by Janice Day Sirman

Created on: June 06, 2008

Whether or not baptism is essential to salvation, is a subject that has been batted back and forth among different religious sects for ages. While I do not want to belittle the importance of baptism in the life of a true believer in Christ, it is fairly obviuos from the A Scripture that water baptism is a STEP in the life of a true Christian, not a step towards salvation. Many religuous sects praictice infant baptism. My sister, who was vbey frail at birth, was born in a Catholic hospital and baptized without my mother even knowing that it was going to happen. When the nun told her, she said "this will guarantee she will go to heaven".My mother responded that "she will go to heaven anyway, since she is an infant without the ability to form knowledge of right and wrong." The Scripture bears this belief out.

Matthew 28:19 tells believers to go and be baptized. This was written for people who had already accepted the truth of their sinful nature and the need of a Savior. This was done after the fact, not before they believed, or as a condition for theirnsalvation. In Ephesians 2:8,9, we find the conditions or manner of our salvation. It is by grace, through faith. Baptism is not mentioned in these verses.

The verses which we find in Mark 16:16 state very clearly that "He who believes and is baptized, will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned". A baby, in it's innocent state has a sin nature, but is incapable of forming the reason and knowledge to accept Christ and turn from tnheir sinful way. Therefore, they cannot be a believer. Baptism them does nothing for them except give them a bath of sorts. Since accepting Christ is a person matte, one which requires the level of understanding of our need for salvation,a baby canot be a believer. The child's parent cannot make that decision for them, it is necessary for the perso to make that decison for themselves. So, in essence, infant baptism is an exercise in futility. There is no need. A person should be baptized after their confession of faith and belief in Christ as their Savior.

Now, I would like to go back to the place baptism has in the life of a believer. Matthew 28:19 states that we should nbe baptized. If this is not a condition of mour salvation, then exactly why should we be baptized. Our baptism is symbolic in that it shows obedience to our belief in Christ and symmbolizes publicly that we should show the world that we have turned and repented of our sin and are now willingly follwing the path Christ has chosen for us.

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