Rebaptism is the repeat of baptism on a person who has already been baptized. Rebaptism has become a significant issue in the Christian denominations raising various concerns. Rebaptism of a person is usually connected with a Christian denomination that does not consider the validity of the previous baptism. Through this case, significant differences in theology have been portrayed when a particular denomination rebaptizes a person from a different denomination.
Different Christian denominations do practice rebaptism according to different conditions and reasons while others do not encourage it. For instance, the Catholic Church does not support the issue of rebaptism as it believes that baptism is only done once in a person’s life. They believe that no sin can erase the mark of baptism as it seals the person with an indelible spiritual mark. On the other hand, the Orthodox Church was previously rebaptizing the Catholics who came to change later on through Patriarch Cyril V. Latter-Day Saints, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists do believe in rebaptizing people. Therefore rebaptism has different opinions from different Christian denominations as per their beliefs.
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Pastoral Applications of Rebaptism (Lutheranism)
The consideration of rebaptizing may be a result of various reasons according to different people. Firstly the person who desires to be baptized might have committed sins and have had shortcomings which question the commitment of the previous faith. These moral failures lead to the person seeking rebaptism. Secondly, a person desiring rebaptism may have intellectual failings and shortcomings, thereby failing to understand the purpose of baptism. Also, a person might have been baptized while an infant and desires to be rebaptized as an adult. In this case, some denominations do not believe in infant baptism and do not consider it to be valid. Therefore, different denominations and churches have differing views on the conditions in which a person have to rebaptized. However, in keeping the New Testament pattern, salvation and baptism are closely linked, and rebaptism should be avoided since it is a one-time event.
However, if churches have to carry out rebaptism, they should consider the conditions required for the completion of the event. Therefore the task for the church is to enquire about the beliefs and their faith before rebaptizing. The enquiry is made since belief and faith of a person is the basic understanding of the nature of God. Through this, the church will be able to determine if the person requires the basic teaching of the discipleship lessons. In conclusion, rebaptism has become a significant challenge to the pastoral ministry, and there have been arguments whether or not to perform rebaptism.
