Do you consider it essential to be baptised in order to be a practicing Christian?

I have been strongly pressured by fundamentalist friends to abandon mysticism, stick only to the Bible, and go to Church. This has been very off-putting to me personally since I want to integrate Christian spirituality into my faith generally. In fact the fundamentalist emphasis on the 'fundamentals' has kept me away from Church.

To be honest, no, I do not. I am baptised myself, but, it took a long time for me to get what I wanted ( baptism). I had to fight the church (priests and nuns at my parish) for several months before they allowed it to happen, due to the fact that my mother had me out of wedlock and they had all kinds of other issues to raise as a way to keep me away from it, for some weird reason. I dont know why they made so much trouble, but, I guess they felt they had to or something, I dont know to this day what their problem really was.

In the end, I got what I wanted, but, at that time I was starting to feel very left out and unwanted by the church so I left a few years later, I nevwer went back to church since then and I havent been in church for mass in about eleven years this spring. I dont think I will ever go back again because of having had the smae experiences you mention in your post, people wanted me to abandon my way of being and thinking about God ( as in mysticism terms) and just do what they do, which I found wasnt my right way to go, so, why should I do it if I am not going to be feeling like I am getting closer to God that way?

I dont think that baptism is essential but one should be baptised if one so wishes and there shouldnt be all kinds of problems for oneself to get to the point of baptism other than the regular things that normally occur, such as to state name and so on and proclaim ones faith in Jesus Christ as the son of God and so on.

Only baptism by Holy Spirit is what is needed. The priest or the church aren't absolutely necessary. You can be baptized by Christ Himself, no medium is necessary.

I belong to the Lutheran Church and I was baptised as a baby and personally I'm happy about this. I got a bit sidetracked when I was older and I went to study/practice eastern spirituality and yoga, until Christ told me that now it's time to be a Christian again I think that baptism was the reason why I didn't entirely lost my connection to Jesus, altough I was exploring the other paths quite intesively.

So in the end it's about from where you receive the baptism. If you get it from the true follower of Christ then sooner or later it will have significant impact on your life.

Do you consider it essential to be baptised in order to be a practicing Christian?

Absolutely! Yes! Next question.

I note the "practicing Christian" part of the question, especially, and so that's the basis of my response. For if one wishes to be a practicing Christian, then baptism is the sacramental rite of initiation into the Christian community, which is the mystical body of Christ on earth and the living, social context of our relationship with him. Also, this is not something we "choose" or think we have a right to -- like a welfare card or something. We must be accepted by the community, and so there is a process for discernment leading up to baptism that prepares one to receive this sacrament worthily.

It might help to do a little background reading on some of these topics before just shooting from the hip on them. There's a lot in Scripture itself about the importance of baptism, not to mention in articles all over the net.

Phil, I wonder if you have a comment re Baptism that is written about on Living Sword Ministries. They state that the one and only true Baptism is the spirit/blood water flowing from the body of Christ. Furthermore, they state that earthly water Baptism is false. Are you familiar with LSM?. If so what is your opinion of this site. Thanks.

Freebird, I'm not familiar with the site, but I am familiar with teachings that downplay the importance of baptism. Jesus himself taught that we must be reborn of water and the Spirit, and Acts and Paul speak constantly of baptism as the rite of entry to the Christian community. As this is not really such a difficult rite to administer and/or receive, I wonder why the big fuss about it?

Jesus said (Matthew 28:19-20): "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

So the question is: Are you a disciple of Jesus. Disciples of Jesus are baptized, according to Him.

The last couple of days I have had very strong and powerful visualizations of Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist. Over and over I am being shown the great importance of the baptism by the Holy Spirit descending upon us, like the dove descending upon Jesus. We all must pray to God to send to us His Holy Spirit from above to take up residency within our hearts. I have received this baptism of the Holy Spirit and pray that God will bestow it upon all true believers. God does say in scripture that in the later days He will pour out His Spirit upon mankind. Since I am having these visions often, I do wonder if these later days are upon us.

I had received my baptism in my younger years, but did not receive the graces of God's supernatural gift of the descending Holy Spirit until four years ago.