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So what is Baptism?
1. It is an initiation into the church - i.e., the world-wide church.
2. It is symbolic - it represents, by the use of water, a washing, a cleansing and, in the nature of the Christian faith,
it represents also a dying to sin and a rising to newness of life. This may seem a strange process for a baby to go through,
but it does signify a commitment to a Christian lifestyle - which is markedly different from a `worldly` lifestyle.
3. It is promissory, in that the vows made on the child's behalf commit those taking the vows to bringing the child up within
the life and worship of the church, AND, to showing the child a good, Christian example in their own lives.
Therefore, by bringing your child for Baptism, you will be nailing your colours and your child's, to the mast, as it were. You
will be promising to lead a Christian lifestyle yourself - to supporting the church by attending regularly and giving generously;
but also promising to promote a Christian lifestyle for your child(ren).
Baptism is biblically based. John (the Baptist) baptised Jesus in the river Jordan and thereby signified Jesus' 'one-ness'
with us. From earliest Christian times, believers asked to be baptised and it became the public proclamation that they had
decided to follow Christ; their present lifestyle was 'washed away' and a new life begun. We can read, in Acts of the Apostles
Chapter 2, how people in the very earliest days of the church, were urged to "repent and be baptised". In other words, they
were being urged to adopt a new life, where Christ would be the main influence, and the values He taught would be their
guiding principles. Of course, as time went by, and the believers married and had families, they wished their children to
receive this initiation as well, so what we now know as `infant Baptism` came to be commonly practised.
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