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Baptism

Baptism
    There are nearly 21,000 different Christian denominations in the world today.   With such an enormous number of diverse groups, understanding the beliefs and practices of each and the differences that distinguish one from another can be quiet confusing.   While many denominations are similar, observing the same rites and sacraments, others have little in common other than the fact that they all accept Jesus as the Lord of God. In today's modern world, when we think about religion and Christianity, it is almost impossible not to think about Christian Baptism and its members.
    Christian Baptism is that point at which one acclaims and affirms the true gospel of Christ (Clearman 12).   The ministry of John the Baptist is the founder of Christian Baptism. To achieve the erasing of sin, he administered a baptism of water by doing it in the water of Jordan River by itself.   Between many people that John had baptized he also baptized Jesus Christ.   Jesus' baptism inaugurated his public ministry, and he later gave his disciples the mission of baptizing in the name of Trinitarian faith. They continued to practice the baptism of water of the type administered by John.   Jesus continued John's movement, but he also added new meaning to baptism.   Now, baptism symbolized not only a change of heart but also the coming Holy Spirit which was to mark the messianic age (Hinnells 91). Baptism not long after this became very popular and people all over the world were practiced baptizing.  
    Today Baptists are the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. They count more then twenty-six million members.   Baptists trace they origin to the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation.   The first Baptist church was organized in Amsterdam, Holland, in 1609 by a group of British exiles who objected to infant baptism and favored a separation of church and state.   Eventually, the group returned to England where Baptist church began to spring up.   The English...