baptism

there is a great word in sanskrit, and it is called... abhisekha, which means "sprinkling, or pouring", but which is often a name given for initiation... could John be metaphorically baptising Jesus?
 
Francis king said:
there is a great word in sanskrit, and it is called... abhisekha, which means "sprinkling, or pouring", but which is often a name given for initiation... could John be metaphorically baptising Jesus?
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The Greek word for baptism (baptizo) means immersion. In context, John the Baptist said, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:" - Matt 3:11

The implication here is that when Jesus baptizes in the Holy Ghost, that person is completely submerged in the Spirit, engulfed in the Presence of God. Likewise, when we look at Romans 6:1-5, the passage likens baptism with the dead, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and as such the picture is of one being buried or submerged and coming out of the water raised to new life. One cannot get this from a mere sprinkling, IMHO. A little dab doesn't do ya.
 
Alex, perhaps you should get baptized several times in several churches. You will learn lots and make many friends. There's 'one Lord, one faith, and one baptism' but that doesn't limit you to getting dunked just once. Some will insist upon you sharing certain strong doctrinal opinions and try to tie you to their own understanding. They practice the pre-John way to baptize, which is no less valid -- however baptism into factionalism is not a good idea. Can you visit a factional church? By all means, and perhaps you will be doing the good work of visiting the prisoners there, but don't let anyone talk you into joining such faction or helping them uphold the correct point of view. Your own point of view can change after you join, and then you will have a painful choice to make.

I Corinthians 1:13-21 said:
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I am thankful that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius; lest any one should say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any one else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will thwart." Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
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I'm partial both to what Dondi is saying and to what Francis is saying. I think that being baptized into Christ is ceasing to see yourself as an individual and instead being part of the whole body. Paul spends time describing us as members of one body, and I think we are supposed to take that more literally than figuratively. This helps to explain many things, including Jesus' teaching about blindness.

Blindness was one of the plagues Israel was to receive when they were disobedient. Scripturally, blindness in Israel is not possible if the nation is obedient. This made some people think a blind man must have personally sinned. Others, including Jesus, said that it was to the glory of God, which I say means it was the result of the entire body of Moses' sin. Interestingly, blindness is the thing that all factions accuse each other of, and to them Jesus says 'take out the log in your own eye before picking the speck out of your brother's '.(Matthew 7:3)
Selections from 1 Corinthians 12 said:
13-14 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body -- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free -- and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

22-27 On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
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Dream said:
There's 'one Lord, one faith, and one baptism'
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*rushes out in his spandex*

HEY!

One man! One goal!!! ONE MISSION! One heart! one soul!!! Just one soultion! One flash.... Of light! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeea! One god! One VISION! One flesh! One bone, one true religion! one voice, one hope, one real decision!! woo0oo0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o give me one vision ;)

Dream said:
Alex, perhaps you should get baptized several times in several churches. You will learn lots and make many friends.
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Sounds sound ;) Can never learn enough nor gain too many friends!

Dream said:
Can you visit a factional church? By all means, and perhaps you will be doing the good work of visiting the prisoners there, but don't let anyone talk you into joining such faction or helping them uphold the correct point of view. Your own point of view can change after you join, and then you will have a painful choice to make.
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A what? Prisoners? I is lost?
 
Factionals are spiders imprisoned by their own spittle. Searching high and low for people who think the same things they do, they join together in building a web to help find even more people who see similarly to them. They think they are saving the world! They forget that the web is sticky. Occasionally someone in the group disagrees, but their disagreement is frowned upon and cowed down and their friends urge them to once again agree with everyon else. The freedom of thought that brought them to the net is destroyed, and their own lives are taken as substance to build more webbing.
 
i was baptized and hold it as a very special moment in my life. it also shows God in three persons, as we are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
 
Alex P said:
just a quickee......

Is there -anywhere- you can get a full underwater baptism... but, you don't have to join that church/group/denomination? Just curious ;/
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You can be baptized by any other baptized Christian. Priests are preferred, but a baptism by another baptized Christian is just as 'effective.' They just need to use the Trinitarian formula (it can be found in the Book of Common Prayer). I would guess that you could do a full immersion or sprinkle or anything in between.

Having said that, my own take on it is that being baptized means joining the Body of Christ, so community is important. But, that does not mean you must join some particular church.
 
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