Post by JEM on Jun 23, 2008 3:47:07 GMT
What makes a Baptist Church different?
In Saffron Walden there is one Holy Apostolic Catholic Church
It is HOLY because it has been set apart, created, called and chosen by God.
It is APOSTOLIC because it was established by Christ’s first followers the Apostles and their followers ever since.
It is CATHOLIC because the word means complete and universal.
It is the CHURCH because that is the collective name of all Christians together in Christ Jesus.
This Church is made up of 9 churches practising a diversity of traditions.
To become a member of some you need to be christened and confirmed, in some you need to be baptised, and in 2 you just need to profess that you are a Christian, and you can attend worship at any of them without being a member.
These 9 churches are united by a Covenant signed in January 2006 and known as
Churches Together in Saffron Walden, which began in 1944 when a committee was set up to see whether the different churches could work together more closely.
This came to birth in January 1946 as The Christian Council which later became The Council of Churches but did not include 3 of them and from 2002 all were included in becoming Churches Together
What makes a Baptist Church different from other churches?
It is who . why, and how we baptise that makes the difference from the Roman Catholic, Anglican Lutheran, United Reformed or Methodist Churches and how they operate as a Church makes them different from the Brethren, Pentecostalists, Society of Friends and Salvation Army.
They baptise only
1] people who have asked to be baptised because they believe it is right to do so
2] people who understand what they are doing
The verb “to baptised” in Greek means “to be plunged or dipped ” that is to be totally immersed in water and that is how we do it
This is called Believers Baptism. Baptist Churches do not Baptise babies who have no understanding of what they believe. They receive them to a naming custom called Dedication in which the baby receives it’s name officially and the parents commit themselves to bring the children up to know and understand.
The youngest persons that Walden Baptist have baptised there were two 12 yearold boys way back at the beginning of the 20th century. who both went on to become leaders of the church here, and in 1955 we baptised a 14 yearold son of a deacon. who also went on to become a leader of the churches in Worcester.
Usually candidates for baptism are teenagers or adults and usually they undergo a period of instruction before baptism .
The Baptist churches take their authority to baptise only people who believe in what they are doing, from the practice of baptism recorded in the New Testament and practised by the early churches for the first two and half centuries of the Christian Church.
The first churches were connected to the Church in Jerusalem but after the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 the Jerusalem Church had evacuated first to Pella and then to Antioch in Syria.
As the Church grew larger and spread through Europe, the Middle East and North Africa thousands of congregations developed but linked to a central congregation in a major city.
These included Antioch. Alexandria, Rome, Cordoba, Carthage and Marseilles and later Constantinople
Because the Roman Empire persisted another four and half centuries after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ Alexandria and Rome became the main centres of Christianity and finally Rome came out on top.
In 251 AD the Bishops of Alexandria and Rome decreed that babies should be baptised as soon after their birth as possible
This arose from th spread of a belief that an unbaptised person would go to hell and to avoid that they had better be baptised even if they did not understand why.
At first the decree was widely resisted especially by those churches connected with Antioch
descendants of the first Church in Jerusalem. . .
The way they practised Baptism was this
1) a person hearing the good news about Jesus Christ and his teachings, believed that message and so became a Christian and was welcomed into a congregation.
2] asking to be baptised they entered into a 3 year probationary period in understanding how to pray, worship and behave
this culminated in a 6 week intensive course of instruction including learning a statement of faith that later became The Apostles Creed. This period of study took place during the 40 days leading to Easter Sunday.
This is the origin of the season of Lent. In those days the Church only celebrated Easter Sunday, and the weekly Sabbath as the first day of the week.
Indeed in the first and second century as the Church was predominantly Jewish with just a few Greek converts they celebrated the trial, flogging, crucifixion, and resurrection all at the feast of Passover to them a Pascha.
Finally on Easter day they were baptised publicly in separate sex services, one conducted by male elders and one by female elders which may come as a shock to some RC & CofE people. Women had an active part in the early church
The reason for this was that the candidates for baptism were naked. They queued up on one side of a body of water which could be a stream, pond, beach, or a constructed baptistry in a building.
