Word: baptism
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...Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." These words of Jesus in John 3:5, apparently slamming heaven's door on all who have never been cleansed of original sin by baptism, have made perplexing problems for theologians through the centuries. As a loophole for adults who are pious but ignorant of the faith, such as savages and those who died before Christ, the Roman Catholic Church recognizes a "baptism of desire," and Protestant churches in general let the question rest upon the mercy...
Last week the best-known Baptist in the world, Evangelist Billy Graham, was in a controversy with some members of his own church over what they considered his un-Baptist views on baptism...
...fundamental distinguishing belief of Baptists is that baptism should be administered only to believers as a sign and symbol of their conversion-not as a means of grace, or cleansing from sin, or a setting apart, as with other forms of Christianity. The corollary to the Baptist tenet is that infants are too young to believe and therefore must not be baptized. Yet in an interview in the biweekly Lutheran Standard, official publication of the 2,300,000-member American Lutheran Church. Graham was quoted as saying: "I still have some personal problems in this matter of infant baptism...
...made." His children, he explained, were baptized at the age of 9 and 10 by their own choice in the Presbyterian faith of their mother. Describing his as "an ecumenical family," Convinced Baptist Graham said that while he respects the opinions of those who have different views on baptism "my personal convictions are those of my denomination...
...religious terms; the peasant in purely religious terms: the peasant is just overwhelmed by the beautiful simplicity of the Baptist belief. But such an explanation is obviously inadequate. Surely a deeper study into the reasons for the conversion of the traditionally Orthodox peasants to a faith as unhierarchical as Baptism might offer some rather significant insights into the mind of the contemporary Soviet peasant and his reaction to the Soviet regime...