Baptism

====Baptist====
For the majority of Baptists, Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.<ref>{{bibleverse|Matthew|28:19}}</ref><ref name="BFM">{{cite web |title=VII. Baptism and the Lord's Supper |url-status=dead |work=The Baptist Faith and Message |publisher=Southern Baptist Convention |access-date=July 29, 2009 |url=http://www.sbc.net/bfm/bfm2000.asp#vii |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090303000119/http://www.sbc.net/bfm/bfm2000.asp#vii |archive-date=March 3, 2009 }}</ref> Baptism does not accomplish anything in itself, but is an outward personal sign that the person's sins have already been washed away by the blood of Christ's cross.<ref name="London">{{cite web |url-status=dead |title=London Baptist Confession of 1644 |at=XVII. |url=http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/creeds/bc1644.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100617103253/http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/creeds/bc1644.htm |archive-date=June 17, 2010 |website=The Spurgeon Archive }}</ref>

[[File:Brownlow-immersion-attack-1856.jpg|thumb|Engraving from [[William G. Brownlow]]'s book ''The Great Iron Wheel Examined'', showing a Baptist minister changing clothes in front of horrified women after administering a [[#Submersion|baptism by immersion]].]]For a new convert the general practice is that baptism also allows the person to be a registered member of the local Baptist congregation (though some churches have adopted "new members classes" as an additional mandatory step for congregational membership).{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}

Regarding rebaptism the general rules are:{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}
* baptisms by other than immersion are not recognized as valid and therefore rebaptism by immersion is required; and
* baptisms by immersion in other denominations may be considered valid if performed after the person having professed faith in Jesus Christ (though among the more conservative groups such as [[Independent Baptists]], rebaptism may be required by the local congregation if performed in a non-Baptist church – and, in extreme cases, even if performed within a Baptist church that wasn't an Independent Baptist congregation)

For newborns, there is a ceremony called [[child dedication]].<ref>David Blankenhorn, ''The Faith Factor in Fatherhood: Renewing the Sacred Vocation of Fathering'', Lexington Books, USA, 1999, p. 103</ref>

[[Tennessee]] [[Antebellum South|antebellum]] [[Southern Methodist|Methodist]] [[circuit rider (religious)|circuit rider]] and newspaper publisher [[William G. Brownlow]] stated within his 1856 book ''The Great Iron Wheel Examined; or, Its False Spokes Extracted, and an Exhibition of Elder Graves, Its Builder'' that the immersion baptism practiced within the Baptist churches as found within the United States did not extend in a "regular line of succession...from John the Baptist – but from old Zeke Holliman and his true yoke-fellow, [[Roger Williams|Mr. [Roger] Williams]]" as during 1639 Holliman and Williams first immersion baptized each other and then immersion baptized the ten other members of the [[First Baptist Church in America|first Baptist church]] in [[British America]] at [[Providence, Rhode Island]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brownlow |first=William Gannaway |url=http://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9Kw8AAAAYAAJ |title=The great iron wheel examined; or, its false spokes extracted, and an exhibition of Elder Graves, its builder |date=1856 |publisher=Nashville, Tenn., For the author |others=unknown library}}</ref>