We had one of our young pastors baptizing one time and when he got ready to pray over the boy, he meant to say, "Dear God...." and he said, "Dear Robert.....". It was hilarious! He was very nervous.
We had one of our young pastors baptizing one time and when he got ready to pray over the boy, he meant to say, "Dear God...." and he said, "Dear Robert.....". It was hilarious! He was very nervous.
One of my young preachers was baptizing his first person and got so excited that he literally slammed the young man down and then forgot to pick them up and went off shouting... I jumped over the edge - head first - and picked them up out of the water!
We've laughed about that for years... but, even more funny than the man shouting on away from the person being baptized was that wide eyed look of the young man still holding his nose under water!
Let's just say that I expounded the 'way of the Lord' more perfectly after service and loved his reply: "Pastor, technically isn't our job mainly to get them down in Jesus Name?"
Here's a bit more interesting stuff about Jewish baptism if you care to read a bit.
It does point out the importance of immersion as the proper form of baptism.
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How Immersion Was Done
Jewish baptism has never been taken lightly, but in ancient times immersion was to be performed in the presence of witnesses (Yebam. 47b). The person being baptized made special preparations by cutting his nails, undressed completely and made a fresh profession of his faith before the designated "fathers of the baptism" (Kethub. 11a; Erub 15a). This is possibly where churches, sometime later, got the term Godfathers. The individual stood straight up with the feet spread and the hands held out in front. The candidate would totally immerse themselves by squatting in the water with a witness or baptizer doing the officiating. Note the New Testament points out the fact that Jesus came up straightway out of the water (Matthew 3:16).
4. The immersion candidate was not touched by the baptizer in Jesus' day. Because Leviticus 15:16 says "He shall wash all his flesh in the water," Judaism stresses that the entire body must come in contact with the water of the mikveh. To insure the immersion was valid, no clothing or individuals could touch the candidate. Any such intervention that prevented the water from reaching a part of the body was known as Chatzitzah and rendered the immersion invalid. Although the mikveh was more spiritual than physical, often the bath had two sets of steps, one entering and another leaving so as not to defile what had been purified.
So, the question now is:
Are our baptisms valid since most use baptismal robes and don't baptize people naked?
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