What is the point in being christened or baptised?

Question

How can young babies have "sinned" if they haven't long been born? It doesn't make sense!

Answer 1

There IS no point in baptising a Baby beside to add it to the "roll" of a church and JACK UP its numbers. PERIOD.

Christ was, what, 29? when he got baptised? Somewhere in there? He denoted Baptism as a part as a spiritual PROGRESSION where it was an individuals choice WHEN to become baptised in Christ and God and the Holy Spirit and not to do it when you DIDN'T KNOW WHAT THOSE MEANT! That would be a blasphemy and a mockery of what he had done in the River Jorden.

This was added by the Catholic Church over a thousand years or so later, for the MOOLAH! $$$$$$$$$$$$$

Answer 2

for one before anyone can be held accoutable for sins they have to reach the age of accountability. now this isnt and age like 5 or 12 years old its when the mind can understand the difference between right and wrong. sometimes its at young ages 2,3,4 like that but sometime depending on the persons mind it could be way late in life think of someone mentally hadicaped for instance. now i dont know about christening but one isnt baptised until after there conversion to christ. as christ was burried in the tomb and rose agian on the third day the baptism of believers repersent that the old man ( or the way we was before converting living a sinful life) is baptised when you go under the water it repersents dieing then as you come out of the water it repersents being born again or putting on the new man one thats had his sins forgivin read romans chapter 6

Answer 3

It's part of the worst of theology, the pretense than an innocent child comes into the world with Adam's sins on the baby's 'account.'

I think what the concept of carrying the sin of Adam was supposed to mean was that you are born into this life paying for your parents' actions.

Now, Jesus was baptized and since he was without sin, I don't know what that does to the whole concept, but contradictions have never stopped the christians from pretending they know what's going on.

Answer 4

Since this question presumes Christian beliefs, I will answer according to the Scriptures and the Church.
All humans, while not always guilty of personal sin themselves, ARE tainted by the sin of Adam. It's like if your father was a criminal who was convicted and serving time in prison, YOU may not be guilty of HIS crime, but his crimes do affect you - economically, socially, sometimes legally too. It is the same with God- We are not guilty personally of Adam's sin, but we are affected by it, spiritually.
Scripture says we are ALL born into "iniquity". That is a literary term for EVIL. It means that even if we are not personally guilty of evil, we are affected by the evil others do. If someone stomps on a mudpuddle, everyone around him is splashed with the mud, and no longer clean. Baptism is what cleans our souls. The 1st epistle of Peter says at verse 3:21 "...The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: ..." shows one aspect for which Baptism is required. It's not for washing the flesh, but for washing our souls so that we can be saved. Jesus commanded his disciples to take the good news to all the world and to BAPTIZE everyone (in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit) Matt 28:19 He also commanded his disciples to repent and BE BAPTIZED Mark 16:16. It is recorded that Paul baptized entire families : Acts 10:4748- the FAMILY of Cornelius ( why assume that it was adults only? that is a modern-day assumption. The ancients understood it to mean EVERYONE children, servants and all.) the family of Lydia (Acts 16:15) and the jailer (acts 16:33) and his entire family. Again why presume that children were NOT included? Weren't children (boys) circumcized on the 8th day to bring them under the old covenant? did they have a choice on that? No- it was performed on the faith of their parents. They were bar-miztvahed at 13 to bring them under the Law, to make them responsible for themselves at that point. Just as the Catholic Church ( along with Anglicans, Methodists and Lutherans) does with baptism, followed by Confirmation in the teen years.
The earliest instruction manual for teaching Christianity, even before there was a BIBLE ( ie New and Old testaments) is called the DIDACHE, or the "Teachings of the Apostles" It is dated somewhere between 95 to 120 AD. So if you're one who believes the Catholic Church didn't exist until 325 AD, then this document is 200 years older than the Catholic Church, and it commands baptizing infants ( using the Trinitarian formula, by the way...), so do many other documents dated in the first, 2nd and 3rd centuries. Not that they are regarded as "scripture" but they do show a consistent and very early practice and belief in baptizing children, right back to living memory of the eyewitnesses of Jesus and the Apostles.

Answer 5

The Lord commanded us to be baptized, and it's an integral part of receiving salvation.
Acts 2:38
Peter said, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

According to 1 Peter 3:18-22, baptism actually washes your sins away.
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also - not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand - with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

Galatians 3:26-28 says:
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Baptism is a decision that one must make. If a baby has been sprinkled with water, I believe that it does not count. You, not your parents, are in charge of your own mind. Do you think that Jesus recognizes a baby baptism when that baby has grown up to reject God and Jesus Christ? How can that baptism possibly help?

Answer 6

babies are sin free up until their first sin.

ask Jesus into your life and be born again by the power of the Gospel (an actual real life event in your real life) if you do this in a prayer sincerely God will answer you! you have to truely seek then God will answer!

Answer 7

Baptism takes away original sin. In the Catholic Church it is when the parents promise to raise the child in the church. Confirmation is when the child is old enough to stand up and say I belief, I choose this faith and Christ, and I renounce Satan and all of his works.

Answer 8

We're born sinners. A lot of things about religion don't make sense.

Answer 9

I do not believe that babies or young children need to be baptized... not until they reach the age of reasoning... when they can understand right and wrong... and know when they have done wrong.

Answer 10

Where I go to church, only those who have been born again are baptized as being faithful to God (to symbolize your salvation). There's no saving power in water.