Q&A Home > B > Baptism

• Can my son have his child baptized in the Coptic Church? My son was baptized in the Coptic Church and his wife in the Roman Catholic Church. My daughter-in-law wants godparents for the child. What are the requirements if the answer is, “Yes”? They were not married in the Catholic Church not the Coptic Church.
• Does a Catholic or a Protestant (Lutheran) have to be baptized in the Coptic Orthodox Church to be able to marry in the Orthodox Church?
• Does the Coptic Orthodox Church consider Chaldean Catholic Baptism valid?
• How would the Coptic Orthodox Church receive someone who has been baptized at the protestant church and Chrismated at the Eastern Orthodox Church?
• http://www.fairlds.org/apol/misc/misc23.html, is a Mormon web site defending their practice of baptism for the dead. I know our church does not practice baptism for the dead now, but did it ever?
• I had a question regarding the wait after birth for women. I know for baby boys, it is 40 days and for baby girls, 80 days. But, if we are no longer following Moses' law, then why are we still following this rule? For example men don't need to be circumcised to become Christian. So, why do we follow the old rules in some occasions and in some other cases, we don't?
• I have a friend that asked me if a person would have to be baptized over if they were converting into another denomination but still under Christianity; I did not really know what to tell her?
• I have met someone who claims she has recently converted to Christianity, but does not know what baptism is. She claims she has become Christian simply by believing in the Holy Word of God, which leads to the filling with the Holy Spirit. Do we call these people "Christian" if they are not baptized by "water and Spirit", could you please list the denominations who don't believe in Baptism.
• I love this quote from H.H. Pope Shenouda III: "One should then meet with God within oneself, not outside, for many seek Him here or there while He is within them and they are not aware." At times I want to write this quote down and give it to people that I know, but I wonder, would it be to soon to tell someone this if they are not baptized? Does God dwell in the hearts of all people even before baptism? So, even though someone is not baptized yet, could these quotes about the Lord being within us still apply to them, or should they be told with the quotes, "once you are baptized."
• I thought St. John's baptism was for repentance; so, it does not count as the same baptism as Christ's baptism (Acts 19:5)?
• If a woman, tricked her husband and their parish priest into thinking that she truly had faith in Christ and continued this deceit until after she had been baptized and Chrismated. Later on in life she stated that she had never believed in Christ. Would she ever have received the graces of a true Baptism and Chrismation? Would her baptism and Chrismation have been valid and true? If much later in life she actually believed in Christ and truly repented and confessed her previous lying and sacrilege, would she ever be re-baptized or would the previous baptism be deemed true and graceful?
• If Jesus Christ was baptized for our sins in his baptism, and removed the original, when we are baptized we are uniting with him and accepting what He did for us in the cross? So if Jesus' baptism in the Jordan was for our sins, then what did He do in the cross?
• In Acts 2:36-39, Baptism took place after conviction of sin and repentance. There is no mention of Baptism at infancy as is the case at our church. Colossians 2:11,12, refers to baptism as being buried and resurrected with Christ by faith. Again here there is no reference to Baptism at infancy. The only occasion that infants could have been baptized is among Cornelius’s “whole” household. I really don't know of any scripture that directly points to infants being baptized or gives an explicit example of one. Therefore, do we baptize infants because it is solely biblical or because we believe that infants carry the original sin and so they need to be cleansed through baptism notwithstanding the issue of repentance that usually precedes baptism in the biblical examples?
• In baptism, we know that the old man dies (as mentioned by St. Paul in Romans 6), and we rise with Christ. What exactly dies (or what is the old man composed of)? Does the soul or spirit or body of the old man die, or is it just the old nature? What is the relationship between the old nature/man and the soul, spirit, and body of man?
• In the Holy Book of Acts 19 Paul called St John's baptism as one for the remission of sins and he baptized them again (verse 5) following that with the laying of his hands for the receiving of the Holy Spirit. Why was it necessary for St. Paul to re-baptize them?
• In your article on baptism you state the reasons for waiting forty and eighty days. Does the Coptic Church follow this Old Testament based teaching?
• Is a forced baptism or a baptism conferred on a deep sleeping person or someone in a coma ever considered a valid Baptism? It appears that the church has used forced Baptisms in past years. Did any of the people who received forced Baptisms receive the graces of a valid Baptism?
• Is Baptism necessary for salvation?
• Is the Lord's commandment in the Holy Book of Genesis 17 (regarding circumcision and eight day old boys) a symbol of Baptism at Infancy?
• Is water baptism a requirement for salvation?
• I've been hearing a lot about a second baptism. I was baptized as a baby and not as a grown up to make my own decision. Does God command us to be baptized when we are grown up and know the difference between right and wrong or is it still the same Baptism?
• Jesus was baptized only for being anointed as the Messiah (the High Priest, King of kings, and the Prophet) or for other reasons too? I thought Jesus was baptized to show an example for us to follow.
• John the Baptist was sure of baptizing the Lord. He saw the Dove and the Sound saying, "This is My Beloved Son...." (Matthew 3:17) Later on he sent some of his disciples to check with the Lord Jesus if He is the One or would we still have to wait? Please explain.
• Some say that when Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, that was their baptism?
• The Lord Jesus Christ was not baptized as a baby because a baby does not know how to distinguish between good and evil. Although Lord Jesus Christ had no evil in Him, yet he left us the example of getting baptized at the age of thirty. Are we supposed to follow the Lord Jesus Christ's example, or man's?
• The thief who was on the right side of the Lord Jesus Christ entered the Kingdom of Heaven without Baptism. How do you justify that? Doesn't that prove that it is by one's faith and not necessarily by Baptism that people are saved?
• What is the Orthodox view on the "Baptism of the Spirit"? Is it always accompanied with "the speaking in tongues"? St. Paul talks about it a lot and confirms it, especially in Corinthians. Also, Holy Book of Acts 19 shows that the Baptism of Water and the Baptism of the Spirit are not one. When St. Paul asked a baptized group if they knew the Holy Spirit, they said they didn't....and when they received it they spoke in tongues...
• When were the disciples of our Lord baptized? Did the people that God saved from hell get baptized in order to enter paradise?
• Why did Jesus get baptized, and why specifically in the Jordan River? Does it have to do with the scrolls that Satan threw in the river?
• Why does the Church baptize boys after 40 days, and girls after 80 days?
• Why doesn’t the Orthodox church accept the following viewpoints :
  a) the water our Lord Jesus refers to in “being born of the water” (John 3:1-7) is the water in the mother’s womb which breaks before the baby is born.
  b) "Born of Spirit" is when you are "born again" after having been "born of the water" from your mother’s womb water. Does not that make the above incidents as two separate events?
  c) What is the physical nature of the liquid surrounding the baby in its mother’s womb?
• "Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise at all?" (I Cor 15:29). What is "Baptism for the dead"? Could Your Grace please explain this verse?
• "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8). What does this verse mean exactly?
• "This is He who came by water and blood Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth" (1 John 5:1-6). What exactly is St. John referring to? If Baptism, then whose baptism? Is it any reference to the Old Testament water rituals?
• "Salvation in the Orthodox Concept" by Pope Shenouda 111, states that it is an individual's faith which makes him eligible for baptism. How then can a baby be baptized? The Holy Book of Acts states that Cornelius and his whole household were baptized. Assuming that there were infants, indicates to me that children can receive baptism based on their parent’s faith. But what happens to those baptized children whose parents did not have TRUE faith at baptism? If those children when they grow up decide to commit their lives to the Lord, would they have to be baptized again or would the Lord recognize the original baptism; and at that point dispense the Holy Spirit?