Baptism Quotes

“I breathe in. The water will wash my wounds clean. I breathe out. My mother submerged me in water when I was a baby, to give me to God. It has been a long time since I thought about God, but I think about him now. It is only natural. I am glad, suddenly, that I shot Eric in the foot instead of the head.”
― Veronica Roth, Divergent

“Since Jimmy Carter, religious fundamentalists play a major role in elections. He was the first president who made a point of exhibiting himself as a born again Christian. That sparked a little light in the minds of political campaign managers: Pretend to be a religious fanatic and you can pick up a third of the vote right away. Nobody asked whether Lyndon Johnson went to church every day. Bill Clinton is probably about as religious as I am, meaning zero, but his managers made a point of making sure that every Sunday morning he was in the Baptist church singing hymns.”
― Noam Chomsky

“I take thee at thy word:
Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized;
Henceforth I never will be Romeo.”
― William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

“Minister: Welcome, brother! Do you reject Satan and all his works?
Bunny Breckinridge: Sure.”
― Tim Burton

“The Church does not dispense the sacrament of baptism in order to acquire for herself an increase in membership but in order to consecrate a human being to God and to communicate to that person the divine gift of birth from God.”
― Hans Urs von Balthasar, Unless You Become Like This Child

“Ego non baptizo te in nomine patris, sed in nomine diaboli!”
― Herman Melville, Moby Dick

“I called it a baptism in flaming ink that forced me to shed my shyness about recognizing myself as a poet and to accept the fact that life had never given me any choice in the matter. And then I had to discover exactly what that meant.”
― Aberjhani, The American Poet Who Went Home Again

“Accept the past as the past and realize that each new day you are a new person who doesn’t need to carry old baggage into the new day with you. It’s amazing how many people ruin the beauty of today with the sorrows of yesterday. Yesterday doesn’t exist anymore! For example, if ever I feel foolish or guilty about something I’ve done, I learn from it and attempt to do better the next time. Shame or guilt serves no one. Such feelings actually keep us down, often lowering the vibrations of those around us, as well. Living in the present moment is the recurring baptism of the soul, forever purifying every new day with a new you.”
― Alaric Hutchinson, Living Peace: Essential Teachings For Enriching Life

“It would be unjust toward children to introduce them to Christian teaching and existence only as little pagans and catechumens, in order to leave it up to them to choose the Faith on their own responsibility at a point in time difficult to determine.”
― Hans Urs von Balthasar, Unless You Become Like This Child

“...Of the Hindu, of whatever caste, it may be said, as of the poet, nascitur non fit. His birth status is unalterable. But with the Sikh the exact reverse is the case. Born of a Sikh father, he is not himself counted of the faith until, as a grown boy, he has been initiated and received the baptism of the pahul at the Akal Bungah or some equally sacred place.”
― Lepel H. Griffin, Ranjit Singh

“Prominent Christians in Constantine's time waited to be baptized until their deathbeds lest they commit a "major"sin that couldn't be forgiven of those already baptized. Others felt anyone who did anything to avoid martyrdom were apostates had no valid subsequent ministry.”
― Thomas F. Madden, From Jesus to Christianity: A History of the Early Church

“Under the leadership of religious professionals, modern worship has become passive—listening to a message and singing some songs. Seldom is there a call to service or an invitation to trust Christ. Baptisms take place inside the church where it is safe and comfortable rather than in public where there is opportunity to give witness to the saving grace of Christ. The great needs of society are left to para-church groups, government agencies, and other social service organizations. All the while the church is losing its muscle tone, its biceps are becoming loose and flabby and its belly is becoming round and soft. Not a pretty picture for one who once was toned and buff—a lean, mean fighting machine.”
― Craig Olson

“Teach the people the Word before converting and baptizing them”
― Sunday Adelaja

“We trivialize the devil, but we're haunted by ghouls of oppression and ghosts of victimization. Millions are scarred by sexual abuse or domestic violence. Hundreds of thousands stumble through nightmarish post-trauma from war, torture, genocide. Even materialists speak of 'personal demons.' To all such, baptism is gospel. Victimizers are rescued from their own cruelty, as the waters open a horizon of reparation and redemption. Baptism doesn't promise a trouble-free life. Israel was tempted in the wilderness, and Jesus faces off with Satan after his baptism (Matt 3:13-4:11). Baptism begins a war with Satan. But baptism promises the oppressed a defender greater than Moses, a defender who is already Victor.”
― Peter J. Leithart, Baptism: A Guide to Life from Death

“As Alexander Schmemann notes, we moderns feel no need to renounce Satan because we 'do not see the presence and action of Satan in the world.' The world looks so shiny and civilized that we don't grasp how 'such seemingly positive and even Christian notions as freedom and liberation, love, happiness, success, achievement, growth, self fulfillment...can in fact be deviated from their real significance and become vehicles of the demonic.' Baptism renounces 'an entire worldview made up of pride and self-affirmation' that twists life 'into darkness, death and hell.' What appears to be a gentle, middle-class neighborhood can be a nest of vipers. Baptism enlists us to resist domesticated dragons as much as a the feral ones.”
― Peter J. Leithart, Baptism: A Guide to Life from Death

