Expert: Brian Thompson - 11/20/2011

Question
sorry, hope you got the first bit -

Part 2.

My mother then chose the local minister to be godfather and he made it.

When we moved I then took myself to church, even though I hadn't had any exposure to church prior to that. None of my family went to church either.

I did an in depth study of christening/baptism some years ago and believe the Lord said, "Let the children come unto me". I truly believe he was showing me he doesn't mind if children are christened with water. His arm is not shortened to save and he will still bring us/them in.

Amen.

Thanks for your take on this, as it is a real question.

PS - if you didn't receive the first part of the question, please let me know and I will try to re-write it. (Basically my question is, would or could an AOG church do a little of each for a child, that is, dedicate the child and use a little water also if it helps the mother of the child understand the process better?)



Thanks,
Helen

Answer
Hello Helen

I did not recieve the first part of your posting.

The AoG views baptism as believer's baptism; that is full immersion baptism undertaken at a point where the person understands what baptism is about.

Symbolism doesn't necessarily play a great role in AoG beliefs and practices, at a baby dedication prayers are directed towards commending the infant to the Lord until that time when the child is able to accept Jesus as saviour.

I think you need to understand that we try to seperate religiousity from our spiritual life and so we do not adopt the traditional practices found in many churches. We therefore expect that parents presenting their children for dedication are themselves believing Christians who understand what they are doing and the spiritual implications of it.