If I was baptized as an infant or a young child, do I need to be baptized again?
This question inevitably arises with each round of Covenant Partnership classes or as a Baptism Service draws nearer. Therefore, it seems right to the leadership of TPC that we set out more explicitly the counsel that we often give to those asking this question.
On Re-baptisms
The Parks Church does not believe that “re-baptism” is a biblical category. In the New Testament, we do not see, by example or teaching, Christians who have rightly stepped into the waters of baptism once doing so again. The reason is simple:
Baptism “signifies and seals our adoption into God's covenantal family, our cleansing from sin, and our commitment to belong to the Lord and to his Church” (TPC Catechism). To undergo baptism a second time proclaims that you once were united with Christ, freed and cleansed of sin, and adopted into the family of God but that you came again under the mastery of sin. Jesus, you are proclaiming, lost one of his own, which he explicitly says he cannot do (John 10:28-29). Moreover, as the writer of Hebrews states the case, you would be “crucifying once again the Son of God” (Hebrews 6:6), another impossibility.
On Invalid Baptisms
When the New Testament commands or depicts baptism, faith and repentance always precede the action. Justification of our sins and union with Christ — that which baptism “signifies and seals” — does not occur without them (e.g., Mark 1:5; Acts 2:38; 2:41; 8:12-13; 18:8; Galatians 3:26-27; Colossians 2:11-12; Romans 6:3-4; 1 Peter 3:21). Therefore, The Parks Church believes that baptisms that occur without the presence of faith and repentance are invalid. They do not follow the biblical teaching or model of the sacrament.
For that reason, it is right to encourage someone who was baptized invalidly to be truly and rightly baptized for the first time. This, we believe, would not be an instance of re-baptism but of valid baptism.
Some Additional Questions
“So when I was sprinkled as an infant, that Didn’t count?”
On the whole, we would answer, “No, because faith and repentance were not, and could not have been, present, that was an invalid baptism.” We concede that historically the Church has practiced infant baptism. Records in the first few centuries after Christ reveal both infant and adult baptisms. On the one hand, many hold infant baptism for poor, theologically unsound reasons. But on the other hand, some Bible-believing, gospel-trusting Christians make well-reasoned arguments in favor of this practice (though we find these arguments ultimately to be lacking, as exhibited here). Some in this camp admittedly have a conversion experience later in life while others claim that they cannot point to a time when they did not trust in Jesus.
In all cases, we will always encourage a believer to be rightly baptized for the first time following the presence of faith in Christ and the evidence of repentance. Only in the latter instance — a sound biblical case for infant baptism and a lifetime of following the Lord — would we not press one to enter into the waters of baptism. When a conversion experience and the fruit of repentance can be recounted after being baptized, however, it would seem to be the case that faith was not present at the time of baptism, thus invalidating the sacrament.
“I was baptized when I was six. Did that count?”
The answer may be yes or no depending on the context. Here are a few considerations:
If you were baptized out of a sense of obligation or pressure, whether implicit or explicit, the baptism was invalid. This is perhaps the most black-and-white instance of child baptism. Faith and repentance were in no way present.
The amount of faith or depth of understanding you had as a child when you were baptized is largely irrelevant to this issue. Some doubt the validity of their baptism because they wonder if they really trusted in Jesus then. Others, after coming to see the beauty of the gospel more clearly, doubt whether they understood it all as a child stepping into the waters of baptism.
In the first case, we must remember that it is not the amount of faith that saves us but the object of our faith. Even a feeble trust in the Lord saves, not because of the weakness of the faith but because of the strength and power of our Savior. A baptism undergone with little faith is valid so long as that faith is placed in Jesus Christ.
In the second case, no matter at what age you were baptized, it should always be the case that, as you continue to walk with Christ, you will gain a greater knowledge of the gospel. You almost certainly, whether you were baptized at age six or sixty, did not have a full picture of the gospel at that time. Indeed, Paul says that all of us know only in part and will only fully know at the end of time (1 Corinthians 13:8-12). Again, it is Christ who saves, not any capacity or attribute in yourself.
The evidence of your life post-baptism is relevant to the issue, though not conclusive. “Each tree is known by its own fruit,” Jesus affirms (Luke 6:44). If the trajectory of your life following your baptism as a child veered far from God, if you were in open rebellion against him, it is likely the case that the seed of true faith was not planted in you at the time of your baptism, making it an invalid baptism. Now, following true faith and repentance, you should be rightly baptized.
If, on the other hand, you have continued to walk with God since that time and you have demonstrated the fruit of repentance, do not doubt the work that God began in you at that young age.
For many asking this question, however, your life is more checkered, the fruit more difficult to inspect. You seem to have run with God at times and away from him at other times. That might have been the case simply because you are not yet fully sanctified or perfected but, throughout that time in question, you still had been gifted a new, regenerate heart from the Lord. Yet it may be that you were not in fact saved until later. In this case, we encourage you to seek counsel from a pastor or elder and, more importantly, from the Holy Spirit, for it is he who ultimately “bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:16).
On the whole, however, as in the case of faith and knowledge, trust Jesus’ perfection, not your own. Let your testimony be that, although you tried to run away, God would not have it and held you firmly in his fatherly love. For that is indeed what he does so graciously for all of us.
