Baptism:What are the different controversies in Christianity

This issue is of very much importance to me because I have never willingly been baptized by water. I was baptized secretly by my uncle when I was about 6 months old. He is a firm believer that there is something significant about baptism, and especially baptism as an infant. But, just in the past year I have really started to do some research on the subject. How important is the action of being baptized? Why is it so important to be baptized? What are the different opinions of baptism? When did people start being baptized? Should I be baptized? Should everyone be baptized

? And, the most important question of all, why did Jesus imperatively stress baptism.

In the past, I have always been pressured into being baptized. I have never thought it was a bad thing or even that I did not want to be baptized for a certain reason. When I was a child, I thought it was something that only adults did. But, by the time I was an adult I really wanted to know for what reason I would be baptized. So, I started researching the subject. I found that Jesus was not baptized until age thirty. I did not see anywhere in the bible that it was required to be baptized, so I was in no hurry to do it. I was also told that I needed to be ready to be baptized. I needed to cleanse myself before and really understand why I was being baptized. Because, in my old church, the preacher would ask every person, in front of the whole crowd, why they were being baptized. I was always so scared to tell everyone in the crowd that I was just doing it because I have always been told that it is the right thing to do. I would have wanted to tell the truth, and at that time of my life, it was the best reason I could think of for being baptized.

Obviously there is some kind of importance to it, otherwise Jesus would not have commanded us in Matt 28:19, “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” The verb “to go” in Greek, is a lot different than our English verb, to go. This “go” is in the imperative sense, poreuomai {por-yoo’-om-ahee}, it means that Jesus compelled his disciples to go and preach the good news, that it is so important to tell people about what Christ did for us.

This question of baptism falls into the category of spiritual growth in Jesus. Baptism, in the Assemblies of God handbook is covered in chapter twenty-three. It talks less about water baptism, and more about baptism in the Holy Spirit, not to say that one is more important than another. Baptism in the Holy Spirit cannot really be compared to water baptism, and vise versa. They are two totally different issues and have two totally different purposes in Christianity.

All the passages I have written down so far, Mark 16:16, Matt 18:19, I Peter 3:20-21, and Galations 6:15 have some kind of relationship to baptism. They all have helped me better understand baptism, why we do it, why Jesus wanted us to do it, and why we should tell other people to get baptized. I no longer think how I have thought for my entire life, that it is necessary to be baptized. Because there are many verses in the Bible that simply say,

Some topics in this essay:
Holy Spirit, Assemblies God, Jesus Christ, Greek English, Judgment Jesus, Greek Greek, Jesus Christ”, Christ Menzies’, Isn’t Testament, Greek Hebrew, baptized baptized, holy spirit, reason baptized, water baptized, water baptism, baptism holy spirit, assemblies god, baptism holy, assemblies god church, lord heart, peter 320-21, god baptized, baptism assemblies god, greek language language, baptism baptism holy,