“Baptism saves because it cleanses dead works from the conscience. In baptism, God says our guilty past doesn't control us. Baptism speaks God's word of forgiveness. Baptism has power to save because it joins us to Jesus' resurrection, which buries death and rises to eternal life.”
― Peter J. Leithart, Baptism: A Guide to Life from Death

“In baptism, adults and infants are pledged to Jesus, sealed by the Spirit as soldiers, slaves, and sheep of God's pasture. The gift of baptism awakens faith, loyal allegiance to the one whose name we bear. If faith is loyalty, by definition it persists through thick and thin. A soldier who shrinks from battle isn't keeping faith with his commander. The Spirit gives the gift of faith and keeps us in faith; he keeps us loyal to our commander. What's crucial is not the size of our faith before baptism but the Spirit's gift of persevering faith after.”
― Peter J. Leithart, Baptism: A Guide to Life from Death

“We don't observe purity rites, yet we still experience shame and sense our pollution. The obese man who recoils at his own body, the addict disgusted at the pathetic weakness of his will, the woman who can't see her pretty face in the mirror because her mother has always railed at her ugliness: all feel unclean. Shame, said John Paul II, is a withdrawal from visibility, 'fear in the presence of a second I.' When ashamed, we don't feel we have a right to visibility, so we erect screens between ourselves and others, between ourselves and God. We're alien to the world itself; we feel unworthy to step out into God's cosmic temple.

To those who feel ashamed and unclean, baptism is gospel. Reborn by water and Spirit, the baptized shine with the dazzling light of God's beauty. Baptism dissolves the barriers of shame that screen us from God and one another. It makes us one flesh with the body of the whole Christ. Baptism harmonizes us with creation.”
― Peter J. Leithart, Baptism: A Guide to Life from Death

“Water is a boundary. When Israel leaves Egypt, they surge out through the Red Sea and into the wilderness. Yahweh makes the arid land a fertile field and rains bread from heaven, but the wilderness isn't a permanent home. To flourish, Israel needs to flow into Canaan.”
― Peter J. Leithart, Baptism: A Guide to Life from Death

“As Israel is baptized into Moses, so they are baptized into Joshua, whose miracles mark him as a new Moses. Unlike the Red Sea, the Jordan doesn't kill. No world is wiped away. No Pharaoh drowns. The Jordan is a river of life. To enter the land, Israel needs both a baptism through death and a baptism of resurrection.”
― Peter J. Leithart, Baptism: A Guide to Life from Death

“Crossing the Jordan from east to west, Israel is a new humanity, restored to an Eden that has expanded to become a garden land. They're baptized in the Jordan as a priestly people, entering sacred territory, the holy land.”
― Peter J. Leithart, Baptism: A Guide to Life from Death

“Baptism enlists us in the great war of human history, among the troops of the seed of the woman as he fights the seed of the serpent. As it brings us into the army of the church, baptism equips us with a panoply of weapons--the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the sandals of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Eph 6:12-17). The warfare of the baptized is a warfare of faith fought with Spiritual weapons (2 Cor 10:1-6), a liturgical warfare of word, water, song, prayer, bread, and wine.”
― Peter J. Leithart, Baptism: A Guide to Life from Death

“Care of the poor, vulnerable, weak, destitute, and isolated is the biblical standard of a just society. No society is just or healthy if the weakest aren't protected, if you need money to get a fair hearing in a court, or if the poor are denied opportunities to flourish. the king's justice especially blesses the needy and poor (Ps 72:4, 12-14). He passes judgment in their favor and saves the helpless by crushing their oppressors, as Yahweh crushed the head of Rahab, the Egyptian sea monster (Isa 51:9).

The king's justice is summed up by the lovely phrase: 'The king is like rain upon the mowing, like showers that water the earth' (Ps 72:6; my translation). Without the rain of justice, everything dies--the garden withers to a wasteland. When a just king reigns, grain stalks stand tall and spread like cedars of Lebanon, and cities flourish like green fields, fresh as Eden (Ps 72:16). Rain refreshes and cleanses, glorifies and brightens. Rain on the mowing promises a future harvest beyond today's harvest. Blessed by Yahweh, the just king baptizes the land. Justice rolls down like waters, righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (Amos 5:24).”
― Peter J. Leithart, Baptism: A Guide to Life from Death

