The Doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration

Is regeneration effected through the instrumentality of baptism?

F. C. PELSER, Evangelist, Cape Town, South Africa

The Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches believe that regen­eration is effected through the instrumentality of bap­tism. Certain loose-knit groups that differ so greatly among themselves that we may for convenience' sake speak of them as follow­ers of Alexander Campbell, make regenera­tion incomplete without baptism.

In and by the act of immersion, as soon as our bodies are put under water, at that very instant our former or old sins are washed away.. . . Immersion and regeneration are Bible names for the same act. ... It is not our faith in God's promise of remission but our going down into the water, that obtains the remission Of SiHS.—ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, Chris­tianity Restored, p. 138.

To such lengths is this view taken that in discussions many ministers of Campbellite churches will solemnly affirm that the peni­tent thief on the cross must have been bap­tized at some time in his life, otherwise Christ's assurance could not have meant salvation for him.

Texts quoted in support of this belief in­clude Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:4; 16:16; John 3:5; Acts 2:38; 22:16; Ephesians 5:26; Titus 3:5; and Hebrews 10:22. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" is taken to mean that the absence of baptism is the ab­sence of salvation, to the believing and re­pentant thief on the cross as to anybody else. "Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." "Repent, and be baptized. . . for the remission of sins." "Be baptized, and wash away thy sins."

This doctrine is a form of sacramentalism. You are saved by the grace of God, but not exclusively by that. You are saved by the grace of God plus your own righteous works in performing the ritual of a sacra­ment.

However, no outward act that man is cap­able of performing can save or help to save him (Eph. 2:8, 9). Regeneration, through which the governing disposition of the mind is made holy, is inward; baptism is outward. The outward sign of regenera­tion, the inward change, is baptism. Re­generation is a condition of being not only inwardly, but actually, in the kingdom of grace. Baptism is a condition of being out­wardly in the kingdom. Without baptism, regenerating faith is like the works of a clock that is keeping the time accurately but has no hands by which one can tell the time. Discipleship is incomplete and there­fore in a measure ineffective.

The kingdom of God comes not with outward show. It is established by the implanting of Christ's nature in humanity through the work of the Holy Spirit.—The Desire of Ages, p. 509.

The soul who has genuinely experienced the regeneration of the Spirit through the instrumentality of God's truth will not need to be unduly urged to be baptized. Having entered the kingdom of God in­wardly, he will be fit and eager to enter it also outwardly. He will yearn for a rich life of Christian witness, and in this the first act will be submission to baptism.

In texts such as John 3:5, Acts 2:38, and Colossians 2:12 the Bible regards inward regeneration and outward baptism as only different sides or aspects of the same fact. Either aspect might therefore be described in terms derived from the other. This is the figure of speech called metonymy, which signifies among other things the sign and the thing signified. "As often as ye . . . drink this cup," says Paul, meaning the contents of the cup. "The heavens do rule," says Daniel, meaning the special manifesta­tions of the Spirit. "What you need is to be baptized," I may say to a gambler and drinker, meaning that he needs to repent, confess his sins, submit his will in faith to God, and be baptized. So in scriptural language a single part of a complex action or transaction is often mentioned for the whole transaction and so becomes the out­ward symbol of the whole.

What is very obvious is that regeneration is the experience indispensable to salvation. "Ye must be born again" (John 3:7). "In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature [margin, "creation"]" (Gal. 6:15). This involves a change of heart, or govern­ing disposition—"for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness" (Rom. 10: 10; see Matt. 15:19). The means used by God to accomplish this is His truth, for "of his own will begat he us with the word of truth" (James 1:18; see also 1 Peter 1:23 and 2 Peter 1:4).

This inward regenerative change is known only by its results. "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24). This is confirmed by John 3:8. The divine agency that applies truth to the conscience and so brings about regeneration is the Holy Spirit (John 16:13, 8; 3:6-8). "If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you" Rom. 8:9), then you are God's—regenerated, saved, "passed from death unto life." "He that be­lieveth on me hath everlasting life" (John 6:47), and he need not fear that if he should die that night in his sleep without being baptized that he is forever lost. "The just shall live by faith" (Rom. 1:17), and that faith will lead him to be baptized at the first moment when this can be done de­cently and in order. The inward reality will be followed by the outward sign of the kingdom.

"Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have re­ceived the Holy Ghost as well as we? (Acts 10:47).

For further reading:

Regeneration is the only path to the city of God (Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 23).

Baptism is worthless without Christ (De­sire of Ages, p. 181).

Baptism is necessary however faultless the life (Testimonies, vol. 4, p. 40).

True preparation for baptism (Steps to Christ, pp. 53-60).


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F. C. PELSER, Evangelist, Cape Town, South Africa

August 1963

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