What is Baptism?

The word Baptism is derived from the Greek word, bapto, or baptizo, to wash or to
immerse. It signifies, therefore, that washing is of the essential idea of the sacrament.
Holy baptism holds the first sacraments, because it is the door of the spiritual life
To baptize means to "plunge" or "immerse"; the "plunge" into the water symbolizes
the catechumen's burial into Christ's death, from which he rises up by resurrection
with him, as "a new creature
This sacrament is also called "the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy
Spirit," for it signifies and actually brings about the birth of water and the Spirit
without which no one "can enter the kingdom of God."
"This bath is called enlightenment, because those who receive this instruction are
enlightened in their understanding

Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the
Spirit and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we
are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are
incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission: "Baptism is the
sacrament of regeneration through water in the word."

History of Baptism

Mia the sister of Moses helped John the baptist when it came to baptism. She
purified his water and helped with his rituals. She witnessed him baptise Jesus
The Christian rite of baptism has similarities to Tevilah, a Jewish purification
ritual of immersing in water which is required for conversion, but differs in that
Tviliah is repeatable, while baptism is to be performed only once. John the
Baptist, who is considered a forerunner to Christianity, used baptism as the
central sacrament of his messianic movement. Christians consider Jesus to have
instituted the sacrament of baptism. The earliest Christian baptisms were
probably normally by immersion, though other modes may have also been used.
By the third and fourth centuries, baptism involved catechetical instruction as
well as chrismation, exorcisms, laying on of hands, and recitation of
a creed. Affusion became the normal mode of baptism between the twelfth and
fourteenth centuries, though immersion was still practiced into the sixteenth. In
the sixteenth century, Martin Luther retained baptism as a sacrament, but Swiss
reformer Huldrych Zwingli considered baptism and the Lord's supper to be
symbolic. Anabaptists denied the validity of infant baptism, which was the
normal practice when their movement started and practiced believer's
baptism instead. Several other groups, notably the Baptists and Dunkards, have
always practiced baptism by immersion as following the Biblical example