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Just when is baptism necessary? Right after birth? A certain time after? Never?
Romans 6:4-12 NKJV said:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
Ephesians 4: 4-6 NKJV said:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling;
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Colossians 2: 11-13 said:11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by he circumcision of Christ,
12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses ...
I like to think that Christ knew all the abridgments that later Christians would make to everything and decided that baptism was important enough for Him to partake just to make sure that people would get some water on their heads when they became Christians.Christ Himself was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan, even though He didn't need to be. He did it as an example to us. He also made it part of the Great Commission. It is obvious that baptism was/is important to Christ. If we love someone, don't we want to please them? Doesn't what is important to those we love become important to us? Certainly, He makes exceptions, as He did with the Thief (St. Dismas). After all, the centurions weren't going to let St. Dismas off the cross in order to get baptized.
What they said. Baptism is for us. The thief on the cross was an extraordinary event. My priest said when somebody brings that up, he says, "well, ok, when you are dying on a cross, we'll consider that."
If you love God, and have read the New Testament and the Seven Ecumenical Councils, two of which helped to formulate the Nicene Creed, then you would know that Baptism is mandated by Christ and His Holy Church.
If you have a concordance with your Holy Bible, please do search Baptism.
Human formalisms, dont you think? You really belive God, the Almighty, hangs up on an honest, decent human being just s/he has not been baptised according to some man-made rules?
I do not think so!
Human formalisms, dont you think? You really belive God, the Almighty, hangs up on an honest, decent human being just s/he has not been baptised according to some man-made rules?
I do not think so!
BUT ... if I believe in Christ, yet never have been baptised... would God, when I die, love me less? I know it not to be so!
You see, this question really misunderstands the Orthodox understanding of God. God Loves the basest sinner just as He Loves the greatest Saint. God's Love does not stand in opposition to God's Judgment or (as some prefer to understand it) our experience of that Love.Yet, the question remains - would God, the Father of all, love me less?
Yet, the question remains - would God, the Father of all, love me less?
Yet, the question remains - would God, the Father of all, love me less?