Hi,
I have some few questions, what is baptism
Baptism is a Christian rite which involves the application of water upon a person, along with invoking the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Different churches do things sometimes a bit differently. In antiquity the usual method of baptism was to immerse a person three times in water, this is still how it is done in the Eastern Churches today. In the middle ages it became common in the Western Church to baptize by pouring water upon the head three times, this is how it is ordinarily done in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches. Other kinds of Protestants prefer that baptism be done by single immersion, and some tend to be very adamant that this is the only valid way to do it.
Most Christians, however, don't care how a baptism is done--three-fold immersion, pouring, single immersion, etc--because the form a baptism takes isn't as important as the baptism itself.
As for the meaning and significance of baptism, this is one of the bigger issues that gets debated among different Christian denominations. The traditional view, the one still held by Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans, and others, is that baptism is a Holy Sacrament, an act and work of Divine Grace and a means through which God acts upon an individual to accomplish a particular purpose. In the case of Holy Baptism what God accomplishes through it for us is that He adopts us as His children, grants us the Holy Spirit, gives us faith, unites us to Jesus and Jesus' crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection--and thus through baptism our sins are forgiven, and we are made Christians.
Now, not all Christians believe this, many Christians take different perspectives. A common one today is that baptism is a symbolic rite through which one who is already a Christian makes a public profession of faith and marks their identity as members of the Christian community. This is the view of most Evangelicals, Baptists, and some other Protestant denominations.
Because of these very significant differences, the topic of baptism is a very frequent topic of debate among Christians of different backgrounds.
do you need to be in a church for being baptized?
It is most common, but it is not necessary. Virtually all churches are designed with having a baptismal font--a place to conduct a baptism--in mind. And this is where baptisms are generally done. But this is largely a matter of convenience and custom. Throughout the history of Christianity baptisms have been done in rivers, springs, wells, any place where there is water.
What is a good Christian,
This is a difficult question to answer, as in the Christian faith we are typically discouraged from making any kind of estimation about ourselves based on our works. We remember that Jesus said, "There is no one good except God". So from the perspective of many, perhaps most Christians it may be fair to say there is no such thing as a "
good Christian", there are only Christians, and we are all very much works in progress, unfinished lumps of clay.
what can they do to always improve?
Depends on what one means on "improve" and what kind of Christian you ask. I'm a Lutheran, and from the Lutheran perspective we tend to shy away from the idea that the Christian life is one in which there is some kind of linear moral progress. That, through trying really hard, we get better over time. That doesn't mean we aren't growing, changing, and--hopefully--for the better. Only that we reject the notion that there's a kind of moral ladder which we are climbing. From a Lutheran perspective it might be better to say that we are are learning, growing, failing, and dying. In a sense, the Christian life is a life in which we are learning how to die. God's commandments point us both toward what we should do, and reveal how we aren't doing it. That's why we can't trust in ourselves and our actions as a metric by which to understand our relationship to God, but must instead look exclusively to Jesus Christ, who alone is our righteousness before God. That we are as our Scriptures say, "in Christ", and therefore we belong to God and have God as our Father.
Now, Christians from other traditions and denominations will have different answers to the one I've provided. But on this, in part because it's such a big and open topic, I've provided the specifically Lutheran answer to the question, other Christians from other backgrounds will offer their own views on the subject.
What does the bible say about Heaven,
This might be surprising, but the Bible says very little about life after death at all. The Bible, instead, is far more interested in talking about life
after life after death. So what happens between death and resurrection is barely discussed at all. However, the basic idea that we can glean from the Bible is this:
That between death and resurrection the wicked experience a foretaste of future judgment, the New Testament calls this "Gehenna", though in older English translations it is called "Hell". And that between death and resurrection those who belong to Christ will experience a foretaste of the future life in His presence, that we will be with Jesus between death and resurrection--the Bible never calls this "going to heaven", but that is what it is often called in modern times.
More importantly, however, is that the day will come when Jesus returns, and when He returns the dead are raised, bodily, and all are judged. The blessed are raised to eternal life in the Age to Come, when God renews and restores all creation, both the heavens and the earth; and the wicked--well, not that.
I assume it is also meaning Kingdom of Heaven?
