Isn't baptizing babies and circumcision basically the same?

Answer 1

What do you mean by these things being the same? When they baptize you, they pour a little water on your head (some people take a dive too, depending). When they circuncize you, they cut a portion of skin on your willy - not only because of hygiene, as they say, but because it will make you have less pleasure and pleasure = sin, get it? So, for more than one reason they aren't the same at all. You could also ask whether taking a host or killing a black goat weren't basically the same... Or whether swimming and flying weren't basically the same. In fact, in the universe everything's basically the same if you're watching from a long enough distance, which you're not. :)

Answer 2

It depends upon the denominational background of the person you ask. I cannot speak concerning Catholics because I know very little of their beliefs, so I'll speak of reformed theology and baptistic theology.

Reformed theology sees a blending of the old and new covenants. The idea is that, although the old covenant was fulfilled, there must still be a similar counterpart in the new covenant.

Circumcision, under the Jewish law, was a kind of initiation. It was a symbol of the connection between the Jewish child and the promise made by God to the Jews. In many, if not all, reformed circles, there is a belief that God has turned His back on the Jews and has now chosen the Church to replace them. Therefore, the theory goes, there must be a similar initiation. They equate infant baptism with this.

I must be honest, I cannot find an arguement for infant baptism in the Bible. The best I have encountered is an arguement from silence. In Acts, the Phillippian jailor was saved and it says that his entire household was baptised. It does not say that there were no infants, so there must have been. This is a very weak argument, at best.

The reformed denominations I am familiar with do not believe that baptism saves you, but that it "predisposes" you to be saved. They believe that it makes a person more inclined to accept Jesus. I see no evidence for this belief in scripture.

Now, the baptist view of baptism is very different. And, I'll warn you up front. This is the view I hold to. In the baptistic denominations, baptism is seen as a symbol of what God has already done in your life. It is an outward expression of the fact that God has cleansed you from your sin and saved you. It does not lead to salvation; it is a step of faith following salvation. To support this, they site the many recorded case of people being saved in the book of Acts. They were always baptised after accepting Jesus.

This is certainly not a definitive work on the subject, but I hope it helps you to sort out the truth about baptism.

Answer 3

Circumcision was done to signify a collective group of people by a patriarical families...ie; The Hebrew, Jewish nation apart from the pagan gentiles. It was sort of like the blood over the door jamb at Passover. Even grown adult men who married into or were accepted into families of non-Hebraic tribes had to be circumsized. The reason it was commanded that tiny babies be circumsized at such a young age of 8 days old is because at that point (as proven by medical science nowdays) that there is an agent in the babies bloodstream that allows blood to clot better and heal faster. Grown men would have to want acceptance really badly in order have an adult circumcision performed...extreeeemely painful and slow recovery, easily infected and so forth. Circumcision is no longer required because the blood of Christ has marked all of those that recieve Him and that belong to Him.

Baptism was never meant for infants...baptism is an act of obediance symbolizing our will to reborn in the Spirit and leave the old physical flesh self behind while we begin anew in the family of Christ Jesus. Its not a membership ritual and can have no benifit for a infant who is not old enough to make that decision or even remember the ordeal. It has to be a conscious decision. The Kingdom of God is made up of the little children..and we are to accept and recieve the message of the Gospel as little children...babes, infants, little ones. Babies are innocent and while they inherit the propensity to sin from their parents as all humans do..as well, sin has to be a conscious choice and one has to know wrong from right in order to disobey God and break His commandments. Love in Christ, ~J~ <><

Answer 4

no! baptizing is of water only , over the babies head. Circumcision, is the actual cutting of the foreskin off of the penis.
Very different things.

Answer 5

No, my son was circumsized for health reasons. He was later baptized once he got saved. In my Baptist faith, one has nothing to do with the other.

Answer 6

no. baptizing a baby involves dipping it in water for religious reasons. circumcizing involves cutting off the foreskin of the penis for health reasons..

Answer 7

Yes, in the way it is both an initiation in the religious community. One hurts more than the other, I've been told.

Answer 8

Thomas Aquinas check your theology and other facts.....they are not the same thing at all. Interesting ID name.....must know something about theology.....

Answer 9

Ya think they're basically the same? hmmmmmmmm! Let me think about that one for a minute.............
NO! They're NOT the same. Basically or otherwise.

Answer 10

No