Eric, The Beach and Baptism

Today I hung out a bit with one of our international students here at Handong Global University-Eric Som. Eric is a dedicated Christian brother who is very outspoken for the Lord. First we had lunch together at the "snack bar" which is basically the only place open during the summer apart from the small campus supermarket/book store. We met up hours later at 5:45 pm to head down to Chilpo Beach. Once we got to the beach, I realized that I forgot to post Eric's baptism pics earlier. The reason I was reminded at Chilpo Beach was...well, yeah, that's where he was baptised! Well, here they are:

A lot of people were suprised at Eric's baptism as he has been an active member of the church for 10 years. Eric felt moved (by the Spirit) to get baptized this year and he was with 6 other members of HIC (Handong International Church). I'm so glad that he took that step of faith and obedience.

This brings up an important issue: Why does one get baptized? Is it necessary for salvation? These are ?s one hears often from people. We know from the scriptures that our Lord was baptized Himself (though he didn't need to be) in order to give us an example to follow. Whenever people put their faith in Jesus Christ, they were shortly thereafter baptized. (apart from the thief on the cross, as it wasn't possible...) We are saved the moment we believe, but we get baptized as an act of obedience. "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3-4, KJV) This important verse is written on my birth certificate:

What's wrong with infants being baptized? No where in scriptures do you have infants being baptized. They are always those of an age to understand. Sure CHILDREN can and should be baptized. (Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." (Matthew 19:14)

Why full body immersion? Isn't water poured over the head enough? Again, it must be stressed that this is a spiritual cleansing that is REPRESENTED through baptism (symbolism) and not a physical cleansing...but again, in each case of the Bible the individuals were fully immersed in water. Here are some examples: "Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because there was plenty of water and people were constantly coming to be baptized." (John 3:23) and "Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, Look here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?" And he gave orders to stop the chariot, then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him." (Acts 8:35-38) If it is always full immersion in scripture, why do anything else?! The moment you start doing anything slightly different from scripture, (be it infant baptism or part baptism -even with good intentions) you are getting "into dangerous waters"!! (Pardon the pun!)