Baptismal Regeneration Logical Problems

Intro

Here in my final post regarding Baptism and Baptismal Regeneration, I give you some parting thoughts about the subject. Some logical problems that I challenge you to think about and then decide for yourself if Baptismal Regeneration can truly be compatible with what the Bible says about God and Salvation. (To catch up on any posts you missed, click here.)

Incapable of Baptism

Let’s think for a moment about people who physically cannot get baptized. Take for example an elderly woman dying of cancer in the hospital. She’s been running from God for so many years. Her children, on the other hand, love Jesus and have prayed for her all these years to be saved. And here, on her deathbed, she chooses Jesus. So, she prays, repents, and accepts the free gift offered to her by God. The joy and peace she receives in her final hours lift her spirits and those of her children. However, because of her physical state, her doctor won’t allow her to be moved for baptism. Now let’s say that her children don’t consider baptism necessary anyway so they don’t press the matter or do anything else to replace immersion in water. She dies a few days later. Does she go to Heaven, or Hell?

How to Handle

How do believers in Baptismal Regeneration handle such a situation? By sprinkling them with water. And that suffices. Let me repeat that: They sprinkle water on them and that suffices. Sprinkling water on people equals dunking them under water? Writing that sentence makes the logical parts of me squirm and groan. But then again, centuries ago people decided that dunking infants under water wasn’t safe, so they started sprinkling them with water to cleanse them of their sinful nature that they’re born with. Unsurprisingly that carried over to that working for anyone. Though they still prefer immersion – wonder why if all you need to do is get your hand wet and flick them with some water. In fact, let’s make it fun. Let’s just get water guns and squirt all the people for Baptism Sunday! 😄

But in all seriousness, how can dunking people under water equal sprinkling them? Especially since the New Testament says nothing about sprinkling of water when discussing baptism. Nothing, zilch, nada. And just ignore modern dictionary definitions of “baptism” – which include sprinkling – because the root Greek word means “immersion”. I do acknowledge that many Jewish cleansing rituals include the sprinkling of water, but none of those things carried over to New Testament believers. So, why does it exist without Biblical precedent? Exactly for situations like the one I mentioned earlier. Believers in Baptismal Regeneration need sprinkling of water in order for their doctrine to still work for everyone. Did you catch that? They need, need sprinkling for baptism. What does that sound like? Adding to salvation. Adding to what Christ accomplished on the cross.

Read my earlier posts on baptism for a more in-depth analysis on how this doctrine makes salvation works-based.

Heaven or Hell

How would believers in Baptismal Regeneration answer that question about where the elderly woman went? Based on my personal interactions with them, they would answer that question with “Hell”. To their credit, they’d be remorseful about it, but honest. However, this again goes to show how Baptismal Regeneration inherently makes salvation works-based. And how it claims that Jesus’ sacrifice wasn’t enough on its own. We need to do something to complete it.

In conclusion to the first of the logical problems of Baptismal Regeneration, if a person desires baptism but can’t for one reason or another and want water sprinkled on them, I don’t have a problem with it. So long as they understand that it adds nothing to their salvation. I personally don’t care and I don’t believe God does either. After all, God looks at the heart (see 1 Samuel 16:7). And if their heart is for Him and fully trusting in Jesus for salvation, then sprinkle them with water. I’ll support it.

The Gap Problem

The next of the logical problems for Baptismal Regeneration I call “The Gap Problem”. What is this? Well, Baptismal Regeneration teaches that a person receives the remission of their sins (i.e. born again) during baptism. The “gap” comes from a period of time when a person might have a measure of faith but is forced to wait until they can arrive at a site with a water source to be baptized in order to be saved (if they believe that’s true).

