Baptism - Private Or Part Of A Church Service?

I have photos of my own baptism when I was a baby and it appeared to be a private ceremony, but I know that some churches work a baptism into their weekly Sunday services. Is this a matter of choice on the parents' behalf, or is it more up to the church?
 
I know of no scripture on parents getting their child baptized, so I guess the church can make their own rules on it.
 
In the RCC, child baptism is usually only open to invited guests, though there is no reason that it could not be public.
Both my chrismation (Methodist) and baptism (Greek Orthodox) were private.
 
There are several scriptures speaking of whole households being baptised. It seems to be a mixture of both private and public. The baptisms at Pentecost were likely public. The baptism of the eunuch was private, but just by happenstance.
 
I guess it comes down to why you are baptizing the child. Baptisms are biblically a public profession of faith. Since the child can't do this yet, you might as well make it private.
Not according to the Catholics and Lutherans and many others, who see it as the remission of the stain of original sin.
 
It differs, even within an individual church.

When I was younger, my family was part of a Presbyterian parish where they tended to baptize only the babies during the services, but then the adults would be at special baptism events. At non-denominational churches we went to, baptisms were only reserved for baptism events, and not during the services (though part of that might had to do with the fact that those churches often met as schools where the auditoriums had no sort of pool for this). However, they did do baby dedications during the services, which is partly what an infant baptism is.

Within the Catholic Church, usually only infants may be baptized at a mass throughout the year where as people at the age of reason (teens, adults, etc.) are often usually just baptized at the Easter Vigil since their baptisms are their own conscious decisions of coming into the Church and is part of confirmation.

However, sometimes each of these could be done privately.
 
I don't know of any verses that say baptism is a public profession of faith.
The concept is there. Jesus was baptized publicly as a statement of the beginning of His ministry. In Acts 2, three thousand believed and were baptized, hard to not be public. Acts 8, the eunuch was baptized by the road. Paul, when his name was still Saul, was baptized right after gaining his sight. So there were most likely others there to take care of him. Acts 10, Peter baptized with others present.
Yes, the Bible does not say explicitly to baptize in public, but why would you want to hide your faith? The baptism is the representation of you dying, like Jesus, buried when you are in under the water, like Jesus, and raised with new life, like Jesus was raised. It is a symbolic profession of the faith you have received.
Not sure why you would argue/question those points? If you have scripture to the contrary I would love to see them so I could learn more about baptisms.
 
I've heard baptism called an 'outward sign of an inward grace'. I would think you would want to show that 'outward sign' to as many people as possible. Biblically, they baptised in rivers or bodies of water where multitudes could have seen, but I don't recall anywhere (biblically) that says you must have an audience.
 
The concept is there. Jesus was baptized publicly as a statement of the beginning of His ministry. In Acts 2, three thousand believed and were baptized, hard to not be public. Acts 8, the eunuch was baptized by the road. Paul, when his name was still Saul, was baptized right after gaining his sight. So there were most likely others there to take care of him. Acts 10, Peter baptized with others present.
Yes, the Bible does not say explicitly to baptize in public, but why would you want to hide your faith? The baptism is the representation of you dying, like Jesus, buried when you are in under the water, like Jesus, and raised with new life, like Jesus was raised. It is a symbolic profession of the faith you have received.
Not sure why you would argue/question those points? If you have scripture to the contrary I would love to see them so I could learn more about baptisms.
Of course, Big Moose, there are other baptisms, and not all are public. A lot of Christians don't think about them, some don't know about them at all, and some even think that John invented baptism, but some baptisms are, by necessity, private. When the bride and the groom go to their separate mikvahs before the marriage, these are very private, with only selected friends. When a baby is baptized after birth, it can be private or public, and some don't do it at all for boys but depend completely upon circumcision.

My baptism unto salvation in Messiah was in the church, so it was public according to church tradition, but going to the mikvah for my name changes, new religious understandings, etc. were mainly private with the exception of one.
 
Yes, the Bible does not say explicitly to baptize in public, but why would you want to hide your faith?

Loving God and your neighbor is how you show your faith, not through showing people your baptism photos.

When the eunuch was baptized, there's no mention of anyone else being around. As it was off a desert road, it's unlikely anyone was around. Even if there was someone around, seeing the eunuch be baptized probably would have meant nothing to them.
 
Loving God and your neighbor is how you show your faith, not through showing people your baptism photos.

When the eunuch was baptized, there's no mention of anyone else being around. As it was off a desert road, it's unlikely anyone was around. Even if there was someone around, seeing the eunuch be baptized probably would have meant nothing to them.
If you read all of that story, you find he went rejoicing to all that would hear. The eunuch obviously would have liked to have witnesses there.
 
I have photos of my own baptism when I was a baby and it appeared to be a private ceremony, but I know that some churches work a baptism into their weekly Sunday services. Is this a matter of choice on the parents' behalf, or is it more up to the church?
I think baptism should be integrated into the regular service of traditional churches. I've found particularly Orthodox to be very private and RCC closed and if someone wanted to be baptized in one of those churches it would be difficult. IMO the Baptists do have the best baptism practices for those in need of it.
 
Private or public I do not mind either.

Just don't do it to children. They have no ability to really claim without pressure from peers or parents that they are ready to follow The King.

Let people of age choose as it must be their choice, not just following what everyone else does.
 
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