Quesiton for protestants: Why don't Christians think Catholic baptism is valid?

[graceandglory]

Everywhere I attended for 20 yrs, baptist, evangelical, charismatic denominations…,they all taught that Catholics had to be rebaptized, that their baptism didn’t “count” and Catholics would be rebaptized. Just wondering why. Of course, I followed suit, and got rebaptized again.

 

[FabiusMaximus]

Everywhere I attended for 20 yrs, baptist, evangelical, charismatic denominations…,they all taught that Catholics had to be rebaptized, that their baptism didn’t “count” and Catholics would be rebaptized. Just wondering why. Of course, I followed suit, and got rebaptized again.

The assertion is that paedobaptism (infant) is invalid because most Evangelicals are credobaptists, believing that batpism must be performed on a person who has made a fully conscious decision to follow Christ, which babies cannot do.

Evangelicals consider baptism to be a sign of inward renewal, essentially a public profession of the faith. Reformed Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox instead believe in baptismal regeneration.

 

[SyCarl]

First of all, Catholics are Christians.

With respect to baptism not all non-Catholics hold that view. Those who do are the ones who do not accept infant baptism and feel baptism must be by full immersion. Denominations like Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists and Presbyterians practice infant baptism and recognize Catholic baptism. In fact, the groups you mention would require us to be rebaptized. They stem from the Anabaptist movement which means rebaptizers.

 

[Georgia]

The fundamentalist church I grew up in would require baptism of any person who came from a church that differed with its faith in any identifiable way. On top of that, any person who felt he “wasn’t right with the Lord” at the time of his first baptism could get another baptism.

Though it wasn’t said directly, our church felt that Catholics were not truly Christian. We heard all kinds of things that we thought proved it. For instance, we heard that Catholics thought you could “work your way to Heaven”, and that they worshiped a dead Christ. That one came from the crucifix, but it certainly fails the test of logic.

 

[4Squarebaby]

The assertion is that paedobaptism (infant) is invalid because most Evangelicals are credobaptists, believing that batpism must be performed on a person who has made a fully conscious decision to follow Christ, which babies cannot do.

Evangelicals consider baptism to be a sign of inward renewal, essentially a public profession of the faith. Reformed Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox instead believe in baptismal regeneration.

I would add they many Evangelicals also do not “require” baptism as a mainstream Baptist (at the age of consent) would or the Catholic Church (at any age) for that matter.

 

[graceandglory]

I would add they many Evangelicals also do not “require” baptism as a mainstream Baptist (at the age of consent) would or the Catholic Church (at any age) for that matter.

That’s true. Which was disconcerting to me as a mom, when my kids’ dad didn’t think they were “ready” for baptism.