Baptismal Advice for Unbaptized Protestant

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First off, I apologize if I should have posted the following inquiry in the Non-Catholic category. I am currently an unbaptized, Protestant Christian. I feel drawn towards the Catholic Church, but I am not up for joining it or any other denomination right now. I am currently in sincere search of truth. With that said, should I get baptized by my current pastor and go on living for Christ in the best of my current ability as I continue my search? I feel uncomfortable being unbaptized, but I currently feel even more uncomfortable trying to find a denomination to get baptized into. Any advice or encouragement?
 
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By ‘my current pastor’, do you mean the Catholic priest at your local parish?
 
Being a bit Irish, I get to answer a question with a question. Let’s start with this: what does baptism mean to you? It might help if you could tell us what this means, or doesn’t mean.

Depending on the Protestant church you attend (and at times, in particular, the minister of that church), understanding of baptism can vary quite widely. Please tell us more.
 
JamesJr said:
First off, I apologize if I should have posted the following inquiry in the Non-Catholic category. I am currently an unbaptized, Protestant Christian. I feel drawn towards the Catholic Church, but I am not up for joining it or any other denomination right now. I am currently in sincere search of truth. With that said, should I get baptized by my current pastor and go on living for Christ in the best of my current ability as I continue my search? I feel uncomfortable being unbaptized, but I currently feel even more uncomfortable trying to find a denomination to get baptized into. Any advice or encouragement?
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I know this is not an answer to your question but I am asking for information purposes.
Which Protestant denomination do you currently belong to. Many non-Catholic Christian baptisms are accepted as valid by the Catholic Church and many are not.
 
No. I can’t do that. I am unable to make an honest commitment to the Catholic Church yet. I mean the pastor of the Protestant church.
 
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I think it would mean to me making a fuller commitment to Christianity. I really want to follow and live for Christ.
 
I currently consider myself non-denominational but that is not an answer to your question. I attend a Church of God church with my mother. Church of God is a Pentecostal denomination headquartered in Cleveland, TN. Information about the denomination’s baptismal belief taken from the church’s website: “[We believe] In water baptism by immersion, and all who repent should be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
 
JamesJr said:
I currently consider myself non-denominational but that is not an answer to your question. I attend a Church of God church with my mother. Church of God is a Pentecostal denomination headquartered in Cleveland, TN. Information about the denomination’s baptismal belief taken from the church’s website: “[We believe] In water baptism by immersion, and all who repent should be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
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Church of God baptism is a valid one and accepted by the Catholic Church.
 
Thank you for your help. I am curious now. What makes a schismatic church’s practice of Baptism invalid or valid in the eyes of the Church?
 
JamesJr said:
Thank you for your help. I am curious now. What makes a schismatic church’s practice of Baptism invalid or valid in the eyes of the Church?
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A valid baptism is done with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. This applies to Catholic Christians and non-Catholic Christians.
 
JamesJr said:
What makes a schismatic church’s practice of Baptism invalid or valid in the eyes of the Church?
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Montrose said:
A valid baptism is done with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. This applies to Catholic Christians and non-Catholic Christians.
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And there either needs to be immersion in the water or water needs to be poured. Mere cross with wet finger on the forehead won’t be valid. Just including this because it was common Protestant practice in my country which made their baptisms invalid…
 
That is an interesting piece of information. I have a question that will be off topic. I read your bio and it leads me to asking you the following: Why should I choose Catholicism over Eastern Orthodoxy? Can you answer the objections to the Catholic Church that the Orthodox tends to make such as the filioque addition to the Nicene Creed or debates about purgatory?
 
OrbisNonSufficit said:
And there either needs to be immersion in the water or water needs to be poured. Mere cross with wet finger on the forehead won’t be valid. Just including this because it was common Protestant practice in my country which made their baptisms invalid…
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Sprinkling of water is also valid.
 
JamesJr said:
Why should I choose Catholicism over Eastern Orthodoxy? Can you answer the objections to the Catholic Church that the Orthodox tends to make such as the filioque addition to the Nicene Creed or debates about purgatory?
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Well, sure I will try to provide shorter answers.

Filioque- doctrinally speaking it was endorsed by Church fathers (see this link for more). Orthodox argument stands on saying that Creed can not be modified. History proves otherwise. Armenian Church has used different Creed (and there were various other Creeds throughout history which you can easily google) and nobody ever raised an eyebrow. In other words using different Creed locally (such as for Latin Patriarchate) was allowed. Polemics against Filioque rose up when Patriarch Photius was uncanonically elected as Patriarch and Pope tried to intervene- to maintain his legitimacy, Photius was first Eastern Father who introduced concept of single procession of Holy Spirit to the East. This is however not what Church Fathers before him did.

Purgatory- Held as pious opinion by Pre-Schism Saints such as Pope St. Gregory the Great (Saint even in Orthodoxy), Catholic Church has declared that prior to death there is certain cleansing. Orthodox Church also believes this as to be final part of our “Theosis” (process of becoming Saints of God). Only real tension is between fact that Latin Church portrays Purgatory as painful place while Orthodoxy does not try to define that. Interestingly enough, Mark of Ephesus, Eastern Orthodox Saint who is their hero against Catholicism actually won debate on Purgatory at Council of Florence- which means that dogmatically Catholic Church follows opinion of Mark of Ephesus.
 
This is very helpful. Thank you. Another question: Has the office of pope always had it’s authority? Did the early Christians submit to the pope?
 
well its different for baptism as an adult versus a child. I imagine as an adult you are responsible fully for keeping yourself bridged to God. Ideally parents have that job in baptism of their children. and if anything happens to them the responsibility goes to the God Parents.
 
JamesJr said:
This is very helpful. Thank you. Another question: Has the office of pope always had it’s authority? Did the early Christians submit to the pope?
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Not in same way they do now, but yes office of Pope always had the authority. There was some development in how Church is organized and centralized to, but in the end Rome was seen as inerrant (without capability to be in error). Churches had to be in agreement with Rome and so on.
 
JamesJr said:
should I get baptized by my current pastor
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IMHO, yes. For most non-Catholic Christians you’re not being baptized into A church per se. I wasn’t baptized into my non-denominational church, but rather into the family of believers (if that makes sense).
JamesJr said:
Church of God is a Pentecostal denomination
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Do Pentecostals use the trinitarian formula and water?
 
TC3033 said:
Do Pentecostals use the trinitarian formula and water?
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Yes, in the case of the Church of God otherwise their baptism would not be accepted as valid by the Catholic Church.
I don’t know about other Pentecostal churches.
 
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