Baptism? How to be Baptized?

[aiki]

I’m a very newly converted Christian. So there is a lot I don’t know and am yet to learn, which is why I am hoping to learn more through this forum.

I was baptized as Catholic as a baby. But I never really practiced Catholocism growing up ever. Should I be baptised as a newly converted Christian? What should I do? Is there a process I should undergo with a priest? How exactly does one “seal the deal” or “officially” convert to Christianity?

You'll get significantly different responses from Protestants (especially evangelical ones like Baptists, Missionary Alliance, Evangelical Free, and many non-denoms.) than you will get from Roman Catholics. It sounds like you've "converted" to Roman Catholicism, so my comments to you may not be appreciated. But, I'll give them, nonetheless, and maybe God'll do something with them in your life.

In Scripture, full immersion baptism was the norm. Also, there isn't a single recorded instance of infant baptism in all of the New Testament, though there are several of adult baptisms. There is also no teaching on infant baptism in Scripture. None. Paul the apostle described baptism as a means of symbolizing the new convert's identification with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection (Romans 6:1-6). This cannot be illustrated properly in the sprinkling of water upon a person (or baby).

One "seals the deal," that is, they become a born-again (John 3:3-7) Christian by a saving faith in Christ as their Saviour and Lord (Romans 10:9-11) and genuine repentance from a life that was not fully submitted to and centered upon God. (Acts 3:19)

One does not convert to a denomination but to a relationship with a Person: Jesus Christ. He is salvation itself (1 John 5:11-12), not the RC Church, not Mary, not the Pope.

 

[Tutorman]

There are instances of infant baptism in Scripture in Acts 16:33

 

[aiki]

No, actually, there aren't. It is said in the book if Acts that whole houses are saved and baptized, but it is a bald assumption to say that this means infants were baptized. Not every household includes infants. And, again, there is no teaching whatever in the New Testament on baptizing children too young to understand what baptism signifies. We do, though, have a number of recorded of adults being baptized. But only adults. Interesting, that, no?

 

[Tutorman]

It is also an assumption to say no children were baptized, a non orthodox assumption that all Churches believed until someone said "Ah, no baby baptism" and tried to use the Bible alone. Of course not everything is in the Bible

 

[PROPHECYKID]

I’m a very newly converted Christian. So there is a lot I don’t know and am yet to learn, which is why I am hoping to learn more through this forum.

I was baptized as Catholic as a baby. But I never really practiced Catholocism growing up ever. Should I be baptised as a newly converted Christian? What should I do? Is there a process I should undergo with a priest? How exactly does one “seal the deal” or “officially” convert to Christianity?

Thank you
And God Bless

Baptism is a symbol of the change that happens on the inside. It is also a symbol of you being dead to the world and rising up a new creature in Christ. So you can't truly be baptised if you did not make an informed decision to follow Christ and repent. Infant baptism is not biblical. A baby cannot be baptised. If you take a male and female baby and have a priest conduct a ceremony and pronounce them man and wife, would God recognize the marriage as valid?

 

[Tutorman]

What is not Biblical is that Baptism is just a symbol and that Baptism are only for adults