Should I be baptised at the beach rather than my local Church?

Willow-girl · 2019-02-27T05:17:02+00:00

LOL, I was baptized in a lake late one night by my A.A. sponsor. What can I say? It was time. :-)

Seriously, though ... I think you should discuss your concerns with your pastor.. especially the part about being shy in front of people, and of giving a public testimony. (A lot of people are nervous speaking to a crowd!) Maybe he can reassure you or help ease those pressure points for you.

rocknrollchuck · 2019-02-27T13:56:14+00:00

I think you have freedom in Christ - both are okay and neither is wrong.

Lastly, from my understanding the bible says that baptism is for the remission of our sins and a public declaration of our faith

The bible clearly says that baptism is for the remission of our sins - there are a lot of different interpretations of that idea, and some believe the bible teaches that baptism is necessary for salvation, while others claim that it is only a step of obedience that has nothing to do with whether we have been granted eternal life or not. I'm of the opinion that it's better to be safe rather than sorry, and obedience is always a good thing.

Acts 2:38 "38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

As far as baptism being a public declaration of our faith, while that idea is certainly not wrong, and the early church would certainly have understood this to be true, there are no bible verses that specifically say this. Romans 6:4 says "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. "

1 Peter 3:21-22 says "Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him."

So to me the most important thing is that you follow through and do it.

Red-Curious · 2019-02-27T16:57:32+00:00

As /u/rocknrollchuck said, you have freedom in how you want to go about this. Should you be baptized? Absolutely. Does it have to be in front of a local congregation? Not at all. The story of Philip and the Ethiopian involves a spontaneous baptism that wasn't in front of a large crowd. This is perfectly fine. As chuck alluded to, when you say:

from my understanding the bible says that baptism is for the remission of our sins and a public declaration of our faith

... the "public declaration" part simply isn't in Scripture. That's a claim that Protestants added to justify de-spiritualization of the sacrament and simplify salvation to a sola fide type model ("faith alone"). That is, if faith alone saves and baptism is not necessary, then Protestants had to come up with another reason for why God and Jesus may have commanded it. "Public profession" is the most logical conclusion, even if it's not mandated in Scripture. This is a flaw in Protestant thinking.

To be clear, I don't buy into the view that it's necessary for salvation either. I'm not Catholic or Orthodox, but I do believe that they recognize a spiritual significance to baptism that Protestants miss out on.

In some respects, we talk about marriage as requiring a covenant and sex, where the covenant lays out the terms and intent to create a binding arrangement (in the case of salvation: through faith) and the act of becoming one-flesh is like signing the contract, sealing it closed ... but baptism is more like the ceremony and the public proclamation is akin to a reception. You don't need a ceremony and reception to get married. You can go to the courthouse on your own and it's perfectly legitimate, or you can make a promise to each other before God without a pastor and God still recognize the spiritual marriage that's formed ... but there's still something special about the otherwise unnecessary pomp and circumstance surrounding a wedding day - even if it's just a courthouse wedding with no one else invited. It creates an internal security in the couple: "Yes, we're actually married," even though (at least at one point) the law would have deemed them married even without it (i.e. common law marriage).

I don't know if that clarifies anything or creates a whole mess of confusion, but that's my conclusion: baptism fosters the feeling of bonding security in a new believer's salvation, despite the fact that it is not what actually does the saving; and if public profession is involved (i.e. it's in front of a church), that's like having a public ceremony or reception at a wedding rather than doing it alone at the courthouse.

On a separate note: This line of thinking also re-bolsters my thoughts on the importance of disciple-making as an assurance of salvation tool. It highlights that the reproductive act, being the signature on the contract, is what binds and seals the deal. A contract may technically be valid on the verbal terms alone, even without the signature of the parties, but it's not secure until that signature appears - a court could rule either way. So, if no one engages in that reproductive effort in their relationship with Christ toward bearing spiritual fruit/offspring (see Malachi 2:15), then their salvation covenant remains unsigned. Is it valid or not? Hard to say. Passages like Matthew 7 and Luke 13:6-9 would seem to imply "not," but other passages lean otherwise.

Deep_Strength · 2019-02-27T19:48:56+00:00

Firstly, I’ve never liked a tremendous amount of attention on me at any period of time, my local church (obvious reasons) places a huge emphasis on baptisms and promotes them excessively and expects a “testimony” from each of the participants prior to entering the tank.

Not really a good reason not to.

Part of being a Christian is being able to share about your faith with others and making that declaration. You don't want to start yourself down this path in a negative way:

Matthew 10:32 “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.

There's freedom in Christ for the others, but this point just makes it seem like you're running away from it when you should be embracing it as a Christian. There's no better time to share your testimony than with believers at first. You'll eventually have to share it with unbelievers which is much more scary

I hate public speaking, but I'm glad I shared my testimony in front of our Church before baptism even though I was hesitant about it at first. Plus, this made me more comfortable with it, and more likely to be unafraid of sharing my faith with others.

TL;DR: Treat this as an opportunity to grow rather than something to run away from.

kyledontcare · 2019-03-04T02:48:35+00:00

Technically it should be a river with running water because that was kind of the way it was done in the Old Testament and in the early church, but it doesn't matter. And do get that testimony ready; how long it is doesn't matter. What matters is telling you were before Christ, how you became saved, and how you've changed since you came to know the Lord.

SkimTheDross · 2019-02-27T09:27:04+00:00

You could write your testimony and the pastor or an elder could read it to the congregation before you’re baptized. That way you don’t have to speak.

SkimTheDross · 2019-02-27T16:46:17+00:00

Same here. Helps remove a stumbling block some folks may have.

Title	Should I be baptised at the beach rather than my local Church?
Author	w3ave7
Upvotes	4
Comments	8
Date	February 27, 2019 4:44 AM UTC (5 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/RPChristians
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/RPChristians/comments/av9axf/should_i_be_baptised_at_the_beach_rather_than_my/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/RPChristians/should-i-be-baptised-at-the-beach-rather-than-my.301403 https://theredarchive.com/post/301403