(updated 2/5/06 )

Methodist 101 > Baptism

Methodist 101

Baptism

Through baptism we celebrate and connect with our identity as people for whom Jesus Christ lived and was resurrected. Baptism is a sign of our identity and our destiny in and through faith in Jesus Christ. Baptism is a sign of God's claim upon us and it is a rite of passage into the family of God, the Church.

In baptism the administration of the sacrament of water may be done in two ways, pouring and immersion. Special arrangements must be made for baptism with immersion.

Why do we baptize infants?

There are many Christians who do not believe in the baptism of infants, thinking that baptism is to be done after a person believes in the Lord. That understanding is often called "believer's baptism." It is a sign of a profession of faith, a decision to follow Christ.

While we respect that thinking, we United Methodists consider "believers Baptism" alone to pose a limit on understanding the vast range of God's love for us. The Bible teaches that God loves us before we are able to love back and baptism points to this mystery where God loves first. God's love is not something we can earn. Nor is it something God holds back until we deserve it, recognize it or understand it. The life of faith does not begin with us or our decision to put our faith in the Lord. Our life in faith begins with our God who loves us enough to allow and enable us to one day find that love and accept it.

Baptism is all about God and not about us. It is not a sacrament of new beginnings, re-dedication. It is the sacrament of God adopting us at our most primitive time and placing us in a Church family to be brought up in the way that leads to life eternal. Infant baptism re-presents the vastness of God's love before we are able to love back. It re-presents our destiny that we will be seeking to grasp that unconditional love and live out a God-honoring response to such unmerited grace. Therefore we follow in the tradition of the first century when babies were baptized into the faith.

Scriptural references:

"Jesus said, Let the little children come unto me."
Matthew 19:13;

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them."
Matthew 28:15

"Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me."
Mark 9:36

"For while we were still weak."
Romans 5:6

"When she and her household were baptized."
Acts 16:15

".and his entire family was baptized."
Acts 16:33

"Crispus. became a believer. together with all his household. were baptized."
Acts 18:8

"I did baptize also the household."
I Corinthians 1:16