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"I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened until it shall have been accomplished!" Luke 12:50.

John the Baptist, who is considered a forerunner to Christianity, used baptism as the central sacrament of his messianic movement. Christians consider Jesus to have instituted the sacrament of baptism. The earliest Christian baptisms were done by immersion.

Raindrops fall on water. Acts 8:35-38 reads: "And Philip, opening his mouth and beginning from that scripture, announced the glad tidings of Jesus to him. And as they went along the way, they came upon a certain water, and the eunuch says, Behold water; what hinders my being baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stop. And they went down both to the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him."

A couple of generations after Jesus' apostles had departed to be with Christ, a prolific writer and teacher, by name Origen, arose in Alexandria, Egypt. The teachings and commentaries of Origen and subsequent authors have been used in some Christian circles to support the practice of baptizing infants who are born in Christian households.