United States: 100-Year-Old Grandfather Baptized as an Adventist

July 24, 2006 Wilson, North Carolina, United States …. [ANN Staff]

Baptism in the Seventh-day Adventist Church isn't for infants – the church generally will baptize those who have reached an “age of accountability,” and who are fully aware of the solemn step that immersion represents.

But while most of those baptized in the church are young adults, teenagers or those in midlife, there are occasional exceptions at what might be called the “far end” of the age scale. One such exception is Pablo Cruz, born June 7, 1906, in the city of Veracruz, Mexico. To put that in perspective, he was only 9 years old when Ellen G. White, a pioneering founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, died at the age of 88.

Although raised in a different church, Mr. Cruz became a diligent Bible reader and student a few years ago. Twice widowed, he has 14 children, five of whom have already passed away and many grandchildren.

However, Mr. Cruz was certain about wanting to join the Adventist Church, something one of his sons and a granddaughter had already done. After consulting with ministerial colleagues about the question, Dr. Alberto R. Treiyer, an Adventist pastor who currently works in the Carolina church region, determined that–at age 100–Cruz was ready for baptism.

The ceremony involved some differences: a warm day was picked so that the swimming pool water would be the right temperature. Three church members lowered, and raised, the candidate into and out of the water. And Mr. Cruz was dressed in regular clothes, not a baptismal robe as is often done.

The results, though, were the same: a new “babe” in Christ was born that day, Dr. Treiyer explained. In a brief talk to those assembled to witness the ceremony, he said, “100 years were to be buried, to give birth to another life which had already a flavor of eternity. What a thrilling experience to think in the fact that one century was being left behind.”

One of the fastest-growing denominations in the world, the Seventh-day Adventist Church baptized an average of 2,896 people worldwide every day in the year 2005, according to the church's office of archives and statistics.