Baptism

Comments

• qawe

  December 2012

  [quote author=✞ GoDLovesME ✞ link=topic=14081.msg162299#msg162299 date=1356826943]
  one of my friends at school asked me that... if she is not baptized can she go to heaven??! and she said that she believe in God, jesus and the bible. she goes to church but her church doesn't baptism them i don't remember what church was it.
  
  So can someone plz give me an answer so i can tell her
  
  Thanks
  
  
  From the Church's perspective, baptism is essential for salvation, whether it is baptism in water, or by blood (martyrdom).  Actually, the only place where you are assured salvation if you have faith and do good works is the Orthodox Church, where every member (of course) is baptised.  This does not mean that members of other churches/denominations cannot be saved, but, from the Orthodox Church's perspective, there are no guarantees.The proper and only certain place for salvation is the Orthodox Church with baptism, Holy Communion, repentance and confession.
  
  The only possible exception to this is the Catholic Church, who have a valid priesthood, and therefore probably valid sacraments, and where it is possible for a simple person to be essentially Orthodox insofar as their simple understanding of their faith extends.  But it sounds like your friend is Protestant.  The following verse is relevant:
  
  Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. John 3:3.  The Fathers (and any reasonable person would) interpret this verse as referring to baptism.
  
  This reply was quite blunt and to the point, and I don't suggest you tell your friend this in such a manner at all.  Why not say something like: "In the Orthodox Church, we believe that baptism is essential for salvation.  If someone is not baptised, it's up to God to judge whether he can enter heaven, not me or the Church, but it's definitely better to be baptised (that's the proper way of doing things) in the Orthodox faith, which I believe is the true Church and true faith.  More importantly, however, in the Orthodox Church, our goal is not to merely enter heaven but theosis*, and baptism is a key step in this."
  
  *"The Son of God became man, that we might become god" St Athanasius of Alexandria [the second g is always lowercase since man can never become a God]. http://orthodoxwiki.org/Theosis
  
  Let me know if you have any further queries.
• roubir2010

  December 2012

  Thanks for reply.. It make a lot of sense. Cuz I didn't know what to tell her in proper way but u made it clear thanks