To: TexanToTheCore
"We do not do infant baptism"
Are you aware of the fact that infant baptism wasn't even questioned in the church until well after the Reformation? Orthodox Christianity teaches that Baptism produces faith. The view that Baptism is a work of man is a relatively recent idea in Christian circles. That right there should tell you something. "There is also an antitype which now saves us-baptism"(1 Peter 3:21). "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son adn of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them..."(St. Matthew 28:19-20)
As for your full immersion assertion, I would simply say that it is important not to get hung up on the mode of baptism. Martin Luther prefered immersion. However, when told that immersion was the only method, he simply refused and baptized by pouring or sprinkling. To insist on a mode of baptism(such as denying infant baptism, requiring non-infant baptism, or requiring immersion baptism) is to turn baptism from Gospel to Law.
41 posted on
10/02/2003 10:11:15 PM PDT by
loftyheights
(Lutheran Loft)
To: loftyheights
Are you aware of the fact that infant baptism wasn't even questioned in the church until well after the Reformation?Are you aware of the fact that the Waldensians rejected infant baptism in the Pope's back yard for several centuries at least (and there are some, including me, who think they were a survival of the primitive church), and didn't compromise until after the Reformation, when they decided to join with the Reformed churches under Calvin?
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