Why do Confirmation?
In fact, the confirmation does not exist in the New Testament, where we find only the baptism. Confirmation is practiced, as well as in the Catholic Church, even in historic Protestant churches which recognize infant baptism as valid. For this, if a person received baptism as a newborn and as an adult he wants to confirm his belonging to the Christian church, must necessarily make confirmation, what else is a rite of public witness confirming the baptism received. If this person does not make the confirmation it means that the baptism wanted for him / her by the parents is not valid.
I knew it was called confirmation rather than confirmation and I also knew how to take place differently from Catholic confirmation. in fact confirmation seems too Catholic a term to me. As far as I know, confirmation is more like an oath to follow Christ than a ceremonial imposed because one has reached a certain age.. in Italy Catholic confirmations and weddings are held while people outside of these ceremonies behave like perfect atheists and agnostics. it doesn't seem like they are confirming at all to confirm that they want to live as Christians
As far as evangelical churches are concerned, confirmation is never spoken of (a term which is also out of use in Catholicism), but of confirmation. A good explanation regarding confirmation in evangelical churches is presented in Wikipedia, which I report.
The rite of confirmation continues to be practiced in the Reformed and Presbyterian Churches and, generally, those who practice infant baptism. Its biblical legitimacy, But, and the practice that is made of it, is increasingly being called into question. They state that:
– Confirmation is not a sacrament, but an ancient rite of the Church that derives from the Apostles when they laid their hands on those who were baptized;
– in it the candidates ratify and confirm the vows made in their name by those who brought them to Baptism in their childhood;
it gives the opportunity to those who were baptized in their childhood to renew and themselves confirm the vows made at the time of baptism;
– the people in it, with an open confession in front of men, they recognize Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as their Lord and Savior [“Anyone will therefore recognize me, in front of men, I too will recognize him before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever will disown me before men, I too will deny him before my Father who is in heaven” (Matteo 10:32,33); …for if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. In fact, with the heart one believes to obtain justice and with the mouth one makes confession, to obtain salvation” (Romans 10:9,10).
– All Christians who have reached the age of discretion or responsibility have the duty to make this confession of faith, who realize that they are sinners and who without repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, they are lost.
In the Anglican Church confirmation takes on the nature of a rite “sacramental”, that is, not of the actual sacrament, but of a practice that attributes a spiritual good to the faithful. The branch “Catholic” of Anglicanism attributes to this institute, But, a true sacramental value.
The legitimacy of confirmation is often questioned, in evangelical churches, in several respects:
– its questionable biblical justification;
– the fact that it often becomes just a tradition that is practiced only by custom without a real persuasion of the candidate's faith and therefore that it is attributed the value of only “rite of passage” independent of an authentic commitment to the Christian life (the situation of many confirmed people is typical, after this ceremony “they are no longer seen in church”);
the need to move it forward in time, for the churches that “they confirm” teenagers too young to actually understand its value.
I simply reported a question that had been sent to me in the site form, where he wondered “Why do confirmation?”. Even in Catholicism “confirmation” it means “confirmation”, but obviously the meaning of sacrament that they give to it is different from the Protestant one. Anyway, thanks for the detailed explanation, lately I've become very synthetic due to lack of time, and also out of impatience with the same questions over and over again, alas.
The Holy Bible does not speak of Confirmation. Believers, that is, those who have accepted Jesus as their personal Savior. They are born again, they don't need reconfirmation.
Yes, but it is normal for those who were baptized as children to want to reconfirm.