(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Hi there, this is brother Ian Taverner here at Shaw Foundation Baptist Church UK. This seventh short video in our New Believer series is to show you what baptism is and isn't. Now many people have heard of baptism or often called christening and most experiences of it are at some sort of Church of England or Catholic Church where you've got some man usually wearing some form of dress and a funny hat sprinkling water over a screaming baby whilst waving his arms around in sort of cross positions and waving incense around in the air. Well is any of that at all biblical? No, not at all. In fact the Bible doesn't have one instance of an infant being baptised. Baptism always follows salvation which is impossible with a baby because to be saved you have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Pretty simple but still not able to do that when you're that young. So for that reason what we see as baptism in these churches is unbiblical but there is such thing as baptism and in fact in Acts 8 there's a great story which shows us what baptism is. In Acts 8 there's Philip who meets Ethiopian eunuch who's reading the Bible and Philip joins him and he's asked him to explain it. In verse 35 Philip says then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. So Philip's preached Jesus, the gospel, the good news of Jesus dying, being buried and rising again to pay for his sins. In verse 36 and as they went on their way they came unto a certain water and the eunuch said, see here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptised? Now the eunuch wants to get baptised but notice there that there's water. It wasn't some special water, it wasn't a special bowl with crosses on it, it was some water. So he's seen some water, what's going to stop him getting baptised? Shall we see what the answer is? Verse 37 and Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. So clearly the condition there is to believe with all your heart. A baby can't do that. So it's ridiculous that babies are being baptised. Now the Ethiopian eunuch says that he does, doesn't he? Because he's just said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. So having believed, after believing and as we know to believe is what it takes for salvation. Romans 10, 9 clearly says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Not thou might be saved if you then get baptised, thou shalt be saved. The eunuch believes, he confesses with his mouth the Lord Jesus and then we see in verse 38, and he commanded the chariot to stand still and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch and he baptised him. So they went into the water, not onto the water, not by the water, well there's a bit of sprinkling going on, but into the water. The water had to be deep enough for them to go into it. Into the water. Then when they went into the water, it says he baptised him. Now the reason they go into the water is because baptism is a picture, it's a picture of salvation. See in Romans 6, 4 it says, Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. So the death, burial and resurrection is when we go under the water and rise out from the water. That's a picture of salvation. But it's not what gets us saved, it's something we should do after salvation, but whether you do that or not, you're saved the moment you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead. Now that's what baptism is and also what baptism isn't. If you'd like to know more or you're saved and you'd like to think about getting baptised, please come along to church and we'd love to tell you more about it and try and plan a baptism for you. God bless you, hope that helps.