Pat's Baptism

The Congregation at the Baptism Service The 20th February 2005 was a very special day. It was the day that Pat got baptised!

In fact Pat was one of 6 people from the Great Harwood Christian Fellowship who got baptised that day. Members of the Fellowship and guests gathered at Clayton Baptist Church to bear witness to the step of faith that each of these 6 people were taking.

To many people, it might seem strange that someone aged 49 chooses to be baptised. The simple answer is that God commands believers to be baptised. Indeed, Jesus' last instruction to his apostles recorded in Matthew's Gospel was that they should: "...go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

The command to be baptised is, however, only given to believers. In the eighth chapter of the book of the Acts of the Apostles we are told about the Apostle Philip's meeting with the Ethiopian eunuch. When the latter asks Philip "Why shouldn't I be baptised?", Philip replies "If you believe with all your heart, you may" and when the Ethopian answered by saying "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God", Philip proceeded to baptise him.
It can be no other way. Baptism is an outward sign of an inward belief. How can it therefore be appropriate for someone to be be baptised who does not, or cannot, believe that "Jesus Christ is the Son of God"?

It necessarily follows that a baby who goes through a ceremony of "baptism" is not being baptised in the sense of that word in the Bible.

Therefore when Pat, who had been "baptised" as child, came to the realisation that "Jesus Christ is the Son of God", she also realised the necessity for her now, as an adult, to be baptised to outwardly show the change in her heart ... to show her faith in Jesus, and only in Jesus, to save her from her sins and to reconcile her to God.
Pat talking to members of the congregation prior to the start of the service