How can you be baptized again????

[Zooey]

OK, I have heard this from four different people now, & it is no end of confusing.
Each one has said that they were “baptized again”…This was not a conditional baptism, which I understand; these were all conservative protestants who decided that they needed to be baptized…Except, can you do that??? If you are baptized you’re baptized, aren’t you??
Two people were moving from one church to another. One was very ill, & although she believes that baptism is symbolic and not sacramental, decided she should be baptized again (in case she died, I guess???)
The 4th person was in Israel, & she saw someone baptizing people, decided to be baptized too…
What really bothers me, is what the clergymen were thinking when they did this…
Thoughts???

 

[puzzleannie]

some denominations, notably Baptist, do not recognize Catholic baptism or any other church, so will re-baptize a new member. Since they also deny the sacramental nature and salvific necessity of water baptism I am at a loss to explain why they do it, ask a Baptist. Others see the whole thing as symbolic, not tied to any ontological reality so have no problem going through an empty ritual any number of times. For that matter, why do people feel it is okay to remarry?

 

[Kevan]

Puzzleannie has it about right. The person in Israel was acting upon a shallow (if even existent!) idea of baptism. The sick lady was expressing the natural desire for some rite that might help her make her peace with God at the hour of her death–but she was acting contrary to what she’d been taught all of her Protestant life.

Many Protestants, like many Catholics, actually practice a “folk religion” made up of bits and pieces they’ve picked up here and there. Either their church doesn’t stress education, or they’re not there enough to hear the teaching, or they really have no commitment to truth and prefer to live a homespun religion that makes few demands outside their comfort zone.

That said, there is a subspecies of Baptists who believe that baptism is the initiatory rite into a local church. I’ve never actually met one of these people, but they are hard shell individualists. When you move to another such Baptist church, you get baptized into that one, and so on.

For the rest of Baptists, and Protestants of all stripes, one can only be truly baptized once. Since Baptists stress that baptism must come after conversion, where one passes from death to life (John 5:24), some Baptists, over a period of years, wind up going through the ritual three or four times until they decide that their conversion is finally real. The last time, however, is the only one that they will call “baptism.” The other times, they say, they just got wet.

The original name for Baptists was “Anabaptists,” the Greek prefix “ana” meaning “again.” They rebaptized those who had been baptized in infancy. Of course, since they didn’t believe that the infant ritual was true baptism, they rejected the label “ana.”

Likewise, they don’t believe that sprinkling qualifies as baptism. So if someone wants to join a Baptist church, but was previously only baptized by sprinkling, he would have to undergo a “proper” baptism.

The Churches of Christ believe that baptism is the God-ordained way of receiving the grace of salvation, but it must be administered in the Bible way–and since they’re the only ones who really obey the Bible, only their baptism is valid. So you’d have to be rebaptized to join one of their churches. Conversely, many conservative Baptist churches won’t recognize a baptism done in a “Church of Christ” because of the baptismal regeneration doctrine–so one of those would have to be rebaptized to join such a Baptist church (as Puzzleannie pointed out above). But not all Baptists are quite that exclusive.

Yeah, it gets kinda crazy over here sometimes, but we still have a good time.

 

[Zooey]

Thank you!!

And I have apparently met some of those who think they join a church through baptism…Except I never knew it! :nope: Very strange!!

I think puzzleannie has a great point about the comparison to people who get married over & over…

At least I now know that I’m not the one who is a little :whacky: !!

 

[sadie2723]

Zooey:

OK, I have heard this from four different people now, & it is no end of confusing.
Each one has said that they were “baptized again”…This was not a conditional baptism, which I understand; these were all conservative protestants who decided that they needed to be baptized…Except, can you do that??? If you are baptized you’re baptized, aren’t you??
Two people were moving from one church to another. One was very ill, & although she believes that baptism is symbolic and not sacramental, decided she should be bap[tized again (in case she died, I guess???)
The 4th person was in Israel, & she saw someone baptizing people, decided to be baptized too…
What really bothers me, is what the clergymen were thinking when they did this…
Thoughts???

This is just another example of the Protestant faith interpreting scripture to glorify themselves and not God.

Brad
[/quote]

 

[seeking27]

It is important that we do read the Bible though. I am a Catholic but we are not sensitized to the importance of reading the Word to find why others say the things they do. If you read John 3:3-7, it clearly states that a man cannot see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again. It goes on to say that, since Nicodemus was confused about what this meant (as is the author of this message), unless a man is born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Jesus said these words. This is our only means of finding the truth about the things non-Catholics say, and it is mandated upon us that we be born again.

 

[SAHmommy]

When I joined a church of Christ, I did the whole “alter call” thing and when the minister asked me if I wanted to be baptized, I told him that I had been baptized as an infant. He told me that only an adult who chooses Christ can make a decision to be baptized.
I have a friend whose church teaches that baptism is only a demonstration of dedicating one’s life to Christ. If one falls away from faith and comes back, they would re-baptize. Any time some one wanted to renew their commitment to Christ, they would rebaptize. Many Protestant churches don’t teach the Nicene Creed, therefore, the members have never heard “one baptism for the forgiveness of sins”.

SAHmommy

 

[Zooey]

SAHmommy:

I have a friend whose church teaches that baptism is only a demonstration of dedicating one’s life to Christ. If one falls away from faith and comes back, they would re-baptize. Any time some one wanted to renew their commitment to Christ, they would rebaptize.

I guess I just feel like there is a misunderstanding of baptism. I have to get over being shocked when I hear folks say they were baptized again…but this re-baptizing strikes me as almost :crying: sacriligious…Like a slap in the face to something sacred…

Many Protestant churches don’t teach the Nicene Creed, therefore, the members have never heard “one baptism for the forgiveness of sins”.
SAHmommy

You’re right, of course; I know many people who have :crying: no idea what the creeds say.

My own wonderful (Methodist) pastor is very firm in teaching the sacramental character of baptism, :yup: bless him!!
It is less the persons who are being re-baptized that I fault, than the pastors who practice it…Surely they must know the creed??? I hope it is a misunderstanding, & not a case of :crying: “just don’t care”…

 

[SAHmommy]

Zooey:

…Surely they must know the creed??? I hope it is a misunderstanding, & not a case of :crying: “just don’t care”…

Well, in the case of churches of Christ, they actively state that they follow no creeds, that all creeds are man-made and were added to the Faith long after Christ’s mission on Earth.

SAHmommy

 

[sunnygirl807]

Everytime my sister joins a new church, she gets baptized. We were raised Missionary Baptist (although I went to the same church for 18 years, I never heard of any type of missionary work) and split when we began adults. After she left the baptist church she joined a church of God in Christ turned Full Gospel Baptist church. She was rebaptized. She said it was because she didn’t fully understand God and the Bible when our mother had us baptized previously. Then she back-slid and later joined a COGIC church, which she had to “rededicated herself to the Lord” through baptism. I think she has had about 3-4 baptisms in all. Very, very strange.