Posts from June 2011 (Page 3)

In his Treatise on Baptism, John Wesley writes: Baptism is performed by “washing,” “dipping,” or “sprinkling” the person….[It] is not determined in Scripture in which of these ways it shall be done, neither by any express precept nor by any such example as clearly proves it; nor by the force of meaning of the word “baptize.” Following Wesley, Methodists have generally been quite open in terms of the form, or mode, of how baptism is administered.  What, if any, difference…

Gayle Carlton Felton writes, Baptism, then is not so much event as it is process.  Like the Christian life for which it is both empowerment and metaphor, baptism is dynamic, not static; a journey, not a destination; a quest, not an acquisition.  Baptism is promise, the fulfilling of which requires a lifetime and beyond.  It is prolepsis-representing in the now that which will be accomplished in the future, but representing that anticipated fruition so powerfully as to make it real…

Paragraph 23 of By Water and the Spirit: A United Methodist Understanding of Baptism states: In both the Old and New Testament, God enters into covenant relationship with God’s people. A covenant involves promises and responsibilities of both parties; it is instituted through a special ceremony and expressed by a distinguishing sign. By covenant God constituted a servant community of the people of Israel, promising to be their God and giving them the Law to make clear how they were to live. The circumcision of…