When I was a baby, I was
Mom later became Christian. She doesn’t count her Catholic upbringing, ’cause she doesn’t feel she committed herself to Jesus till adulthood. I became Christian soon after. And our church was having a baptismal service, so the two of us decided to get baptized—her at 28, and me at 7.
Had we been in a Catholic church, we’d’ve learned about their
But of course I didn’t know any of that stuff. I only knew what my Protestant church taught me: When you come to Jesus, get baptized! So I did. Got rebaptized.
Lots of Christians get rebaptized. I’ve watched many of ’em do it:
- People who were baptized as infants into the Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, or Presbyterian church, who later decide infant baptism doesn’t count; they wanna be baptized as believers.
- People who were baptized, but later
slid away from Jesus, and wanna get devout and rededicate themselves to him, so they figure they oughta be baptized again. - People who leave a
heretic church, and figure that church’s baptisms don’t count, so they want a baptism which does count. - People who just wanna. Their kids are getting baptized, so they wanna be baptized too as a good example. Or someone’s holding a baptism at a cool location, like the Jordan River in Israel, and they want the memory of getting baptized there.
For these and all sorts of other reasons, people get rebaptized.
Yeah, there are certain Christians who think this is completely unnecessary. I’m one of them. But at the same time, I also think it’s harmless. You wanna be baptized again?—go ahead and get baptized again! Doesn’t offend God; doesn’t hurt anyone.
(That is, unless you take a wired microphone into the baptismal with you, which’ll kill you, so don’t do that. But otherwise, go right ahead.)
No really: It’s unnecessary.
Historically, Christians have recognized when Paul wrote this—
Ephesians 4.4-6 KJV 4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
—the “one baptism” idea has to do with the fact we’re all baptized into the very same body of Christ, and we only need to be baptized once: If it counts to God, it counts. Don’t need a second baptism.
True, we might not think it counts. Like I said before, Christians figure they were baptized by heretics, or baptized before they were conscious of what they were doing, or might’ve undone our baptisms by being dirty sinners. But again: Does it count to God? Does he accept us into his family and kingdom? Even if we’re heretics, sinners, or unwitting babies? And,
You’re gonna find Christians who’ve been rebaptized over and over again, ’cause every time they fumble their Christianity, they figure it’s time to repent all over again, get saved all over again, and get baptized again. They really don’t get how grace works. God already knew they were gonna stumble. Knows they’re gonna do it again later. Forgives ’em anyway. Saved them already! If they’re hoping to get back on God’s good side by getting baptized again,
But at the same time, let’s not be those legalistic Christians who get offended every time someone gets baptized again. Like I said, it doesn’t hurt. You do realize Jesus didn’t even need to be baptized the first time?—
Matthew 3.13-15 KJV 13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.14 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
—but Jesus did it as a good example for the rest of us, and if we likewise wanna do it as an example, how is that a bad thing? If we wanna do it as an act of devotion, how is that a bad thing?
True, we shouldn’t do it for selfish or hypocritical reasons. I’m assuming we’re not. (Hope we’re not!) Maybe we’re a bit confused about whether or not we need to, but generally when people get baptized it’s because we intend to follow Jesus. That’s good! So I see no reason to object. Let ’em follow Jesus!
