One Lord, One Faith,
How Many Baptisms?

What is this page about?

Here is how the claim sounds. This page wrote it as an example. It is not from a real person.

First, agree with what is right in it.

• A baptism with no faith, ever, does a person no good.
• Water does not work alone. No old church has ever said that it does.
• Some people were baptized as babies and then never taught and never brought to church. They were given something and then left hungry.
• A person who comes to faith as an adult wants to say the words himself. That is good.

So the question is not “Does faith matter?” It does. The question is smaller: does faith make a baptism, or does faith receive a baptism?

Notice one thing. Nobody on either side believes in two baptisms. People who say “do it again” think that the first one never happened. So everything comes down to one question. A baptism was done with water, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Who has the right to say that it was nothing?

The short answer

1. In the Bible, nobody baptizes himself. Baptism is always done to a person: “be baptized”, “were baptized”. The person’s own part is to repent, to believe, or to call on the Lord. Three verses say who is really acting, and it is God. For example: “in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” (1 Corinthians 12:13).

2. The first Christian writer who was against baptizing babies believed that the baptism counted. About the year 200, a writer named Tertullian said that children should wait. But he never says that a child’s baptism should be done again later.

3. By the year 244 it was called a tradition from the apostles. A very learned teacher named Origen wrote:

The Church received from the apostles the tradition of giving baptism even to infants.

Origen, about the year 244

In simple words: The church received this practice from the apostles: to give baptism to babies too.

In the year 253, sixty-six bishops met in North Africa. Their question was: should babies be baptized at once, or on the eighth day? They said: at once. Nobody asked whether to baptize babies at all.

4. Experts argue about whether the practice comes from the apostles. It does not change this question. In the 300s many Christian parents waited, and some famous bishops were baptized as adults. But in every century, nobody was baptized a second time because he had been a baby the first time.

5. If your faith must make the baptism real, you can never be sure of any baptism. Suppose the first one was nothing because you did not truly believe. Then the second one is nothing too, unless you truly believe now. And who tells you that? The same heart that was wrong before. The Bible does not trust that tool: “The heart is deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9). Luther saw where this ends. A person who builds baptism on his faith must be baptized again every time his faith fails.

6. “One baptism” is in the creed. Every old church says each Sunday: “I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins.” In simple words: I believe in one baptism, in which sins are forgiven. These words were put there in the year 381.

7. When baptized people fell away and came back, they were never baptized again. See Part 4.

8. The early church worked out what makes a baptism real. The person’s age was never on the list. The list was: water; the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; and the aim to do what Christ commanded. A baptism by a false teacher counted. A baptism by a bishop who had denied the faith counted. The early church baptized people again in only one case: when the first act had not used the name of the Trinity. Then it had not been a baptism at all.

9. People asked the Reformers this exact question, and they said no. See Part 3.

10. On this point Rome and the Reformers say the same. The Roman Catholic council of that time also said that children must not be baptized again when they are older. So a person who baptizes again is not bringing back the Reformation. He holds the one idea that both the Reformers and Rome said no to.

11. In 1,600 years there is no case of a real baptism that was knowingly repeated. Every group that baptized again first said, “The earlier one was not a baptism.”

12. The argument against the baptism of babies is a method, and the method does not stop there. It says: “The Bible does not command it. There is no clear example. A church that had gone wrong did it.” Use the same method honestly. It also removes the list of books in the New Testament, the word “Trinity”, and worship on Sunday. The same early church settled all of these.

13. A second baptism says that the first was nothing. But the first was God’s act. Every old church gives a person who was baptized as a baby a way to say the words himself. He can be confirmed, or he can say his baptism promises again in public. But the church will not pour the water again. When a person’s faith is weak, he needs a promise that does not depend on his faith.

Who does the baptizing?

Look at these verses. In each one, who acts?

• “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you” (Acts 2:38). “Repent” is something you do. “Be baptized” is something done to you.
• “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Galatians 3:27) The baptism was done to them.
• “not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration” (Titus 3:5). God saves. We are saved. The washing is how he does it. And the verse says clearly that it is not by our own works.
• “Arise, be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” (Acts 22:16) Paul calls on the Lord. That is his part. Another man baptizes him.

The best verse for the other side is this one:

baptism, which now saves you - not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ

1 Peter 3:21 · World English Bible

In simple words: Baptism now saves you. It is not a washing of dirt from the body. It is the answer of a clean heart to God. It saves through the rising of Jesus Christ from death.

The person’s answer is real. But the sentence says that baptism saves, through Christ’s rising. The person’s answer happens inside the baptism. It does not take its place.

Who said it?

