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Thread: Your opinions on baptizing at home.

  1. #1
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    Default Your opinions on baptizing at home.

    Hi all,

    All our family worship and bible study is done here at home. We sing, we pray together, read the bible, I tell bible stories to my kids (all about age 9 ), and we listen to preachers on TV or radio from time to time. We just don't go to a church.

    We have tried churches, but for practical and sometimes philosophical reasons we haven't found one to settle into. We won't try anymore either. We are okay with the way it is now, worshiping at home. We do fellowship with other believers, just not at a church.

    Now, all that being the case, I have come to a situtation I would like some opinions on from Christians here at TTOL. My children have asked to be baptized. I feel they are completely ready for it, which to me is meaningful and important in a baptism. I think, as some people do, that baptism should be for those that know what it is all about. I was baptized as an infant, but now think it'd be better to be conscious of what it means at the time. My kids do fully understand what it means. And, they have asked for it and want it dearly. The time has come, they should be baptized.

    Is baptism something a layman can perform? Must one be "ordained" to baptize? John the Baptist wasn't "ordained," or was he, somehow? As in, was he ordained because he was chosen directly by God? He baptized our Lord in the river. So, I am pretty sure it doesn't have to take place at a church? But, is it something anyone with a heart for the Lord can do? What is everyone's opinion about doing this baptism ourselves? Thank you.


  2. #2
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    I dont see anything wrong with it. The exchange and purpose of the baptism is between your child and God, not the church building and them.

    Jesus was baptised in a river.

    That being said, that is the same truth for going to a church building or having a home church. It doesn't need to be a formal building with the sole purpose of worship. It could be someone's home.

    Again, the relationship is between God and man, not the building, statues or anything contained in the building.


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  3. #3
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    We are planning to do some baptisms this summer in our pool. As Bethshaya said it's not about a church building or an organized religion.

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    In an emergency situation anyone may preform a baptism for another and it can happen anywhere. Delivery room nurses are often trained to do so where the new-born infant is not expected to survive more than a few minutes. All Christians reject baptism for the dead.

    Believers in adult baptism should be baptized by their minister, whomever that may happen to be. In a home church the role of the minister should be that of the father as spiritual head of both family and (in this case) church.

    In my opinion, while it's fine for a mother to teach children the things of God, a mother can never be the spiritual head based solely on her gender. She must always defer that role to a male, preferably her husband. Here we look at "adult" baptism in a non-emergency situation and I would be extremely uncomfortable with a female usurping a role which she is forbidden to exercise.

  5. #5
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    We have baptized 3 at home, for reasons similar to yours. Our daughters, still quite young came to the realization on their own because of our home Bible study that they were in need of both salvation through Jesus Christ, and baptism. We went through both processes thoroughly, and they both still speak of their baptisms as being a special day. I think it took.

    The third was my wife, who had been sprinkled as a child and wanted to be immersed as an adult of her own free will.

    Scripturally I don't see any problem, though you would most likely hear otherwise from at least some in "organized" religion.

    Much of the story of the first century church in Acts was the telling of converted lay people getting involved and "doing the stuff".
    Last edited by MarkB; 04-22-2011 at 04:19 PM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by 19K View Post
    is it something anyone with a heart for the Lord can do?
    Yes.
    My first two kids were baptized in a lake by our pastor, assisted by other men of the congregation (around 1993). Around 1997, daughter and three neighbors were baptized in a creek by my husband. Around 2001, youngest son was baptized by my husband in an ice-cold "brook" in Vermont, when we were up there helping with tent revivals in a ministry that we were part of. We've also baptized a girl in a borrowed baptistry at a church that hosted our street ministry in New Orleans, and we baptized a neighborhood girl we led to the Lord in our bathtub.

    The important things about baptism are:

    • The person has professed Jesus Christ as his/her Lord and Savior
    • He/she understands the significance of baptism, that it is an outward testimony to others of an inward act: dying to your old life and being born anew in Christ
    • It is performed by a born-again, Bible-believing follower of the Lord Jesus Christ
    • It is done in front of "others". I believe if you do it at home, you should invite other believers to participate, or else do it in a public place where people will witness it -- like in a swimming hole, lake, creek, etc.
    IF you are willing & obedient , you shall eat the good of the land: But if you refuse & rebel, You shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. Isaiah 1:19, 20

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    I come from an organized (SDA) church. We believe in immersion. The pastor usually does it as head of the church. Sometimes an Elder does it (under the jurisdiction of the pastor) for various reasons, one being our pastor has three churches, another it was his grandson.

    But I would say that the father as the head of the home/church would be very blessed to be able to baptize his own children. My nephews were baptized in a river.

    I think its wonderful that your children understand and have requested baptism.
    "When Christ uttered the cry, 'It is finished,' he knew that the battle was won. As a moral conqueror, he planted his banner on the eternal heights. Was there not joy among the angels? Not a son nor a daughter of Adam but could now lay hold on the merits of the spotless son of God, and say: 'Christ has died for me. He is my saviour...'" - Ellen G. White.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Snowbandit View Post
    Here we look at "adult" baptism in a non-emergency situation and I would be extremely uncomfortable with a female usurping a role which she is forbidden to exercise.
    Why could a woman not baptize someone? While I agree that the husband is the head of the wife, and men should be in positions of leadership in the church, there is no scripture saying that a woman can not baptize someone. If a woman can lead someone to the Lord, I see no reason why she could not baptize that person.
    IF you are willing & obedient , you shall eat the good of the land: But if you refuse & rebel, You shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. Isaiah 1:19, 20

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    Quote Originally Posted by Snowbandit View Post
    All Christians reject baptism for the dead.
    I think that it is important to note that not all Christians reject baptism for the dead.

    That is more of an opinion than a fact.

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    Quote Originally Posted by grower View Post
    Why could a woman not baptize someone? While I agree that the husband is the head of the wife, and men should be in positions of leadership in the church, there is no scripture saying that a woman can not baptize someone. If a woman can lead someone to the Lord, I see no reason why she could not baptize that person.
    This comes from a paragraph that starts out, "in my opinion" and is further qualified (as you noted) in the sentence by the statement "I would be extremely uncomfortable.......". I'm not saying it's wrong, just that for me it doesn't feel right.

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