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Believer's Baptism or Infant Christening, What's the Difference?

Believer’s Baptism or Infant Christening,
What’s the Difference?

Before I begin by looking into the methods and meanings by each of the protestant Christian denominations of baptism or christening, I will examine what the dictionary definition of those two words is. For christening there is, 1) to baptize 2) to name at baptism (Webster “Christening”), being that this word points to another word “baptism” or “baptize” which is what we are examining. For baptism there is, 1) to administer baptism to 2) a: to purify or cleanse spiritually esp. by a purging experience or ordeal b: to initiate 3) to give a name to (as at baptism) – Christen (Webster “Baptism”). This can be rather confusing trying to sort out all that is found in the dictionary, but to sum it up in a Christian sense of the word, in general christening to the Christian church is the symbolic act of being claimed by God as one of his chosen.

How is baptism different between denomination and another, first there is the idea of eligibility and the methods of administration of baptism by the different denominations. Also another question is why are some acts in the church considers sacraments of Christ and others not, Baptism or Christening is unanimously considered a sacrament in those denominations that hold specific sacraments. In those denominations that don’t hold sacraments as a sacred act ordained by God, Baptism or Christening is still considered an act ordained by Christ. Webster says that a sacrament is a Christian rite (as baptism or the Eucharist) that is believed to have been ordained by Christ and that is held to be a means of divine grace or to be a sign or symbol of a spiritual reality (Webster, “Sacrament”) Here it specifically lays out the two primary sacraments of the Christian church.

Eligibility

For the many different denominations, there are two different terms of eligibility for baptism, Believer’s Baptism, and Infant Baptism. While all denominations practice Believer’s Baptism, there are some that practice Infant Baptism followed by Confirmation. Often the denominations that do not practice Infant Baptism will have Infant Christening, which is a form of baby dedication. For churches that do not practice Infant Christening, but instead have Infant Baptism, will have a rite or passage of Confirmation where that individual makes the same decisions as is practiced with believers baptism. This is similar to one of the definitions of the word baptism which states, “most commonly in the technical sense of a religious ceremony of initiation” (Grant 87). This simply means that for denominations that practice Infant Baptism there is a rite of passage or “coming of age” such as in Judaism (Molloy 307) when the individual officially joins the Church of God

For the Southern Baptists, the idea of Infant Baptism is not practiced for Believer’s Baptism is what is practiced, but the idea of baby dedication is which is when parents of a child bring their child up in the church and bring the child up in front of the others and the beginning of the child’s life is practiced.

Method of Administration

There are three types of Baptism, or Christening which are immersion, sprinkling, and pouring. These three methods, are seen by the different denominations as either one is more important than another one of the three. For Presbyterians, Methodists the preferred method of choice is sprinkling. Although for Methodists sprinkling is the preferred method, any of the three may be administered upon request.

For Southern Baptists the reason why they will only choose immersion is that in the original (Greek translation of the bible, where all commandments come from, where ever the idea of baptism is presented the Greek word baptizô is used.

“baptizô itself teaches that neither pouring nor sprinkling constitutes New Testament baptism. … It should be noted that while the verbs for pour and sprinkle appear in the New Testament, neither is used for baptism. No usage has been found where baptizô means either pour or Sprinkle” (Hobbs 86)

Sacraments

In the Episcopal Church there are seven sacraments that are set forth, these are the same as with the Catholic Church. These seven are baptism, Eucharist (Lord’s Supper or communion), confirmation, absolution (penance), marriage, extreme unction (anointing of the sick) and ordination (orders) (Harmon 34).

In the Bible where the Christian church claims authority of how life is and will be in actuality there is no method of administration prescribed for baptism, although there are the three major methods practiced today, sprinkling pouring, and immersion.

Works Cited

Grant, Frederick C. et al. Dictionary of the Bible New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1963.

Harmon, Richard W. Baptists and Other Denominations Nashville: Convention Press, 1984.

Hobbs, Herschel H. The Baptist Faith and Message Nashville: Convention Press, 1971.

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary. Tenth Edition. 1998.

Molloy, Michael. Experiencing the World’s Religions Mountain View: McGraw Hill, 2002.

Bibliographical information for this paper:

Author: Daniel Adams
Professor of Class: M. Lara
Class: REL201 Comparative Religions
Date: November 13, 2001

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