Baptism
... One of the main reasons for the different denominations is their core, or fundamental, difference of belief concerning baptism. I hope to show many of the individual beliefs that are held by the different denominations, and to go back to the Bible and show what it has to say concerning baptism. ... If we go back to the original Greek we find several words used for baptism, baptizing, and baptized. ... The most common Greek word used to describe the act of baptism is ƒÒƒÑƒàƒä_ƒê_ƒÙƒå. This is the word used throughout scripture for baptism. ... Here we have our requirements for baptism as laid out by the Bible: 1) You must repent of your sins 2) You must be immersed in water 3) You must come to be baptized (not be brought) Later in Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus adds to these requirements that the believer: 4)Be baptized by another believer 5)Be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit According to the scriptures John the son of Zechariah in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar came out of the wilderness and preached baptism for the repentance of sins (Luke 3; RSV). ... Even here with Christs own baptism we see him following the second, third, and fourth rules. ... Here Jesus himself is showing us that baptism is something good and, something that every believer should do. Jesus even says that this own baptism is fitting(ƒàƒâ_ƒàƒßƒÞ) to fulfil all righteousness (Matthew 3:15 RSV). ... This implies Gods own will in Jesuss baptism. God himself endorses baptism again by opening the heavens after Jesuss baptism and says This is my son in whom I am well pleased(Matthew 3:17, Mark 1:11, Luke 3:22 RSV). ... Primitive Baptism, or the tradition of Baptism found in the early Church, is outlined for use through out the New Testament (Acts 2:38, 10:48, Galatians 3:27; NIV). It is still argued today whether or not water-baptism was practiced in the early Church (White 1960). ... Weizsackers statement in his book The Apostolic Age(1958), From all our authorities there can be no doubt that [baptism] was practiced from an early date in the Apostolic period. In light of the fact that in scripture the apostle neither added or took away from baptism, then Weizsackers statement holds to be true. ... Beasley-Murrays book Baptism in the New Testament(1963) he brings out what scholars believe Pauls view of baptism was. In consideration to the amount of scripture that Paul did write and the amount of teaching he did in the early Church, many people have stated that he has an unclear viewpoint on baptism. ... Baptism is an initiation into life in Christ and the Church (Beasley-Murray 1963),symbolically joining with Christ in his crucifixion and his subsequent resurrection (Romans 6:3-4 NIV). As for the specifics in baptism we find Paul true to the teaching of Immersion. The Greek word used in the sixth chapter of Romans is ƒÒƒÑƒàƒä_ƒèƒç or baptizo meaning to make fully wet; used only in the New Testament of the ceremonial or ordinance of baptism(Strong 1996).