They entered the water on one side naked and were dunked or plunged under the water 3 times, each after a question and once in the name of God the Father. then God the Son and then God the Holy Spirit
If at this point they had not drowned they were assisted out of the water and draped in a cloak of home,
This ceremony signified dying with Christ and rising again. Of giving up the old way of life and starting a new one..
We have a description of how the actual baptism took place from one Hippolytus at the beginning of the 3rd century
“When the person being baptised goes down into the water the person doing the baptisms putting his hand in him shall say “Do you believe in God the Father Almighty?”
The one being baptised says “ I believe”
The Baptiser then holding his hand on his head shall baptise him once
The Baptiser then shall ask “Do you believe in Christ Jesus. the son of God who was born by the Holy Spirit by the Virgin Mary, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate , and was dead and buried, and rose again the third day, alive from the dead, and ascended into heaven. and sat at the right hand of the Father, and will come to judge the living and the dead.?”
Then the person being baptised replies “I believe”
The Baptiser then holding his hand on his head shall baptise him again
The Baptiser then shall ask “Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, in the holy church, and the resurrection of the body?”
The person being baptised shall say “I believe” and then he is baptised a third time.
Gradually other extension of the third question came to include “Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins, and the second question was increased in detail to try to root out and exclude Gnostics, and other heretics This question and answer routine grew out of the preparation studies and later became the earliest forerunners to The Apostles’ Creed used from about AD 400 which had no direct link with the Apostles.
At the birth of the Church baptism followed conversion with little delay but the course of instruction before baptism became customary particularly for non-Jewish converts.
Another witness to baptism as it was, was Justin Martyr who was born at Flavia Neapolis. Near Nablus, in Palestine in the second century AD . As a young man he sought diligently for truth from various ancient philosophies.
One day meditating alone on the seashore. Possibly near Ephesus, he met an old man who exposed the weaknesses of his confident conclusions. pointing him to the Jewish prophets and how they pointed to Christ Justin had already been impressed by the bearing, confidence, and courage of Christians facing death as martyrs. He responded with great sincerity and became a Christian.
He became a teacher who taught in Ephesus and Rome, where one of his pupils was Tatian. He became an apologist, for Christianity , that is a defender of the faith, to the Emperor Antoninus Pius (AD 138 161) He defended faith in Christ from both the Old Testament Scriptures and from reason, in the face of Jewish and Pagan opposition. He was martyred in Rome bout AD165
He wrote “All those who are convinced and believe the things that are taught by us and said to be true, and promise to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and to call on God with fasting “
Hippolytus also throws light on the period of preparation. “ A converts occupation and personal relations are scrutinised and then came pre-baptismal instruction which took 3 years, and even longer in Syria, Good progress, or the imminience of persecution could shorten the period. A convert who was martyred before baptism was regarded as experiencing a better “baptism in blood”
More intensive preparations included fasting, exorcism and blessing, immediately preceding baptism.
The converts were often taught by laymen such as Justin in Rome and Origen in Alexandria in independent Christian “schools” open to enquiring pagans too”
By the 4th century this task had been taken over by the clergy with a bishop personally responsible for teaching and discipline before baptism
From the second century converts awaiting baptism had to memorise the answers to the questions as a credible statement of faith, a definition of credulity ” later called a Creed, and also the Lord’s Prayer, and they had to be able to recite them at their baptism.
They did not write them down as they were regarded as secrets as was the celebration of the Lord’s Supper
Pre-baptism and post baptism sermons have come down to us from that period.
Baptism was commonly thought to be dealing with a persons past corruption but not of future faults, so a system of penitence to cover sins after baptism was devised
Another of the early Church Fathers Tertullian who lived in the late 2nd century and into the 3rd,i nsisted on personal purity being established before baptism, and so baptism was further delayed.
