Who started baptism?

Answer 1

John the baptist was one who told the Jews to repent and get baptized.

Roman Catholic Answer: Baptism was an old rite in the Jewish faith many centuries before Jesus was born, John the Baptist baptism was one of these "baptism of repentance". The Baptism that we know today, where we are born of "water and the spirit in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" was started by Jesus Christ, and commanded by Him to the Apostles when He told them to go out into all the world, baptising them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Answer:

Baptism is a symbolic death and burial to one's wrong way of living... and a "resurrection from the grave" unto repentance for having "sinnied" [transgressed God's Commandments - I John 3:4]... to "newness of life"... a "re-birth"... a fresh start in life. It's a visible ceremony that pictures inward repentance and sorrow for having broken God's laws [sinning] and one's intention to change his ways to live a righteous life in the Lord.

"Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38)

But, who started it? The Bible indicates that God did.

When the Israelites found themselves caught between the Red Sea and Pharaoh and his armies [death and the Devil and his demons] after their escape from Egypt [bondage to sin] after having been set free by the blood of the lamb [Christ's blood sacrifice]... they were feeling pretty hopeless.

They felt that they had gone through a lot of wasted motion [life's vanities] and that it had all come down to this. Running out into the wilderness to die in vain.

Then the Red Sea parted... the Israelites were saved... and Pharaoh [Satan] was defeated.

"...Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and SEE THE SALVATION OF THE LORD, which He will shew to you today... the Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." (Ex.14:13-14)

Of this episode in history [that the world questions ever happened]... the Bible says this: "...I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud [the pillar of the cloud, the Lord, who stood between the Israelites and Pharaoh], and all passed through the sea; and ALL WERE BAPTIZED UNTO MOSES in the cloud and in the sea." (I Cor.10:1-2)

The Israelites were a little bit humbled by their salvation and probably repented of their failure to trust Moses' God who, in the past months, had just destroyed the largest military and economic power in the world before their very eyes. On the other side of the sea, they sang and rejoiced, greatly.

Their repentance was short-lived, however, since it was a sorrow borne of a high adrenalin rush and shallow human emotion and not a deep spiritual awakening. And they were soon back to grumbling and fighting among themselves, and with Moses, when they ran out of the unleavened bread they made hastily in Egypt... and their bellies started growling again.

Nevertheless... God's Word calls this a "baptism."

Since God initiated and calls the Red Sea episode a baptism... might not "Noah's flood" [another dubious historical biblical account to the world] be the first one?

After 120 years of watching Noah's family building the ark, warning them of the coming flood, and Noah's preaching "righteousness," the Commandments of God, to them [II Peter 2:5 & Ps.119:172] for them to repent of their ways - when the flood finally came... and the people realized they were going to die - do you think they "believed" Noah, then? Do you think they felt a tad mournful and repentant over their poor lifestyle choices?

Do you suppose Noah and his family "held their peace" in shock and awe of what was happening all around them... as they were swept up in "the salvation of the Lord"... as the world they knew disappeared and they were left behind?

Did it really happen?

The Bible says it did. God instituted baptism to show us that we are able to repent of our sins and receive salvation. It's the beginning of a change in a person's life.

Even the pre-flood generations will resurrect on Judgment Day to assess their lives before their Creator, to see if they learned anything of value that might serve them well for the rest of Eternity. Something valuable, like, believing what the Lord says. Something valuable, like, crying out in humble, heartfelt repentance for His mercy and forgiveness... and salvation.

Was Noah's flood, maybe, where baptism started?

Answer 2

The first mention of a personal baptism is mentioned in Genesis. After Dana was raped, and her brothers killed all the townsmen, Jacob/Israel decided to move from their. Before he did though, he had all of his offspring unload/get rid of their idolatrous/pagan belongings; and then had everyone become purified/baptized. This method of purification(baptism) can be understood if you have access to the Hebrew lexicon of the Old Testament. There may be a version of the scriptures that tell about baptism; and maybe one or two that mention this 'baptism' in their annotations. Yes, it involved water.

Answer 3

It became necessary when promoting a religion - especially a new one - to have some way to mark those who wish to publicly adopt that religion. Baptism is one way of asserting one's faith, or the faith one wishes their children to be raised in.

Answer 4

It was a decree of God beginning at least as far back as the time of Moses and the covenant of Sinai that everything "set apart" (made Holy) by or for God was to be immersed in consecrated (by prayer) waters of purification (called the Tevillah Service). The place they are immersed is called a 'Mikvah" or bath, but for people like Priests, Kings, repentant sinners, and Christians we could call it Baptism which is a transliteration of the Greek Baptidzo or Bapto, which can also have the aplication of one person or thing becomiing identified with another person or thing. But predominantly it was a ritual of cleansing and consecration which it still is to this day. John the Baptist, was a priest and baptized people unto repentance, Jesus is the Messiah and baptizes with the Holy Spirit (though water baptism is still the general requirement for our public testimony that we are now consecrated unto Him and identified with His death (the repentance from our unbelief), burial (immersion into the waters), and resurrection (being raised unto newness of life).

Answer 5

Because Catholics are wierd and wanted to baptize their babies to show that they were going to raise that child in Christ, and they think that it fulfills the baptism that God commands us to have, but it doesn't work like that because in the bible it says you have to hear and believe before you can be saved, not back-ass backwards.

Answer 6

I take it you are talking about how infant baptism got started.

The TheologicalDictionary of the New Testament says of the period following the death of the apostles: "Alien elements came in from the outside world. Hitherto these had been carefully held in check by the filter of prophetic and N[ew] T[estament] religion. But now, using external agreement as a channel, they came in full flood. Baptism became a syncretistic mystery."(syncretistic: = blending from many other religions.)

Jesus taught that it is the redeeming value of his own blood that washes away sins. But as early as the second century C.E. the pagan idea that baptism washes away sins and brings about "regeneration" crept into the Christian congregation. Illustrating this are the comments of Justin Martyr, of the second century C.E., concerning candidates for baptism: "They are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated." "We may . . . obtain in the water the remission of sins formerly committed."

To what did this blending of pagan beliefs with the Bible's teaching about baptism lead? Greek scholar A. T. Robertson explains: "Out of this perversion of the symbolism of baptism grew both pouring as an ordinance and infant baptism. If baptism is necessary to salvation or the means of regeneration, then the sick, the dying, infants, must be baptized."

The religious historian Augustus Neander wrote of the early Christians: "Faith and baptism were always connected with one another; and thus it is in the highest degree probable . . . that the practice of infant baptism was unknown [in the first century C.E.]. . . . That it first became recognised as an apostolic tradition in the course of the third century, is evidence rather against than for the admission of its apostolic origin."-History of the Planting and Training of the Christian Church by the Apostles (New York, 1864), page 162.

Answer 7

God asked John to let everyone of Israel know that Jesus was the Messiah. Baptism did this.

Answer 8

jonh the baptis

Answer 9

In Israel with John the Baptist.