The Holy Orthodox Church has for a rule to baptize all through immersion in water, but not by pouring, or even a little sprinkling of water over the head of the baptized, as is generally being done by many Christians of today. And this is because, first of all, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who was pleased to institute this saving mystery for the salvation of all, was baptized by immersion, and not by pouring. Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, write the holy Evangelists, in relating of the Savior’s baptism (Matthew, Mark, Luke), and was baptized of John in Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens open, and the Spirit like a dove descending on Him (Mark, I. 9-10). And so, describing the event, the holy Gospel plainly states: Jesus was baptized in Jordan—in the river, in the water, but nohow—with water. And then it can be said, coming up out of the water, only when previously He was submerged down in the water. We also know that John baptized in the part of the river where the waters were many; that the Apostles before and after the Lord’s resurrection baptized by immersion; for an instance read in Acts viii, 36, 39.
When Jesus Christ sent His Disciples and Apostles to build up His Church He said to them: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. (Matthew, xxviii. 19-20). He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. (Mark, xvi. 16). The very word itself is Greek, and Baptizo distinctly means to dip, to immerse, to submerge. Philologists and theologians know that this word was used when first the Old Testament was translated from the Hebrew into the Greek—in several instances, where it was necessary to explain the Hebrew word, which meant to plunge. It is evident that the Orthodox Eastern Church is an incessant, sacred, and jealous guardian of pure Apostolic doctrine and ritual observance. The preservation of this concord is Her mark of principle. It is characteristic of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Baptism is a sacrament unto salvation. It is the initiation for membership in the company of the followers of Jesus.
There are many in this country today who call themselves Christians, but are not yet baptized; some do not even know what baptism is; consequently, they give themselves no thought about it. It has been so since but a few years. Some say the world is growing wiser; we are busy educating ourselves. He who speaks thus is devoid of common sense; he is ignorant of the knowledge of history. The Christian religion was the making of the world! We are Christians, thank God, because we hope in salvation. It is our duty to belong to Christ’s Church because Christ Himself organized the Church. Our Lord endowed His Church with all the riches of spiritual, eternal, enlightening, sanctifying and saving grace, and gave it to the world, which He so loved, that each and everyone may see the way cut out, and with a certainty follow the way by which they may obtain access and close communion with Him, A change and retreat in some one thing generally weakens and undermines the whole. It was so when the Bishop of Rome declared that the four Patriarchs of Jerusalem, Constantinople, Antioch, and Alexandria were no longer his equals, and thereby excluded himself from the catholicity of Christ’s Church. The Christian Church of the West, now following her own course gradually introduced innovations. Of the many changes, we will now make mention of the one in baptism. Unfortunately, this special change is the chief cause of dissension of the protesting denominations known as Baptists. One testimony of eastern authorities will be sufficient to quote here in showing the form of baptism still prevalent and strictly required in the eastern church; for example, St. Basil the Great; he writes: The great sacrament of baptism is administered by three immersions and the same number of invocations, that the form of death be impressed upon us and the souls of the baptized, that they may be enlightened by the knowledge of God given them.
The following is a list of Saints and Doctors that are highly venerated and often quoted in books published by the Western Church: Tertullian, a Presbyter of Carthage; Saint Hippolytus, bishop of Rome; St. Jerome, St. Leo, St. Augustine, the Pope Pelagius; St. Gregory the Great, (of Rome, was this Pope fallible?) all of these prove that baptism by trine immersion was the general rule in the west as well as in the east. In the ninth century, even to the end of the thirteenth, we meet with testimonies of immersional baptism in the Western Church, not only in the writings of private persons and rituals of that time, such as of Galicia, Holbertine and many others; but also in the statutes of the same Western Councils, which are of Celechite (316 A.D.), Worcester (1240), Exeter (1287), in England, of Nimes (1284) in France, of Utrecht (1293) in the Netherlands, and of Cologne (1280) in Germany; they all decree in the same spirit, as for instance: “Let the priests know that, administering holy baptism, they must not pour water on the heads of infants, but always immerse them in the font, as the Son of God gave each believer an example in Himself.” As a testimony upon the same subject, it would not be superfluous to add the authentic words of the theologian so much honored in the Western Church, and it appears one counted with the saints, Thomas Aquinas, of the thirteenth century. He says: “Although baptism may be administered not only by immersion, but by pouring and sprinkling, still it is safer to baptize by immersion, because the latter is in universal practice.”
Although the Holy Orthodox Church adheres strictly to baptism by trine immersion, yet she tolerates in exceptional cases baptism by pouring, and in extreme cases even by sprinkling. She is prompted to allow exceptions to a strict rule concerning an important Christian mystery by the perfect love for her children, and likewise out of a wise condescension to her neighbors, whom she would not see, by the least obstacle possible, debarred from a closer union with the Savior, Who in His last great prayer to the Father, supplicated—that all may be one, as Thou art in Me and I in Thee, that they may be one in Us. The Church will recognize and accept without rebaptizing any earnest seeker after salvation, if the person was only baptized by a Christian with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. The Church will simply confirm such, then if they have not been properly confirmed before.
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