Systematic teaching of new converts along these lines continued through the 3rd and 4th centuries, but with the introduction of infant baptism this preparation faded away
In Saffron Walden there is one Holy Apostolic Catholic Church
It is HOLY because it has been set apart, created, called and chosen by God.
It is APOSTOLIC because it was established by Christ’s first followers the Apostles and their followers ever since.
It is CATHOLIC because the word means complete and universal.
It is the CHURCH because that is the collective name of all Christians together in Christ Jesus.
This Church is made up of 9 churches practising a diversity of traditions.
To become a member of some you need to be christened and confirmed, in some you need to be baptised, and in 2 you just need to profess that you are a Christian, and you can attend worship at any of them without being a member.
These 9 churches are united by a Covenant signed in January 2006 and known as
Churches Together in Saffron Walden, which began in 1944 when a committee was set up to see whether the different churches could work together more closely.
This came to birth in January 1946 as The Christian Council which later became The Council of Churches but did not include 3 of them and from 2002 all were included in becoming Churches Together
What makes a Baptist Church different from other churches?
It is who . why, and how we baptise that makes the difference from the Roman Catholic, Anglican Lutheran, United Reformed or Methodist Churches and how they operate as a Church makes them different from the Brethren, Pentecostalists, Society of Friends and Salvation Army.
They baptise only
1] people who have asked to be baptised because they believe it is right to do so
2] people who understand what they are doing
The verb “to baptised” in Greek means “to be plunged or dipped ” that is to be totally immersed in water and that is how we do it
This is called Believers Baptism. Baptist Churches do not Baptise babies who have no understanding of what they believe. They receive them to a naming custom called Dedication in which the baby receives it’s name officially and the parents commit themselves to bring the children up to know and understand.
The youngest persons that Walden Baptist have baptised there were two 12 yearold boys way back at the beginning of the 20th century. who both went on to become leaders of the church here, and in 1955 we baptised a 14 yearold son of a deacon. who also went on to become a leader of the churches in Worcester.
Usually candidates for baptism are teenagers or adults and usually they undergo a period of instruction before baptism .
The Baptist churches take their authority to baptise only people who believe in what they are doing, from the practice of baptism recorded in the New Testament and practised by the early churches for the first two and half centuries of the Christian Church.
The first churches were connected to the Church in Jerusalem but after the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 the Jerusalem Church had evacuated first to Pella and then to Antioch in Syria.
As the Church grew larger and spread through Europe, the Middle East and North Africa thousands of congregations developed but linked to a central congregation in a major city.
These included Antioch. Alexandria, Rome, Cordoba, Carthage and Marseilles and later Constantinople
Because the Roman Empire persisted another four and half centuries after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ Alexandria and Rome became the main centres of Christianity and finally Rome came out on top.
In 251 AD the Bishops of Alexandria and Rome decreed that babies should be baptised as soon after their birth as possible
This arose from th spread of a belief that an unbaptised person would go to hell and to avoid that they had better be baptised even if they did not understand why.
At first the decree was widely resisted especially by those churches connected with Antioch
descendants of the first Church in Jerusalem. . .
The way they practised Baptism was this
1) a person hearing the good news about Jesus Christ and his teachings, believed that message and so became a Christian and was welcomed into a congregation.
2] asking to be baptised they entered into a 3 year probationary period in understanding how to pray, worship and behave
this culminated in a 6 week intensive course of instruction including learning a statement of faith that later became The Apostles Creed. This period of study took place during the 40 days leading to Easter Sunday.
This is the origin of the season of Lent. In those days the Church only celebrated Easter Sunday, and the weekly Sabbath as the first day of the week.
Indeed in the first and second century as the Church was predominantly Jewish with just a few Greek converts they celebrated the trial, flogging, crucifixion, and resurrection all at the feast of Passover to them a Pascha.
Finally on Easter day they were baptised publicly in separate sex services, one conducted by male elders and one by female elders which may come as a shock to some RC & CofE people. Women had an active part in the early church
The reason for this was that the candidates for baptism were naked. They queued up on one side of a body of water which could be a stream, pond, beach, or a constructed baptistry in a building.
