Christian Baby Dedication

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Publisher said:
I don’t think those that practice baby dedication ARE necessarily looking to “prove” if it’s biblically sound by proof texting…it certainly is not forbidden.🙂
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Fair enough. Let’s hope that Christians who believe in having a dedication for their children would not hold Catholics to citing chapter and verse for all of their practices.
 
kib said:
Fair enough. Let’s hope that Christians who believe in having a dedication for their children would not hold Catholics to citing chapter and verse for all of their practices.
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Indeed…and “let’s hope” that Catholics will seek to better understand that it goes both ways too I would think…better understanding one another and not making sweeping misinformed generalizations would go far in mutual understanding and communication.🙂
 
Publisher said:
Indeed…and “let’s hope” that Catholics will seek to better understand that it goes both ways too I would think…better understanding one another and not making sweeping misinformed generalizations would go far in mutual understanding and communication.🙂
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What sweeping misinformed generalization have I made? Why do you end all of your posts with a snarky :)?
 
kib said:
What sweeping misinformed generalization have I made? Why do you end all of your posts with a snarky :)?
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Friend…I didn’t say YOU made them…I was commenting concerning your statement works both ways…no offense was intended.

I wasn’t aware a 🙂 was “snarky”…if it appeared so, you have my sincere apology.

Peace to you friend.
 
kib said:
What is the significance of the oil?
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Good question. Their theology (groups that object to infant baptism) generally objects to the idea that external ritual has any inherent meaning, yet they see in the Scriptures the practice of annointing with oil, so they continue the practice out of respect to Scripture. You’d think the cognitive dissonance would get to them after a while, but I suppose I have my idiosyncracies too!
 
FabiusMaximus said:
Dare I say it? It’s a tradition.

Anointing with oil is an old biblical tradition, so it’s applied to baby dedication.
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While not having the Catholic understanding of sacraments…the oil symbolized the Holy Spirit…as I understand oil is also used in ordinations of most Protestant clergy…also a symbol of the Holy Spirit.
 
Not all churches use oil in baby dedications. My three children and I were all dedicated as babies, and oil was not used with any of us.
 
I grew up in an American Baptist Church. Dedication of infants was practiced. The presentation of Jesus at the temple was cited as a scriptural justification. No oil was used. It was not a sacrament, nor was anything else for that matter.
 
The Biblical basis is 1 Samuel chapter 1
24And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and she brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh. And the child was young. 25Then they slaughtered the bull, and they brought the child to Eli. 26And she said, “Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the LORD. 27For this child I prayed, and the LORD has granted me my petition that I made to him. 28Therefore I have lent him to the LORD. As long as he lives, he is lent to the LORD.”
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manualman said:
Good question. Their theology (groups that object to infant baptism) generally objects to the idea that external ritual has any inherent meaning, yet they see in the Scriptures the practice of annointing with oil, so they continue the practice out of respect to Scripture. You’d think the cognitive dissonance would get to them after a while, but I suppose I have my idiosyncracies too!
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Just because someone objects to infant baptism on grounds that baptism is a choice that one needs to make oneself, this doesn’t mean that someone “objects to the idea that external ritual has any inherent meaning”. Lots of Protestants practice rituals that have inherent meaning. It’s just that those rituals don’t have sacramental meaning in the way that Catholics believe. Oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit and is constantly being used as such in Scripture. Using oil in a baby dedication, in prayer for healing, or in any other thing is as Bible Christian as one gets. I’m not sure what “congnitive dissonance” you are referring to.
 
This is an interesting thread as I grew up in a protestant church (Campbellite), but have never heard of baby dedications. Which groups practice this? Are there particular denominations? Is it a recent practice?
 
kib said:
I don’t think I agree with that. They see those externals as things that bring them closer to Christ, I truly believe He is the center of their worship. I, on the other hand, see the Eucharist as the “source and summit” of my faith and worship during the holy mass.
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Indeed,however depends a lot on the individual. I am not saying all them have no focus at all. Nonetheless, I do not believe that is the case with most fundamentalist I have encountered. If one is there because strictly the music,then it is not about Christ,but about the music.
 
JHow said:
This is an interesting thread as I grew up in a protestant church (Campbellite), but have never heard of baby dedications. Which groups practice this? Are there particular denominations? Is it a recent practice?
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It’s mostly “old school” Evangelicals…Baptists, Nazarenes, Free Methodists, Assembiles of God etc…Campbellites would not practice it…some Mennonites do as they only embrace “adult baptism”…most likely the more contemporary Protestant groups…Calvary Chapel…Word of Faith…some non-denominational groups would not practice it as a whole…it would be case by case basis…
 
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