize via the mode of immersion. The Eastern historical practice has always been three-fold immersion, which was the standard practice of the ancient Church. Affusion, aka, "pouring" has always been acceptable as well, as can be seen in the Didache, though it wasn't normative in antiquity. Of course the mode of baptism is irrelevant, it isn't the point of baptism.
It's all mainly for infants, just as it was for me. (may not be the case for E.O. Don't know much about their systems)
All of the historic churches baptize infants, because it is traditional and ancient Christian practice since apostolic times. The Orthodox, as noted, use three-fold immersion as their mode, and that applies to infants as well.
It's not "mainly for infants", but all Christians, until relatively recently, practiced paedobaptism. Because the Scriptures say "This is for you and for your children" (Acts 2:39), and the Lord Himself rebukes those who would deny infants and children from coming to Him. The Christian Church has always welcomed children into the household of faith because God has always welcomed and embraced children into His house. When God made His covenant with Abraham He commanded Abraham to have all males circumcised, from the eighth day after they are born. This is actually one of the reasons why the number 8 has symbolic significance in Christian art, such as why baptismal fonts are often eight-sided. The other reason is because the day of Christ's resurrection has been, since ancient times, called the "8th day of creation", because with His rising there is new creation, and so the number 8 is associated in Christian art with regeneration and renewal.
Not that any such infants actually recall or believe anything. So it's essentially done for unbelievers in that regard. Like some kind of a talisman to protect them from God if they die
That is, of course, complete and total poppycock. Since faith is a work and gift of God by His grace, not a work of man ("For it is by grace that you are saved, through faith, and it is not of yourselves, it is God's gift; not of works so that none may boast" Ephesians 2:8-9) which He accomplishes by the working of His own word ("Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God" Romans 10:17)), and since in baptism Christ washes us clean "with the washing of water with the word" (Ephesians 5:26), then we can be entirely confident that the Lord who works and creates faith will keep His word. The infant who is baptized is a believer in Jesus Christ. It is impossible to separate faith from baptism; the two go hand-in-hand.
It is not a "talisman", it is the grace and power of God, and in His word--the Holy Scriptures--it is written, "All of you who were baptized have put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27). This is true, because God declares it to be true. The faithlessness of sinful human beings who are incredulous against the Gospel doesn't negate the truth of God's word. Just because the atheist says "There is no god" does not mean there is no God. Just because the Pagan Greek calls the Crucified Christ foolishness, doesn't change the fact that the Crucified Christ is the power and wisdom of God. Incredulousness doesn't negate the Gospel. So just because you may not believe that infants can have faith doesn't change anything. And even from a position of pure human reason it is demonstrable that even newborn infants can have faith, when the infant stretches out his/her hand for their mother, that implicit trust is, indeed, a kind of faith. It is precisely that very thing--trust--in Christ that constitutes saving faith. Faith is not about what we know, but Who we trust.
-CryptoLutheran
