Baptism – The time is right

Baptism,

 The past few days this thought has been playing on my mind, baptism and the meaning there of, what to expect etc. Now being born into the catholic religion I was baptised as a baby, but growing up we never practiced the catholic ways so to speak, I was baptised again at the age of 17, that was a choice I made at that stage in my life and at the church I was at. I realise now that, back then when I made the decision to get baptized I did it “just because” the option was there and I decided to do it.

 Now for a few weeks now I have wanted to get baptised, I always thought that you could only get baptised once in your life, the reason for this is that when I made the choice to be baptised my family had asked me why I wanted to do it as I was baptised when I was a baby so what is the point of doing it again?

 I asked my friend what he thought on this topic and whether it was ok to get baptised more than once, his answer was YES, it is ok to be baptised more than once.

I then did some research and found the following scripture:

 Ephesians 4:4-5 – There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

 

When I read this my first thought was that what I had been told was right that we can only be baptised once in our life according to the bible. I then sent this scripture to my friend and asked him to interpret it and tell me how he understood the scripture

 He told me this:

 It does not say that you can only be baptised once, the scripture states that there is ONE BAPTISM, meaning that there is only ONE METHOD of baptism.

This then cleared up any confusion about the scripture that I had although I still wanted some sort of confirmation, I then found another website regarding the EXACT SAME Scripture and this is exactly what this piece says.

“The Bible emphatically states that there is “One Master – One Faith – ONE “BAPTISM” (Ephesians 4:5).  This should leave no doubts that the believer has but ONE WAY that Baptism can be administered.  Only this ONE Baptism could be truly acceptable to the Most High. All other ways are merely traditions of man and Messiah Himself said that such were ‘in vain.’  Baptism based on tradition and not on the Bible, is therefore administered -‘In vain’.

This for me was all the confirmation I had needed about the scripture in question.

My next point I want to make is exactly how you get baptised, when I was baptised as a baby I had water sprinkled on my forehead, however when I was baptised at the age of 17 I was fully submerged into the water,

I looked up the meaning of baptism and this is what I found: a primary verb; to whelm, i.e. cover wholly with a fluid

 

Let’s look at the Bible and what is said about baptism and the way it needs to be performed,

Matthew 28:19-20 –“ Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age.”

 

Mark 16:15-16 – .And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”

 

Acts 8:36-38 – Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?” Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.”

So the first 2 verses I made reference to both say baptize and as I stated above the meaning of the word baptism means to cover wholly(entirely) with a fluid.

Then the last verse says that they WENT DOWN into the water, it doesn’t say that they went to a puddle.

So it is my understanding that the correct method is to be IMMERSED in the water.

While I still know very little about baptism now as I write this post I am doing research as I go along. So if anything I say is not correct please do correct me. You see I so desperately want to be baptised again I just feel that at the stage in my life that I am now, the time is right unlike the last time.

Acts 2:37-41 “Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’  And Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptised every one of you … for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit … So those who accepted His Word were baptised”.

Now this verse for me says so much, it tells me that when you are baptised your sins are forgiven, why then do certain religions perform baptism on infants? I completely disagree with that as an infant cannot understand and does not know sin so therefore there is nothing to forgive.  It also says that when being baptised you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This confuses me somewhat; I have yet to fully understand the Magnitude of this gift and exactly WHAT it is. If anyone has a deeper understanding of this please leave a comment below. What is THE GIFT of the Holy Spirit, is it being able to speak in tongues, is it being able to understand it or is it many different things and each person receives a different gift.

I have made the decision to be baptised again, however this time around I need to be sure that the time is right and that I am doing it for the right reasons.

If anyone can shed some more light on the topic please feel free to do so. I have MINIMAL knowledge on this topic so I would really appreciate some feedback, I do not want to go into this and get baptised again and not know FULLY what to expect.

God Bless