Here are four sentences about baptism. Each is from Rome, or from the Reformers, or from the first people who baptized again.

True, one should add faith to baptism. But we are not to base baptism on faith.

Martin Luther, 1528

In simple words: It is true that faith must be added to baptism. But we must not build baptism on faith.

Luther also gave words for a person who did not believe as a baby: “The baptism indeed was right, but I, alas, did not receive it aright.” In simple words: the baptism was right, but sadly I did not receive it rightly.

If anyone says that children, because they have not the act of believing … are to be rebaptized when they have reached the years of discretion … let him be anathema.

The Council of Trent (Roman Catholic), 1547

In simple words: Someone may say that children must be baptized again when they are old enough to decide, because they could not believe as babies. The church says no to that person.

The sacrament of Baptism is but once to be administered to any person.

The Westminster Confession (Presbyterian), 1647

In simple words: Baptism must be given to a person only one time.

This excludes all infant baptism, the highest and chief abomination of the pope.

The Schleitheim Confession, 1527, by the first people who baptized again

In simple words: This shuts out all baptism of babies. It is the worst wrong of the pope.

Look at the last one. Even these people do not say “baptize again”. They say that the baptism of babies is not baptism. So everybody agrees that baptism is given once. The only argument is whether the first one happened.

Another Reformed statement of faith gives the reason in a few words: “we cannot be born twice”.

What happened to people who fell away?

Here are baptized people who denied Christ or sinned badly. What happened when they came back?

• Peter. He said three times that he did not know Jesus. Jesus brought him back with three questions. There was no water.
• Simon in Samaria. He was baptized, and then he tried to buy God’s power with money. Peter told him: “Repent therefore of this, your wickedness, and ask God” (Acts 8:22). Peter did not send him back to the water.
• The man at Corinth. The church put him out for a serious sin. Later Paul said: “you should rather forgive him and comfort him” (2 Corinthians 2:7). Baptism is not named.
• Thousands of Christians in the year 250. The Roman emperor forced people to give gifts to false gods, and many did. Later they came back to the church with public sorrow, and the bishop laid his hands on them. The bishops argued about how long this time of sorrow should be. Nobody asked for a second baptism.

The Bible has one very hard passage about people who fall away (Hebrews 6). This page does not make it soft. But read the verses before it. The writer says that he will not lay the foundation again, and the foundation includes “the teaching of baptisms” (Hebrews 6:2). So this passage cannot be used for a second baptism.

The early Christians used a picture. Baptism is a ship. If you fall into the sea, turning back to God is the piece of wood that you hold. Nobody thought that you could build a second ship.

Luther used the picture too.

The ship never breaks, because it is the ordinance of God, and not our work. But it happens that we slip and fall out of the ship. Yet if anybody falls out, let him see to it that he swims to the ship and clings to it.

Martin Luther, Large Catechism, 1529

In simple words: The ship never breaks, because God made it. It is not our work. But sometimes we slip and fall out of the ship. If anyone falls out, he should swim back to the ship and hold on to it.

Fair arguments against this page

“No baby is baptized in the New Testament.” That is true, and this page says so. But there is also no verse that says, “Wait until the children can believe.” What we do have is this. The promise is “to you, and to your children” (Acts 2:39). Whole families were baptized when the head of the house believed (Acts 16). Jesus corrected people who kept little children away from him (Luke 18). People read these passages in two ways. But nothing in them makes a baby’s baptism “nothing”. That is the only point this page needs.

“Paul says: examine yourselves.” He does: “Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith.” (2 Corinthians 13:5) But this is about now, today. It is not about your faith at your baptism thirty years ago. No amount of looking inside can answer that. And Paul tells them to look for Christ in them, not for a feeling.

“‘One baptism’ means one kind, not one time.” The words alone can be read that way. But the church that received Paul’s letter understood “one time”, and it wrote this into the creed.

“Many people were baptized as babies and never became Christians. Was it not wasted?” For some of them, yes, as far as anyone can see. The old churches call this a gift that was not used. They do not call it a gift that was never given. And a second baptism cannot fix what happened afterwards. Only faith can. The question is this. When faith comes, do we tell the person, “You have a baptism to receive”? Or do we tell him, “You must make one”?

Check it yourself

1. Read these one after another: Acts 2:38, Acts 8:9-24, Romans 6:1-11, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Galatians 3:26-29 and Titus 3:4-7. In each one, mark who does the baptizing and what the person is told to do.
2. Read Luther’s short book of 1528 about second baptism. He answers this exact question.
3. Read the oldest argument against baptizing babies: Tertullian, On Baptism, chapter 18. The word “again” is never there.