On Mon, 22 Jul 2002 [email protected] wrote: > The churches that wait a few years before baptizing believe that: > > Baptizing is for remission of sins. > Until a child is seven or eight years old they are free from sins. Actually, I think it can be more complicated than that and may vary widely from one denomination to another. My church does not usually do infant baptisms because we believe that baptism is a sign that a person has become a Christian by making the choice to commit their life to Jesus. So, infants are "dedicated" and only after someone becomes a Christian are they baptized. We believe that baptism does not result in forgiveness of sins, but is a sign of what has occurred. My understanding is that some churches that practice infant baptism believe that baptism itself takes away sin, so it is important to baptize a baby as soon as possible. For genealogy purposes, I'm not sure that it matters, but I don't think it is safe to assume that the baptism date is within a few months of the birth. You'd need to research the practices of the particular church before making that assumption. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Jane Huggins, Ph.D., ATP "The only legitimate use of power is to serve and protect." -- Unknown, quoted [email protected] by John K. Smith %%%%%%%%%%%%% http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~janeh %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Other churches believe that a soul won't be permitted into heaven unless it is baptised so they do it as soon as possible. Jane Huggins wrote: >On Mon, 22 Jul 2002 [email protected] wrote: > >>The churches that wait a few years before baptizing believe that: >> >>Baptizing is for remission of sins. >>Until a child is seven or eight years old they are free from sins. >>