Would you get baptized outside in a frozen lake?

Question

My minister plans on having an outside baptism this coming sunday!

Answer 1

i was and it was great

Answer 2

Many years ago, I led a young man to the Lord. I worked in a ministry, and have credentials. The young man approached me in mid January, very cold that year. He asked me to baptize him, I said, "your mom has a nice church with a pool to be baptized in" He said, no, I want you to baptize me because I know you really live a Christian life." I said, "do you realize, it's January and freezing?" He replied, "God will keep us warm" I had no idea,,,,,,but, with faith like that, what was I to do. So, at almost dark, with the wind whipping around every where, with his mother, sister and a friend present, (All with coats on) we proceeded to wade into the freezing Tennessee River. (I had spent most of my life in Florida, and didn't get into the water up here before late July/August. )
I didn't feel the first bit of chill.., we waded right into that river, baptized the young man, and out without the first bit of cold! Praise the Lord...He is awesome. It took a teenager to open my eyes. "All things are possible to those that believe"

Answer 3

No, but the minister could get some of the water and warm it up to sprinkle/pour on the one getting baptized.

Answer 4

If I was actually planning on getting baptised, I suppose I'd do it no matter what the weather. I have not seen it done in person that I can recall, but we have photos in our family of people being baptised in icy water where the ice had to be broken before the baptism could take place.

I know that some people do not believe in indoor baptisms (including some members of my family) and some churches also do not have indoor baptism pools (such as the one my grandparents helped to found). I also imagine that some people don't believe in waiting to get baptised for long after you consider yourself saved, or perhaps they just do not want to wait.

I remember when I saw those photos as a child or heard someone mention getting baptised after breaking the ice (or something that brought it up), I thought it sounded dangerous, since getting dipped in ice cold water in the middle of winter sounds dangerous to your health and I would imagine it would get you sick, but my family told me that they believed if you had enough faith in the Lord (which you should if you considered yourself saved), then you would not get sick. I suppose not getting baptised during such a time, if you considered yourself recently saved, might seem like a lack of faith to some. To others it might seem like good common sense. I suppose it's similar to people handling snakes. People who do that religiously do it as a show of faith, but other people consider it to be unecessary even of a Christian and tempting fate/being careless with the body God has given them. I can understand both arguments, but I personally wouldn't handle a posinous snake (though I'd like to watch). However, since I'm young, I wouldn't mind being dipped in icy water in winter as bad, since my body could probably handle it well enough to survive even if I became ill.

My family would not do the snake handling, but I suppose they consider baptism to be an important Christian act, and they don't see touching snakes as such, so maybe they think that makes a difference to God. I'm just hypothesising on parts of this and am neither agreeing nor disagreeing with them.

Anyway, my grandfather and another man baptised my aunt, her husband, and her sister-in-law (her husband's sister and her brother/my uncle's wife) all in icy water after breaking the ice, in one day. This story is according to my mother, since I was not alive at the time, but she estimated it to be in Jan. or Feb. of 1977, which would make my grandfather almost 67. He had had heart surgery and his lungs were bad, but mom says he never so much as got sniffles and that he stood in the water the whole time while all three were baptised. My mother also said that the other man helping baptise them and the three people who were baptised and submerged completely in the water, never got sick.

Perhaps it was God who kept them safe. It could also be mind over matter. For what ever reason, there is some evidence to suggest that faith, belief, emotion, and mental and emotional states in general, can affect our health. I am not saying faith healing has been proven, only that there are some studies to suggest that it might actually have some positive affect, for whatever reason.

I am not looking at any of the news articles right now, but I have seen some on the issue of meditation and prayers' affects on our physical states, as well as read about the affects of emotions on our health, etc. If you try to research it, you should find a wealth of information. As a side note, I have a feeling that it'd be easier to have enough faith to overcome cold water than snake poison, but I have not seen any studies done on this, so who knows?

Answer 5

I've seen this done many times. After chopping the ice off the top, there where no problems.

Answer 6

No, I would not,unless John The Baptist were there.