What are some other beliefs and practices regarding baptism which are held today?
The most widely held belief that diverges from the one mentioned previously is that the ceremony of baptism is actually the means by which the concept of baptism is realized. For example, in the Roman Catholic church the ceremony is required in order to be unified with Christ in heaven. Anyone who does not go through the ceremony is not saved. It follows that infant baptism is acceptible since any parent would want to baptize their child as soon as possible in order to guarantee salvation. The argument for this belief is based on a comparison with Jewish circumcision. God ordained this for male children as a way to identify them with Himself. The difficulty with this argument is that Paul goes to great lengths to argue that the ceremony of circumcision was of no value and that what God required was a circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit (Romans 2:29). See “The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary” for a more detailed description.