They entered the water on one side naked and were dunked or plunged under the water 3 times, each after a question and once in the name of God the Father. then God the Son and then God the Holy Spirit
If at this point they had not drowned they were assisted out of the water and draped in a cloak of home,
This ceremony signified dying with Christ and rising again. Of giving up the old way of life and starting a new one..
We have a description of how the actual baptism took place from one Hippolytus at the beginning of the 3rd century
“When the person being baptised goes down into the water the person doing the baptisms putting his hand in him shall say “Do you believe in God the Father Almighty?”
The one being baptised says “ I believe”
The Baptiser then holding his hand on his head shall baptise him once
The Baptiser then shall ask “Do you believe in Christ Jesus. the son of God who was born by the Holy Spirit by the Virgin Mary, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate , and was dead and buried, and rose again the third day, alive from the dead, and ascended into heaven. and sat at the right hand of the Father, and will come to judge the living and the dead.?”
Then the person being baptised replies “I believe”
The Baptiser then holding his hand on his head shall baptise him again
The Baptiser then shall ask “Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, in the holy church, and the resurrection of the body?”
The person being baptised shall say “I believe” and then he is baptised a third time.
Gradually other extension of the third question came to include “Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins, and the second question was increased in detail to try to root out and exclude Gnostics, and other heretics This question and answer routine grew out of the preparation studies and later became the earliest forerunners to The Apostles’ Creed used from about AD 400 which had no direct link with the Apostles.
At the birth of the Church baptism followed conversion with little delay but the course of instruction before baptism became customary particularly for non-Jewish converts.
Another witness to baptism as it was, was Justin Martyr who was born at Flavia Neapolis. Near Nablus, in Palestine in the second century AD . As a young man he sought diligently for truth from various ancient philosophies.
One day meditating alone on the seashore. Possibly near Ephesus, he met an old man who exposed the weaknesses of his confident conclusions. pointing him to the Jewish prophets and how they pointed to Christ Justin had already been impressed by the bearing, confidence, and courage of Christians facing death as martyrs. He responded with great sincerity and became a Christian.
He became a teacher who taught in Ephesus and Rome, where one of his pupils was Tatian. He became an apologist, for Christianity , that is a defender of the faith, to the Emperor Antoninus Pius (AD 138 161) He defended faith in Christ from both the Old Testament Scriptures and from reason, in the face of Jewish and Pagan opposition. He was martyred in Rome bout AD165
He wrote “All those who are convinced and believe the things that are taught by us and said to be true, and promise to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and to call on God with fasting “
Hippolytus also throws light on the period of preparation. “ A converts occupation and personal relations are scrutinised and then came pre-baptismal instruction which took 3 years, and even longer in Syria, Good progress, or the imminience of persecution could shorten the period. A convert who was martyred before baptism was regarded as experiencing a better “baptism in blood”
More intensive preparations included fasting, exorcism and blessing, immediately preceding baptism.
The converts were often taught by laymen such as Justin in Rome and Origen in Alexandria in independent Christian “schools” open to enquiring pagans too”
By the 4th century this task had been taken over by the clergy with a bishop personally responsible for teaching and discipline before baptism
From the second century converts awaiting baptism had to memorise the answers to the questions as a credible statement of faith, a definition of credulity ” later called a Creed, and also the Lord’s Prayer, and they had to be able to recite them at their baptism.
They did not write them down as they were regarded as secrets as was the celebration of the Lord’s Supper
Pre-baptism and post baptism sermons have come down to us from that period.
Baptism was commonly thought to be dealing with a persons past corruption but not of future faults, so a system of penitence to cover sins after baptism was devised
Another of the early Church Fathers Tertullian who lived in the late 2nd century and into the 3rd,i nsisted on personal purity being established before baptism, and so baptism was further delayed.
Systematic teaching of new converts along these lines continued through the 3rd and 4th centuries, but with the introduction of infant baptism this preparation faded away