That's a common misunderstanding. The phrase "kingdom of heaven" is generally (but not exclusively) found in Matthew's Gospel, and where in Matthew the phrase "kingdom of heaven" is used, in Mark and Luke we find the phrase "kingdom of God". So here "heaven" is a substitute for God.
Also, the kingdom Jesus speaks of isn't a place, either "up there" or "over there". The Greek word that gets translated into English as "kingdom" (
basileia) is better understood to mean something like "kingly reign", it's a reference to God-as-King, what it means for God to be king. And so the kingdom of heaven/God refers to God's royal power and authority. Which, we understand, to have been exercised through Jesus, the Christ, the King-Messiah. In the Gospel of John when Jesus is brought before the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, Jesus has been charged with proclaiming that He is a king, and so Pilate interrogates Jesus, "Is it true that you say you are a king?" Jesus' response is important, He says both that yes, it is true that He is a king, but also that His kingdom is not of this world. Jesus is king, but not a king in the way that earthly rulers are kings. Jesus is not like a Roman emperor, or a president, or a monarch of a nation--Jesus is king in a very different way, because His kingdom is a very different kind of kingdom.
In the Gospels, two of Jesus' disciples come to Jesus and ask if, when Jesus becomes the king, if they can sit on His right and left sides. Now, they were still thinking that Jesus, as the Messiah, was going to overthrow the Roman government and take His throne as an earthly king over Israel--a common view that Jesus is constantly trying to explain to His followers that this isn't the case. Anyway, Jesus' response to His two disciples is that greatness in God's kingdom is not like greatness here on earth, Jesus says that in the kingdom the greatest person is the slave. It is the lowliest people in this world that are greatest in God's kingdom. In God's kingdom the first are last and the last are first. In God's kingdom, it is the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, and the oppressed who are called
blessed.
Because the way God is king isn't the way people here on earth are kings. God's way of being king, ultimately, looks like a poor carpenter from Nazareth being crowned with a crown of thorns, nailed to a Roman cross between two thieves, being spit upon and beaten, and then saying to His murderers, "Forgive them, Father, they do not know what they are doing."
God's way of being king does not look like a palace, or a mansion. It is a kingdom in which servants are greatest, in which the poor are the most rich, and in which mercy, love, justice, compassion, and peace rule.
This kingdom has come, in part, through Jesus, and it is through the mission of His Church in the world, preaching the good news of Jesus to the world, that the kingdom is present, here, and in part. But, the day will come when Jesus returns, the dead are raised, and God makes all things new--and on that Day the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, there shall be no more death, nor suffering, no war, or adversity. Peace and justice shall flow like a river. And God will be all in all.
Is it necessery to visit a church,
Christian corporate worship occurs, by definition, by gathering together. And church buildings exist as meeting places in which this worship can be done. It is where the people gather to hear the Scriptures read, pray together, sing hymns of praise, recieve encouragement and instruction, and celebrate Christ's Supper (also called Holy Communion and the Eucharist).
also Sunday I know is the Christian day for worship, is it compulsory to worship in the church?
We are told not to refrain from meeting together. And since church buildings exist to facilitate a meeting place, that is where these things happen--as mentioned in my paragraph above.
It's less about "compulsion" so much as, from the traditional Christian perspective, God has promised to act and be present in certain ways in our gatherings together, through His Word and Sacraments. And so meeting together shouldn't be seen as something that we have to do just because; but rather something we get to do, joyfully.
Of course Christian worship can take many different forms, but our meeting and assembling together for Word and Sacrament is the most important and central way in which that worship occurs. This is why, for a long time, churches were often known as "the Lord's house", in fact the English word "church" actually comes from this Greek expression,
kyriake oikos, which was shortened to
kyriake, and then in the Germanic languages (which English is one of) we get German
kirche, Dutch
kerk, Old English
circe, and Modern English "church".
The term "church" has also become used in English to refer to the Greek word ekklesia, meaning "assembly" or "a gathering". In the Bible Jesus says, "I will build My ekklesia" that is "My Church", and so the term "Church" is used to refer to Christians in our communion together in Christ, within the greater Christian community around the world, as well as locally. Hence you will often see "the Church" used, which doesn't refer to a building. It can be confusing in English since "church" refers to both concepts.
-CryptoLutheran