Can someone inform me of the history of rebaptism?

[Roxy1]

My parents attend a baptist church. They allegedly believe the Nicene creed. But they also have been “baptized” twice already and want to again, just to “rededicate” themselves. I have been trying to get them to understand there is ONE baptism. I asked if they don’t believe the nicene creed, specifically the one baptism aspect. And they said that when it says “one baptism” that it means you’re being baptized into one body of all the believers, it doesn’t mean you can one be baptized once. Clearly this isn’t true, and I told them that that concept was only created very recently and by Protestant reformers. They don’t believe that there weren’t always some people somewhere who apparently adhered to that thought process. I would love to be informed of the exact history of when this belief came about (of multiple baptisms) and the history of that concept, so I can prove to them that that was a man made concept and not inspired by God. Thanks for any help in advance.

 

[1ke]

See here, the section on rebaptism:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02258b.htm#viii

Rebaptism only arose in the 200s regarding heretics who converted. The Church rejected the position that they needed to be rebaptized or indeed could be rebaptized.

 

[halogirl]

I wish I could get rebaptised. I got done at 16 in a Methodist church and when I went to RCIA and looked for records of it, the church had lost them. The priest had to call my mother and she had to write a letter stating it had happened. Sometimes when I am feeling anxious I worry it wasn’t done properly, as my memories of it fade with time and obviously I have nothing concrete to show

 

[halogirl]

But sorry to derail the thread OP it is one and done

 

[poche]

That would represent a difference between the Baptist Church and the Catholic Church.

 

[Maximian]

One of the revolutionary features of John the Baptist’s preaching was that he preached a single baptism of repentance as opposed to the Essene habit of repeated ritual washings.

 

[OddBird]

Clearly this isn’t true, and I told them that that concept was only created very recently and by Protestant reformers.

@1ke gave you pointers about the early Church.

In modern times, rebaptism – or anabaptism, which means the same thing – has its roots in the Radical Reformation, a specific movement within the Reformation which questioned not only the practices and beliefs of the Catholic Church but also those of the mainstream Reformed currents (Luther, Calvin, Zwingli). A good part of the Radical Reformation thinkers were millenarists, expected the imminent end of the world, and thought that to face that, believers had to undergo a baptism of conviction (as opposed to infant baptism).