“Baptism is the good news that Jesus' royal rain has fallen from heaven to earth, and it incorporates the baptized into Jesus' work. Jesus establishes his justice through his body. United with the King, we're kings and queens, new Adams and Eves. By baptism, we dissonant children of Adam begin to resonate with creation. Soaked with heavenly rain, we become refreshing water for the world. The church is a cascade that sweeps away brutes and thugs; the church is a gentle shower to revive the thirsty and a cooling cup of mercy and justice, offered in compassion and humility. Whatever is born of flesh is flesh; what is born of Spirit is Spirit. Born of word, we are God's word to the world. Born of water, we are water.”
― Peter J. Leithart, Baptism: A Guide to Life from Death

“Baptism makes us kings. It calls us to fight with spiritual weapons of prayer, righteousness, faith, the sword-word of the Spirit. It commissions us to rule with wise justice and to build with skill. When we sin, baptism assures us that 'the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise' (Ps 51:17). Baptism promises that the Spirit dwells among the fragments of a shattered heart.”
― Peter J. Leithart, Baptism: A Guide to Life from Death

“We're all Naaman, lepers reborn. We're all iron sinking toward Sheol until the wood and water save us. We're all Elijah, led to brooks in the wilderness. We're all Elisha, baptized into Jesus' Jordan baptism to share his Spirit. By the Spirit of Jesus, the baptized become a prophetic community, given the words of God to speak and sing to one another, qualified by the Spirit to stand in the Lord's council. Preachers aren't the only prophets in the church. Preachers lead and train a community of prophets. Wherever the Lord calls us to labor--whether we're at work, hoe, out in the neighborhood, or at the kids' baseball game--he fills our mouths with words of fire to kill and make alive (1 Sam 2:6; Jer 1:9-10).

Prophets must keep up a steady diet of God's word so that our words give life rather than spread death. When we drink the Spirit, our words drop like rain and drip like dew (Deut 32:2). Clothed with the Spirit of prophecy, we intercede for the world. Faithful prophets must be and remain filled with the Spirit. You're baptized: walk in step with the Spirit. You've been soaked in the Spirit: don't quench or grieve him, and you will prophesy, you will see visions, you will dream dreams.”
― Peter J. Leithart, Baptism: A Guide to Life from Death

“Baptism's power doesn't stop when the water dries. God preaches in your baptism every day. When the bullies and demons return, remind Jesus and yourself you are his. When you want to slink into the shadows, God says, 'You are robed in Christ.' When you feel shackled by your past, God calls you to the future he opened at the font. Whenever you're insulted or falsely accused, hear God's declaration: 'Whoever has died [in baptism] is justified from sin' (Rom 6:7). When you're fearful, call on the Spirit, and he will give you words to speak. When a murderous mob surrounds you, remember your baptism is fulfilled in martyrdom. You are what God says you are, not what you feel. Consider yourself to be who baptism says you are.

Whatever happens, you are in your Father's love. Trust him. Stay loyal. Don't 'melt like water' (Josh 7:5). Plunged in God's water, you become God's water. Imitate the fish. Live in the water, and be God's rain on dry ground, God's flood again the wicked. Be God's water, for nothing is more powerful than water.”
― Peter J. Leithart, Baptism: A Guide to Life from Death

“It is a forgotten truth that the manhood of Jesus was from first to last dependent on the Holy Ghost.

We are apt to imagine that its connection with His divine nature rendered this unnecessary. On the contrary, it made it far more necessary, for in order to be the organ of His divine nature, His human nature had both to be endowed with the highest gifts and constantly sustained in their exercise. We are in the habit of attributing the wisdom and grace of His words, His supernatural knowledge of even the thoughts of men, and the miracles He performed, to His divine nature. But in the Gospels they are constantly attributed to the Holy Ghost.

This does not mean that they were independent of His divine nature, but that in them His human nature was enabled to be the organ of His divine nature by a peculiar gift of the Holy Ghost. This gift was given Him at His baptism.”
― James Stalker, The Life of Jesus Christ: A Biographical Overview of the Life of Christ

“If I had my eternal salvation placed in front of me on this table, and if I only had to stretch out my hand to take it, I would not put out my hand so long as I had not received the order to do so. At least that is what I like to think. And if instead of my own it were the eternal salvation of all human beings, past, present and to come, I know I ought to do the same thing. In that case I should mind very much. But if I alone were concerned I almost think I should not greatly mind. For I want nothing else but obedience, obedience itself, in its totality, that is to say even to the Cross.”
― Simone Weil, Waiting for God

“That is not the only trajectory along which the baptism narrative grew and evolved. The Markan version itself began to afford new embarrassments as Christian history progressed. After all, John's was a baptism for repenting sinners! What on earth was Jesus doing there? [...] Apparently, Mark saw nothing amiss. After all, it is a good thing to repent, isn't it? The same humility that led Jesus to wade into the Jordan that day also bade him deflect the polite flattery of a wellwisher in Mark 10:17-18. "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone!" Needless to say, the thought never entered Mark's head that Jesus might be an incarnation of God. That is a later stage of Christology, and when theologians arrived there, Mark 10:17-18 became a headache for which no cure has yet been found.”
― Robert M. Price, The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man: How Reliable is the Gospel Tradition?