How do you feel about your baptism, did it start your christian life?

MoreCoffee said:

I made a typo in the first post (since corrected) I meant to say:

People jump from one church to another for all sorts of reasons and not many that I have heard are primarily doctrinal.​

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Thought it had a slightly incomprehensibleness in English. np
I've been to some churches (Baptist) that taught verse by verse thru the bible. In fact most of the Pentecostal churches are strictly from scripture. Philosophy in a church is not teaching anything but opinion rather than interpretation. I know lots of churches do tho, but I don't attend them.

maid in His image said:

Thought it had a slightly incomprehensibleness in English. np
I've been to some churches (Baptist) that taught verse by verse thru the bible. In fact most of the Pentecostal churches are strictly from scripture. Philosophy in a church is not teaching anything but opinion rather than interpretation. I know lots of churches do tho, but I don't attend them.

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Just because a church reads the Bible and the supposedly goes on to closely examine the text doesn't mean the exposition is in any way correct, though. An Old Testament, a NT Epistle, and a Gospel reading in a three year cycle are read during each service and are supposed to form the exegetical core of the homily in most Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian, and Methodist circles, but that's no guarantee that what is coming from the pastor's mouth during the sermon is a correct interpretation of the passage.

GratiaCorpusChristi said:

Just because a church reads the Bible and the supposedly goes on to closely examine the text doesn't mean the exposition is in any way correct, though. An Old Testament, a NT Epistle, and a Gospel reading in a three year cycle are read during each service and are supposed to form the exegetical core of the homily in most Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian, and Methodist circles, but that's no guarantee that what is coming from the pastor's mouth during the sermon is a correct interpretation of the passage.

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Would you agree with me that the Barean approach recommended by Paul to keep oneself in the Word is also needed?

MoreCoffee said:

Baptism is mentioned a number of times in the bible and the different traditions within Christianity have their own view of what baptism is and what it does so I was wondering what your baptism did to or for you?

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I was baptized by a Methodist minister at the tender age of 6 months. It was then that I was adopted into the family of God and came into communion, though imperfect, with the Catholic Church.

For some reason, my parents didn't find it fit that I should be churched and for the first 40 years or so of my life and I suffered from a spiritual anxiety or what I call an 'holy longing'. I truly felt the calling of my Christian baptism but was confused by the fog of denominationalism. I wanted to belong, but from the outside looking in, Christianity doesn't have a cohesive evangelical voice and it was hard to discern just what to belong to.

It wasn't until much later that I finally listened to the call to convert to the Catholic Church. As I like to say, the Hound of Heaven finally caught up with me. Mathew 18:12-14 concisely describes my conversion story.

A funny story: After my first inquiry into the Catholic Church I was asked if I had ever been baptized. I didn't know the answer to that question so I called my mom who replied, "Of course you were!". She didn't remember the name of the Methodist church where I was baptized, but she could remember the name of the Catholic church just down the street. (my mom left the Catholic faith when she married my dad). So, I called the Catholic church (St. Ann's) and asked them the name of the Methodist church down the street. The Methodist church then sent me a record of my baptism.

It's worth noting, my mom came home to the Catholic Church on her birthday, Ash Wednesday, a year after I was confirmed. Thanks be to God.

I was baptized as a baby in a Catholic church, but that's all. I never went to catechism, and my parents never taught me anything about religion. I just discovered God a couple years ago. I think it was just done as a kind of family tradition. So, I don't how to feel regarding my baptism because I feel like it never happened even though it did (I still have the picture in my phone with all my family ), but for sure it didn't start my Christian life.

maid in His image said:

Would you agree with me that the Barean approach recommended by Paul to keep oneself in the Word is also needed?

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Who wouldn't?

MoreCoffee said:

I'd rather take up the Benedictine practise of reading & praying the scriptures than the approach of the Berean who used their old testament to test Paul to see if he was telling the truth. They were, of course, Jews and hand not become followers of Jesus Christ yet (some did, and that is most excellent) we are Christians and we ought not to be reading the old testament to test Paul's veracity, right?

Mind you, I do use my bible to check up what folk say on CF

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Jews who had recieved the word eagerly and accepted them because they lined up with the same scripture that Jesus used and Paul also. Testing pastor's NT scripture interpretaion based on OT roots would be following the NT Barean way imo because one shouldn't build on anything that has a single independend attestation. A single attestation to interpration may be accurate but better to build the picture upward from the earliest available material. A methodological process doesn't guarantee truth but it makes dishonesty more difficult. true?

and rightly so for anything that one believes if it's not pure scripture

MoreCoffee said:

I'd rather take up the Benedictine practise of reading & praying the scriptures .....

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reading and praying the scriptures is good too

MoreCoffee said:

A interesting historical footnote is that a church was established in Thessalonica that has lasted to today and which produced saints and a name for all sorts of good things while Beroea is not heard of again and left no significant mark on the Christian world.

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And the home church of so many apostalic leaders, Ephesus, is desolete today and has left no mark on the world. Can't go by what is seen....

MoreCoffee said:

Quite the contrary, Ephesus left a deep impression on Christianity for many centuries.

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But the lampstand was removed and hasn't had a church there for over a thousand years because of unrepentance. Churches since the time of John haven't been used as examples and those that were were charged with varying degrees of nonconformity to Christ's teachings. Which search of and compliance to scripture (as the Bareans did) many church practices may be saved from similar fate.

Orchidaceae said:

I was baptized as a baby in a Catholic church, but that's all. I never went to catechism, and my parents never taught me anything about religion. I just discovered God a couple years ago. I think it was just done as a kind of family tradition. So, I don't how to feel regarding my baptism because I feel like it never happened even though it did (I still have the picture in my phone with all my family ), but for sure it didn't start my Christian life.

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Interesting that you were baptized as an infant and are now a maturing Christian yet you say that your baptism didn't start your Christian life.

Wouldn't it be more accurate to say that, though you may have spiritually grown slowly or unconsciously for a while, God is faithful to the promise he made you in your baptism and is faithfully completing the good work he began in you?

MoreCoffee said:

I asked because when reading your posts your approach to scripture is rather symbol oriented (I think anyway) and fundamentalists tend to be rather literalist about some passages so you seemed kind of out of character for the 'non-denominational' faith icon you wear

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stz points to self.

maid in His image said:

Would you agree with me that the Barean approach recommended by Paul to keep oneself in the Word is also needed?

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I wouldn't

topcare said:

I wouldn't

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because.........?