split sea – Kanisa la Christadelphian huko Anderlecht

Photo by Andres Pu00e9rez Manjarres on Pexels.com

At the time of Jesus, adults were immersed as a sign of surrender to the Only True God, the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. For the Hebrews, baptism was also a reminder of the People of Israel, who had to pass through the water after slavery to experience real freedom. They had always lived as slaves and did not know any better, but because of the split sea they walked towards their liberation. The descendants also wanted to remember this liberation. The point is not to be a slave to the world anymore, but to be freed by the Grace of God.

Jesus was also baptised in adulthood before he began his preaching tours. It could be said that there was no reason at all that Jesus should be baptised. He was a very pious Jew who had committed no sins at all and had completely surrendered to his Father. Yet he thought it was passable to be baptised.
He himself also instructed his disciples to preach and baptise people in the Name of the Father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that Jesus had commanded them. (Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15) Those baptisms were there for the forgiveness of sins and to receive the free gift of the Spirit (Acts 2:38) and were also a sign to others that they wanted to give up as a believer (Acts 8:12-13)

Today, for us, baptism is also a confession for the entire community that one surrenders to God and wants to come under Christ, and that one now wants to go through life as a brother or sister in Christ.

It is so easy for young people to take something very enthusiastically and then, with equal fire, tackle something else again. We also notice that in certain Trinitarian churches several young people are baptised, but after a few years, they have completely lost the way of God. Others show that they had not understood the person of God properly and had or had not submitted to a Trinity unless, however, very few were convinced that they had dedicated themselves to a simple God. The latter category is special and commendable. But they will ultimately have to admit that their baptism happened for members of a Trinitarian church and thus cannot be seen as a surrender to a community of true worshippers of the One True God.

It may be safe that in his teenage years, the adolescent was convinced with the knowledge already acquired that they had it right. They could even say « Yes » to questions asked at the time.
Could those teenagers at that stage really realise what baptism really means and what it means to take the step of the assignment as a perpetual ’vow to God’ to always do His will, involving their entire lives?

I believe that when one has passed 12 years, one can indeed make a serious choice for God. Teenage baptism is therefore a valid union between the baptismal candidate and God. Suppose that baptism happened in a non-Trinitarian church, as in the Church of God, the Abrahamic Church of God, Church of the Blessed Hope or « CGAF » (associated with Christadelphians), the Non-Trinitarian Baptists or the Witnesses of Jehovah. In that case, it is an acceptable baptism for us.

However, if it was a baptismal matter in a Trinitarian church, such as the Pentecostal church, we must insist that people re-baptise better and give a sign of humility towards the religious community by being completely immersed in the presence of non-Trinitarian brothers and sisters.