A Baptism and Christening Ceremony Ritual

A Baptism and Christening Ceremony Ritual

Baptism is a ritual in Christianity performed to their believers mainly during their infant age, as an admission rite to the church through the use of water following the example of Jesus Christ in River Jordan. It is also applicable in indoctrination to observe certain practices with the belief that the essential for life after death. It is a holy sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church perceived as a grace-giving way and a cleansing to the original sin. Believers have different perceptions, such as that of the Lutherans that it is a mandate from God, for Methodists a symbolic way of grace-giving and not an approach to the cleansing of the sins.

This Christian rite of passage has had progress historically associated with ecumenical consensus and collaboration. It has involved many liturgies revised in different denominations from the ancient Christian rituals. Some books covered this issue, such as the liturgical Book of Common Prayer produced in the western Christendom, which showed their religiosity and social conditions after which came rites that recovered Christian history in the contemporary social terms. The power of this ritual has adversely been affected by the western rationalism and the protestant anti-sacra mentalism because baptism is both anthropological and liturgical, transforming the status of the people involved. It happens once in a lifetime, is social because it is inclusive of the community, place, and role of individuals.

Baptism has the significance of moving individuals from death to life, introducing them to a brand new and blessed life, taking them into a new family. It is a sign of obedience to following Christ and a general act of obedience that should go through a public declaration. It is a mean of following Christ because baptism set him not being a sinner and set an example to all Christian believers.

Obedience is in faith to the Jesus’ commands established that Christians should go and make disciples in all nations while baptizing them in the name of the father, the son and the holy spirit and being in the obedience of all Jesus’ commands because he is with the believers till the last days. The public declaration is about confessing the faith in following Christ through repentance. It follows the verse that dictated Christians to go and announce God’s news and message, and the baptized believers saved and the unbelievers damned.

Baptism represents God’s Holy Spirit glory that should be received by the repentant believers who have been forgiven and is thus a requirement for salvation. This symbolism comes entirely into its meaning when a believer accepts the bibles’ teachings of being immersed in water. The representation of this immersion in water is the death and burial of old self or sins or a prior conversion of the way of living. Joins the believer spiritually to the end and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, where the blood is a cleansing for the sins. During the baptism, rising of the water is a representation of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It iTis believed that the baptized person comes out of the watery grave and gets into a newness life.

Baptism has effects of sins getting forgiven, children of God getting adopted, an initiation into the church, a bond to other Christians, and a sign of character configuration to Christ. Sins getting forgiven imply the removal of original and personal sins and the temporal punishment due to these sins, although concupiscence remains. The inclination to sins is minded darkening and will weaken. As adopted children of God, believers share divine life and the temple of the Holy Spirit and thus live in union with God because of being made righteous. The initiation into the church implies becoming members through Christ’s body and hence a union through Christ’s priesthood, prophetic, and royal mission because of a call out of darkness into marvelous light. A bond is created between other Christians through a common foundation inclusive of all the dominions because the rite involves immersion or pouring of water, and the baptismal character means that the believers are introduced into christ through the indelible spiritual mark and bears the unrepeatable fruit of salvation (CCC 1272).It confirms Christians to belong to Christ permanently.

The history of baptism emanates from John the Baptist, who is the forerunner of Christianity, where baptism was the central messianic movement sacrament in his era with its real institution being one by Jesus. Immersion began as the first mode of baptism, with others getting used afterward. Evolution in baptism happened with the third and fourth century marked by catechetical instructions, chrismation, exorcisms, laying on of hands, and the creed recitation. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, affusion was the trending mode. During the sixteenth century, there was a reformation of baptism to be symbolic.

Baptism shows obedience in Christ through which the faith of believers in Jesus Christ emancipated through the crucifixion, burial, and the rising of Christ as the savior. This is because they symbolize the death of their sins, old life end through burial, and readiness to resurrect and walk in the new life of Jesus Christ. It is a testimony to all believers in their faith, where this happens in the resurrection of the dead.

Baptism is sacred because it is adopted and admitted as a Christian rite through immersion of water and is associated with the synoptic gospels of the baptism of Jesus Christ by John the Baptist. It involves a true believers‘ blood martyrdom before baptism in their Christian service, and that of desire, consisting of the initiation of those who were preparing to be baptized but died before this considered sacred. It is done following the process of in the name of the father, his son, and the Holy Spirit. It also involves the trial and experience of a person getting initiated, purified, and being given a name.

REFERENCES

Jeremy Myers (2019). The long history of Baptism. Redeeming God. Liberating you from wrong ideas about God.www.redeeminggod.com/history-of-baptism/

Luke Mounsey (2015) The Doctrines of Baptism. Preserved word ministries blog. www.preservedword.com/content/the-doctrine-of-baptism.

Nicholas Taylor (n.d).  The social and cultural context of baptism. The simple function of ritual.