Baptism

====Methodism====
[[File:Baptistry (United Methodist Church of the Saviour).jpg|thumb|upright|A baptistry in a [[Methodist]] church]]
The Methodist [[Articles of Religion (Methodist)|Articles of Religion]], with regard to baptism, teach:<ref name="NettlesPrattKolbCastelein2009">{{cite book|title=Understanding Four Views on Baptism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jUmAMlP8YOYC&pg=PA92|year=2009|publisher=Zondervan|language=en|isbn=978-0310866985|page=92|quote=Thomas J. Nettles, Richard L. Pratt Jr., Robert Kolb, John D. Castelein}}</ref>
{{blockquote|Baptism is not only a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby Christians are distinguished from others that are not baptized; but it is also a sign of regeneration or the new birth. The Baptism of young children is to be retained in the Church.<ref name="NettlesPrattKolbCastelein2009"/>}}
While baptism imparts grace, Methodists teach that a [[Born again#Methodism|personal acceptance of Jesus Christ]] (the first work of grace) is essential to one's salvation;<ref name="FMC2008">{{cite web |title=Baptism and Dedication |url=https://www.fmcic.ca/baptism-and-dedication/ |publisher=[[Free Methodist Church]] |date=3 December 2008 |quote=When they baptize babies, pastors should make sure that their prayers include clear requests that God will bring the children to a personal faith that "owns" what the parents are promising at a time when the children (who "belong" from day one) cannot act for themselves. And when they dedicate children, pastors should make sure that their prayers include clear gratitude to God for the fact that he is already at work in the life of that child, who already "belongs" in the Christian community. Here's what must be stressed: whether at the time of baptism (in the adult baptism tradition) or at the time of confirmation when the vows made earlier by the parents are personally "owned" (in the infant baptism tradition), it is faith in Jesus (dependent trust, not mere cognitive affirmation) that is crucial. Paul goes so far as to say that without faith and obedience, the old rite of circumcision has no value (Romans 2:25). The same is true of baptism. With either rite, clear evangelistic follow-through is crucial.}}</ref><ref name="UMC – By Water and the Spirit"/> during the second work of grace, [[entire sanctification]], a believer is purified of [[original sin]] and made [[holy]].<ref name="Stokes1998">{{cite book|last=Stokes|first=Mack B.|title=Major United Methodist Beliefs|year=1998|publisher=Abingdon Press|language=English|isbn=978-0687082124|page=95}}</ref><ref name="Whidden2005">{{cite web |last1=Whidden |first1=Woodrow W. |title=Adventist Theology: The Wesleyan Connection |url=https://adventistbiblicalresearch.org/es/node/203 |publisher=Biblical Research Institute |access-date=30 June 2019 |language=English |date=18 April 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190630044749/https://adventistbiblicalresearch.org/es/node/203|archive-date=30 June 2019}}</ref> As such, in the Methodist tradition, [[Baptism with the Holy Spirit]] has referred to the second work of grace, [[Christian perfection|entire sanctification]] (Christian perfection).<ref name="UMC2012"/>

In the [[Methodist Church]]es, baptism is a [[sacrament]] of initiation into the [[visible Church]].<ref name="StuartChappell1922">{{cite book|last1=Stuart|first1=George Rutledge|last2=Chappell|first2=Edwin Barfield|title=What Every Methodist Should Know|url=https://archive.org/details/whateverymethod00chapgoog|year=1922|publisher=Lamar & Barton|language=en |page=[https://archive.org/details/whateverymethod00chapgoog/page/n86 83]}}</ref> [[Covenant theology#Wesleyan covenant theology|Wesleyan covenant theology]] further teaches that baptism is a sign and a seal of the covenant of grace:<ref name="Summers1857">{{cite book|last=Summers|first=Thomas Osmond|title=Methodist Pamphlets for the People|year=1857|publisher=E. Stevenson & F. A. Owen for the M. E. Church, South|language=en|page=18}}</ref>
{{blockquote|Of this great new-covenant blessing, baptism was therefore eminently the ''sign''; and it represented "the ''pouring out''" of the Spirit, "the ''descending''" of the Spirit, the "falling" of the Spirit "upon men", by the mode in which it was administered, the pouring of water from above upon the subjects baptized. As a seal, also, or ''confirming'' sign, baptism answers to circumcision.<ref name="Summers1857"/>}}
Methodists recognize three modes of baptism as being valid—"immersion, sprinkling, or pouring" in the name of the [[Holy Trinity]].<ref name="AWMC2014">{{cite book|title=The Discipline of the Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection (Original Allegheny Conference)|year=2014|publisher=[[Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection]]|location=[[Salem, Ohio|Salem]]|language=en|page=140}}</ref>