Baptism and the Lord's Supper

How Christians Differ on Baptism

Baptism · The two ordinances Jesus gave his church

Christians agree that Jesus commanded baptism and that it signifies union with him, yet they differ honestly on two points: who should be baptized, and how. On the subjects of baptism, some baptize the infant children of believers and some baptize only those who profess faith for themselves. On the mode, some immerse, some pour, and some sprinkle. This page names the main views fairly, without declaring any one of them right, and returns to what unites us.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism,Ephesians 4:5 (KJV)

One baptism, honestly discussed

It is a mark of respect, not of doubt, to describe the church's differences honestly. Christians share, as Paul says, one Lord, one faith, one baptism.

That shared confession is the ground on which the disagreements stand. The differences over baptism are real and old, and sincere believers hold each view because they are trying to be faithful to Scripture. The Living Bread is non-denominational, so this page explains the views fairly and leaves the reader free, in conversation with their own church, to weigh them.

The subjects: who should be baptized

The first difference is over who rightly receives baptism. Two main convictions have long lived side by side in the church.

One view, often called believer's baptism or credobaptism, holds that baptism is for those who have come to personal faith and can profess it themselves. On this reading, the pattern of Acts is repent and believe, then be baptized, so baptism follows a confession of faith. This is the practice of Baptists, most Pentecostals, the Churches of Christ, the Anabaptist traditions, and many nondenominational churches.

The other view, often called infant baptism or paedobaptism, holds that the infant children of believing parents are rightly baptized and brought within the covenant community, to be raised in the faith and to come to personal trust as they grow. Those who hold it point to God's covenant with households, to the whole families baptized in Acts, such as the households of Lydia, the Philippian jailer, and Stephanas, and to the welcome Jesus gave to little children. This is the practice of Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Reformed churches, among others.

Both sides love the same Lord, honor the same Scriptures, and want children raised in faith. They differ over how the covenant sign is applied, and they read the household baptisms of Acts and the meaning of faith and baptism in different but serious ways.

It is worth adding that neither side treats the outward sign as automatic or magical. Those who baptize believers still call the baptized to lifelong faith and obedience, not to rest in a past ceremony. Those who baptize infants still teach that the child must come to personal trust in Christ as they grow, and they surround the baptized child with promises, prayer, and instruction toward that day. Both, in the end, look for the same thing: a living faith in the one who was signified in the water. The difference is over the timing and reach of the sign, not over the necessity of faith in Christ.

Rebaptism and the question that follows

Flowing from the first difference is a further question. Those who practice believer's baptism generally hold that someone baptized as an infant, coming later to personal faith, should be baptized upon that profession, since in their view baptism belongs after faith. Those who practice infant baptism generally regard the one baptism already received as valid and not to be repeated, and would speak instead of confirming or professing the faith into which one was baptized. Here too the disagreement is sincere, and each side is trying to guard something precious: the one for the tie between baptism and personal faith, the other for the oneness and unrepeatable character of baptism.

The mode: how baptism is done

The second difference is over the manner of baptism, the amount of water and how it is applied. Three modes are practiced across the church.

Immersion lowers the whole body beneath the water and raises it again. Those who prefer it point to the meaning of the Greek word for baptize, to the picture of burial and resurrection in Romans 6, and to scenes like the Ethiopian official and Philip going down into the water. It is the usual practice of Baptists, the Orthodox, and many others, and it vividly enacts dying and rising with Christ.

Affusion, or pouring, pours water over the head. Aspersion, or sprinkling, sprinkles water on the head. Those who practice pouring or sprinkling point to the many biblical images of cleansing and of the Spirit poured out, to baptisms in Acts that happened where large amounts of water may not have been at hand, such as the jailer baptized in his house at night, and to the early church's acceptance of pouring where immersion was impractical. These modes are common among Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, and Methodist churches.

Most Christians recognize that Scripture emphasizes the meaning of baptism more than it measures the water, and many traditions accept more than one mode. The disagreement is real, but it is not, for most, a barrier to recognizing one another's baptism as baptism.

In practice a great many churches hold the mode loosely even when they have a settled custom, immersing where they can and pouring where circumstances require, as the early church itself allowed. What no tradition treats as optional is the meaning the water carries: cleansing from sin, and union with Christ in his death and resurrection.

What each side is trying to protect

It helps to see that behind each conviction is a good thing the believer is trying to guard, so that neither side is being careless with Scripture. Those who baptize only professing believers are guarding the close tie the New Testament draws between personal faith and baptism, and the clarity of a baptism that expresses a person's own trust in Christ. Those who baptize the children of believers are guarding the sweep of God's covenant promises to families, the freeness of grace that reaches a child before the child can reach for it, and the pattern of whole households received together in Acts.

Seen this way, the disagreement is not between those who take the Bible seriously and those who do not, but between two attempts to hold the same Bible faithfully. That recognition does not settle the question, but it changes the tone in which Christians can discuss it, from suspicion to a shared search for what pleases the Lord they both love.

Holding the difference with grace

It matters how Christians carry these differences. They are not trivial, and it is right for each believer, with their church, to seek to understand and follow Scripture as faithfully as they can. But they are differences within the family, held by people who confess the same Christ and read the same Bible. Christians on every side of them have loved Jesus, laid down their lives for him, and led others to him. That shared devotion should keep the conversation humble and warm, never a weapon to wound a brother.

What unites us

Beneath the honest disagreements lies a deep agreement. All these Christians believe that Jesus commanded baptism, that it is done in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and that it signifies union with Christ, the washing away of sin, and entrance into his church. All confess one Lord, one faith, one baptism. If you are weighing these questions, take them to a local church and to the Scriptures with an open heart, and remember that the One into whom we are all baptized is greater than our differences about the manner of it.

A note for all traditions: baptism and the Lord's Supper are kept across the whole church, yet Christians practice them in genuinely different ways. Where believers sincerely differ, the main views are named here fairly and without taking a side, because The Living Bread is non-denominational. What unites us is greater than what divides us: obedience to Christ, remembrance of his death, and union with him.

Related: What is baptism? · Why be baptized? · How Christians differ on the Lord's Supper · Baptism and the Lord's Supper