baptizing children (three gracEmails)
infant's baptism raises questions (two gracEmails)
can a non-Christian nurse baptize a baby?
A gracEmail subscriber writes that she was baptized as a pre-teen, later rebelled, and was re-baptized in her 30's.... Now in her 60's, she ... questions now if she ever was saved. "I think it would do no good to get baptized again," she writes, "but sometimes I wonder if I should try to start over once more."
A scholarly minister writes, "I am leading a study this summer with five other families, all having children who have expressed an interest in baptism or a desire to be baptized. The children range from seven to 13 years of age. What are your thoughts on this subject?"
A gracEmail subscriber writes that his infant grandson is soon to be baptized, although Grandpa raised the baby's mother in a church that baptizes only confessing believers. This grandfather requests more information on the subject.
A gracEmail subscriber writes, "You recall that male babies in Israel were circumcised as a sign of God's covenant with his chosen people. When Christ ushered in the new covenant, did he instruct us to exclude infants from receiving baptism as the new covenant sign?"
A gracEmail subscriber writes: "You seem to say that people are initiated into the church in different ways, suggesting that Acts 2 is a pattern for Jewish conversions and Acts 10 is a pattern for Gentile conversions."
A sister on the West Coast writes that 40 years ago, as a practicing nurse, she witnessed the spontaneous delivery of a baby which died within minutes. Sensing the situation, she reached for a cup of water and poured it over the baby's head to baptize it before it died. Was that baptism valid, she wonders, since it was not immersion and since she did not consider herself a Christian at the time?