This is something that started bugging me after a random association yesterday. John the Baptist. On whose authority was he baptising people? No one had died for people's sins yet. From what I understand baptism functions in connection with that. Have I misunderstood something?
And why did Jesus need to be baptised?
I am genuinely curious about the doctrinal reasoning here. It has been a while since I studied these things and for the life of me I cannot remember anything about it. I know that there were several Jewish groups that practised baptism at the time, but I do not know the intra-Christian reasoning for this event.
As a theologian I must say I havn't been doing a lot of research after this, but the first thing I would say would be that whatever view on baptism christians have today (there are some differences on the precise theological importance between Roman Catholics, Reformed (Calvinistic), Lutheran and Baptist churches), it is clear for most people that John the Baptist baptized in a different way.
He basically told people to start living more holy, according to the law of Moses, with a huge emphasis on simply being "honest" (he didn't appear to have a well thought-out ethical system).
As an outward sign of this new way of living, this change of lifestyle, a baptism was mainly focused leaving the past behind and living better lives now. There was probably only a limited theory of salvation involved.
Why Jesus? Noone can probably give a full answer, only that it was "fitting" so that "all righteousness be fulfulled" (Mat.3:15). What all of that involves may take a few years to study, but that was Jesus' answer anyway.
Well, it is comforting to know that I had not forgotten something major and obvious. Considering the centrality of baptism in most Christian denomination, however, I am surprised that this is not more of an issue.
*MySmiley*
structured procrastinator
structured procrastinator
A question on baptism
- 10/06/2011 09:21:44 AM
1019 Views
To my knowledge, baptism does not stem from the Resurrection.
- 10/06/2011 11:01:17 AM
779 Views
What I meant
- 10/06/2011 11:03:08 AM
610 Views
I don't follow.
- 10/06/2011 11:08:07 AM
595 Views
Re: I don't follow.
- 10/06/2011 11:10:40 AM
670 Views
I don't keep up with RC theology much.
- 10/06/2011 11:15:52 AM
611 Views
Re: I don't keep up with RC theology much.
- 10/06/2011 11:17:53 AM
566 Views
They should, IMHO, but the difficulty of definitively saying is why Limbo was created.
- 11/06/2011 10:39:26 AM
677 Views
Re: They should, IMHO, but the difficulty of definitively saying is why Limbo was created.
- 11/06/2011 11:53:53 AM
598 Views
You haven't necessarily developed a wrong impression.
- 10/06/2011 11:50:53 AM
617 Views
Re: You haven't necessarily developed a wrong impression.
- 10/06/2011 11:52:27 AM
551 Views
Re: You haven't necessarily developed a wrong impression.
- 10/06/2011 11:55:01 AM
611 Views
Re: You haven't necessarily developed a wrong impression.
- 10/06/2011 11:58:36 AM
582 Views
Re: You haven't necessarily developed a wrong impression.
- 10/06/2011 12:16:46 PM
732 Views
Re: You haven't necessarily developed a wrong impression.
- 10/06/2011 12:19:16 PM
580 Views
Re: You haven't necessarily developed a wrong impression.
- 10/06/2011 12:25:08 PM
801 Views
Re: You haven't necessarily developed a wrong impression.
- 10/06/2011 12:26:30 PM
782 Views
Re: You haven't necessarily developed a wrong impression.
- 10/06/2011 12:28:45 PM
587 Views
Re: You haven't necessarily developed a wrong impression.
- 10/06/2011 12:29:43 PM
611 Views
Circumcision remains common among Christians mostly for symbolic reasons as well.
- 11/06/2011 10:48:48 AM
664 Views
Hm, I don't know. I don't think I know any non-Jews who are circumsized that see it as a symbol
- 11/06/2011 04:44:02 PM
745 Views
I took a holy dip into the Ganges
- 10/06/2011 11:48:26 AM
680 Views
Early Christians and Jews were obsessed with purity
- 10/06/2011 12:56:58 PM
713 Views
Oh, I know about the historical/academic/anthropological reason
- 10/06/2011 01:04:43 PM
656 Views
A first responce
- 10/06/2011 02:09:32 PM
784 Views
Re: A first responce
- 10/06/2011 02:15:07 PM
767 Views
Do you want a theological answer or a historical one?
- 10/06/2011 03:16:44 PM
761 Views
The theological. I already had a fairly good idea of the historical
- 10/06/2011 03:18:51 PM
616 Views
My favorite fact about baptism is that is REQUIRES water... but it can be ANY water
- 10/06/2011 04:31:12 PM
695 Views
That is absurd.
- 10/06/2011 08:37:13 PM
800 Views
It is absurd
- 10/06/2011 08:56:19 PM
621 Views
When your post is eviscerated, resorting to "HURR RELIGION IS DUMB" isn't a winning move.
- 10/06/2011 10:00:39 PM
725 Views
Psh.You can dress it up with spiritualism and semantics, but the concept boils down to "magic water"
- 11/06/2011 03:56:03 AM
586 Views
The point is that it's a symbol.
- 11/06/2011 04:45:19 AM
589 Views
I have no problem with water as a symbol
- 11/06/2011 04:59:52 AM
663 Views
You are totally missing the point.
- 11/06/2011 02:46:08 PM
749 Views
Which again, is something that sounds nice and spiritual, but doesn't actually make any sense
- 11/06/2011 03:46:51 PM
719 Views
your problem is you're trying to apply objective logic to religion
- 11/06/2011 04:13:01 PM
973 Views
I'm not, exactly. Religion has internal logic. For example, certain things are "unclean"
- 11/06/2011 04:40:33 PM
608 Views
Beliefs about holy water are internally logical.
- 11/06/2011 07:36:08 PM
653 Views
Shrug. It was on topic.
- 11/06/2011 08:06:16 PM
925 Views
The more I read of your posts, the more I think you fundamentally misunderstand religious symbolism. *NM*
- 11/06/2011 10:51:17 PM
257 Views
Let me clarify: your statements are absurd.
- 10/06/2011 10:14:06 PM
631 Views
Check my response to Ghav for elaboration, but basically, your argument doesn't hold
- 11/06/2011 04:00:18 AM
610 Views
You went from saying spit was good to saying "clean water".
- 12/06/2011 02:04:26 AM
541 Views
I'm completely consistent. I was just staying away from extremes for conversation's sake.
- 12/06/2011 09:02:02 AM
583 Views
No one from a respectable faith thinks of holy water as "magic water". Period. *NM*
- 13/06/2011 04:56:53 AM
258 Views
All I know, Is a Lutheran Pastor told me, b/c i was not baptised I was going to hell, and had *NM*
- 11/06/2011 03:44:38 PM
235 Views
I never thought of it in that way, that is why I like this site 
*NM*
- 12/06/2011 04:26:40 PM
275 Views
*NM*
- 12/06/2011 04:26:40 PM
275 Views