Q: I am Catholic and raised my adopted daughter in the Catholic Faith and recently she has become a born again christian after almost 15 years of drugging, drinking and lying and walking all over her father and I. We raised our granddaughter for the fist few years of her life and she was Baptised in the Catholic faith and our daughter told her that her Baptisim doesnt count in the Penticostal Holiness Church. The Catholic Church recognizes One Baptisim and it does not have to be Total Immerision. In your honest oppenion does it Count to God and all learned men of God?

A: I think that it's a great statement of faith on behalf of the parents to dedicate their child to the Lord. Baptism, however, as described in the New Testament is for believers who have made a cognizant decision to place their faith in Christ for salvation and are aware of the implications of being his follower (see Acts 2:41; 18:8). Thus, it is essential that baptism be a personal decision of the convert. An infant, child, or even an adult who does not understand God's plan of salvation through Jesus cannot make that kind of commitment. The Scriptural example is to first believe and then be baptized and as an ordinance is limited to those who have personally believed in Jesus as their Savior Acts 10:47-48). We are not baptized to obtain salvation (Eph. 2:8,9), but to publicly proclaim that we have already believed and received salvation in Jesus Christ (Acts 8:12; 16:33) .

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