Baptism

I've been trying to get on here, but it keeps saying maintenance. How much can there be to do?

The other night I'm watching "Lost", a show I like (I'm a serial person, shows like "24" and "Lost" that are one big story that takes more than a half-hour to tell) and they start talking about baptism. Someone is in danger and they need to baptize them.

Now I'm all for baptism, it's great, but they totally skewed what it really means, as I've found out is normal for our society. I had to do interviews on the street while in college and find out if people were Christians, if they were going to heaven and scary as it was, everyone gave us the same answer. "I'm a Christian because I'm baptized."

Okay, time to set the world straight. Baptism does not make you a Christian. It's the other way around. Baptism is the outward expression of your inner faith. You decide to follow Jesus and then you make a public showing of it by being baptized (kinda like a way of telling the world the decision you've made). That's how it works. Further reading would be Matthew 3 ("I baptize you with water to show that your hearts and lives have changed." - meaning the change has happened, then you are baptized) and the end of Matthew 28 ("Go and make followers of all people in the world. Baptize them..." - meaning you tell others about Jesus first and lead them to Him, then they are baptized).

So for everyone thinking that when you were baptized / dedicated as a baby that means you've got a "get out of hell free" card and automatically get whisked through the Pearly Gates, sorry, that's not the way I see it. God is looking for those who love Him, those who have a relationship with Him. I can be baptized then never talk to Jesus again, just like I can get my birth certificate with my family name on it, but if I right away move out and never talk to them or see them, would they still invite me to the family reunion...?

T