Question: Hello,

I want you to tell me what the difference is between Catholic baptism and Christian baptism. Also – give me some scriptures.

12. Using Catholic baptism, can a person be saved from sins and go to heaven?

2. There are a lot of methods of baptism in different churches. Which are appropriate for people to use?

Answer: Dear Luis,

Baptism, as administered by Catholics, as well as the Eastern Orthodox Churches, (in addition to a few Protestants) is infant baptism and it is by sprinkling. Protestants primarily practice adult (or what is also called believer’s baptism) – many preferring immersion, thinking this is how Jesus was baptized.

There are many arguments on both sides of this question – but perhaps most important is the fact that neither method or mode of baptism automatically saves the person who is baptized. Baptism is commanded as simply an outward sign of what has already taken place in the individual’s life (or in the case of infant baptism, in the family of the infant). Baptism is done as a public acknowledgement and ceremony of the relationship God has already made available – in some ways like the ceremony of marriage, celebrating the fact that love exists between the man and the woman, and the fact of their commitment to one another which has already been made, but the wedding ceremony serves as a public way of sharing that commitment.

Our personal relationship with God is what is important, not the ceremony, not our age, not which church or which minister performs the ceremony – but our individual relationship with God.

In Christ,

Greg Albrecht