Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition

LESSON 1 | THEOLOGY OF THE CHURCH: THE CHURCH AT WORSHIP / 275

c. Mark 16.15-16

d. 1 Pet. 3.20-22

“The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion” which is the core creed of churches in the Methodist and Episcopal tradition describes the sacramental doctrine of Baptism like this. “They that receive Baptism rightly are grafted into the Church; the promises of the forgiveness of sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed; Faith is confirmed, and Grace increased by virtue of prayer unto God.”

~John H. Leith, ed. Creeds of the Churches. Louisville: John Knox Press, 1983. pp. 275-76

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C hr i s t i an M i n i s t ry

2. It is important to understand that those who see baptism as a sacrament are not teaching baptismal regeneration. Baptismal regeneration is the false belief that baptism by itself will save a person simply because the act of baptism has been performed. At times in the past, the Catholic Church seemed to teach something very close to this, but today both Catholic and Protestant teaching agree that the key element of baptism is faith. The Church father Gregory of Nyssa emphasized that if a person is baptized but does not combine it with genuine repentance then, “in these cases the water is but water, for the gift of the Holy Ghost in no way appears in him who is thus baptismally born.”

page 142 & 13

B. Those who define baptism as an ordinance see it as a symbol by which a person declares their identification with Christ and his Church. Baptism is important for incorporation into the Church.

1. Scriptural support for baptism as an ordinance or symbol:

a. Acts 10.47