The Gap Example

For example, John meets Dave for lunch out and says, “I’ve been reading the Bible you gave me, and I want to be saved.” Dave replies, “That’s fantastic! Let’s go down to the river. While I’m baptizing you, we can pray for the remission of your sins since this is how salvation works.” John says, “Okay.” Though in his heart he questions the necessity of baptism since what he has read in the Bible makes it sound like all he really needs to do is believe. John agrees that the Bible places importance on baptism, but he didn’t think it equated it with salvation. But then again, Dave’s the expert, not him. On their way to the river, a car runs a red light, hits Dave’s car, and kills John instantly.

Dave’s belief in Baptismal Regeneration led to him restricting the timing and location of John’s salvation to the river. This led to a gap in time in which John had some measure of belief – but hadn’t made the full commitment – and when he was going to be saved. This gap time allowed for Satan to take his life before he made the actual commitment to follow Christ. Thus, John has died in his sins and will spend eternity separated from God.

I believe this to be a major problem with Baptismal Regeneration. You run this type of risk all the time. Churches who preach this had better be prepared to baptize people spontaneously any day they are open to the public. If they don’t, I cry foul. That defines hypocrisy. Claiming you need baptism for salvation and then not being able to provide it in church when people give their lives to God at a random Wednesday service, or a Tuesday night Bible study.

The Flip Example

On the flip side, take that previous example and assume that Dave does not believe in Baptismal Regeneration. John meets Dave for lunch and says, “I’ve been reading that Bible you gave me, and I want to be saved.” Dave replies, “That’s fantastic! Let’s pray for the remission of your sins right now.” They pray and John puts his faith in Christ. Afterwards, Dave says, “You know, Jesus commands all believers to be water baptized as a way of publicly identifying yourself with Christ, so let’s go down to the river and baptize you.” John agrees – the Bible certainly emphasizes it. On their way to the river, a car runs a red light, hits Dave’s car, and kills John instantly. In this scenario, John already put his faith in Christ and received the remission of his sins. Therefore, he will spend eternity with God instead of apart.

Do you see the difference? And the problem? I mentioned that churches that preach this should always be ready to baptize people. But so should every single person who believes in it. And this leads into the next of the four logical problems I find with Baptismal Regeneration.

Who’s in Control?

The prior problem also highlights another problem. Did you pick it up? Here it is spelled out: People that embrace this doctrine effectively control when and where a person is saved. Does that scare you? It should. The Catholic Church used this amongst other things to control the masses for centuries. The Catholic Church claimed you had to be a part of the church and do XYZ to be saved. XYZ included various sacraments such as baptism, taking communion, going to confessions, and more. And the church controlled when and where these sacraments took place. Catholic priests forgave people’s sins. The church claimed it could kick people out of Heaven via excommunication from the church.

Granted, Protestants who embrace Baptismal Regeneration oppose what the Catholic Church did and say that they don’t claim such power or authority over people’s salvation. And to a certain extent that’s true. They don’t require ALL the sacraments, and they don’t require continual need to perform all these rituals. Plus, they don’t emphasize a specific denomination nor confession to priests or pastors, etc. You get it. They don’t require nearly as much as the Catholic Church used to.

The Truth

However, to tell a person “To receive salvation, you must confess and repent of your sins at the same time of your baptism” means the same thing as “That’s great that you want to be saved right now, but you only get saved when repenting of your sins while someone baptizes you”. Which puts that person’s salvation off to a future moment, i.e. telling them a time of salvation. That gives the saved person control over when a person receives salvation, regardless of whether they recognize it.

In addition to the when, they control the where. This is a little more obvious since there is a limited number of locations where you can baptize a person. If you aren’t already in a church building with a baptismal, or a house with a bathtub, or next to a lake, river, or other body of water, then the saved person has to take the seeking person to another location, i.e. controlling where a person is saved. I give people who believe in Baptismal Regeneration the benefit of the doubt. I think that most people who embrace this are ignorant of the fact that by their words and actions, they are controlling when and where that person’s salvation occurs and opening the door for Satan to steal, kill, and destroy that person before they get to that location at that time. (Which goes back to the Gap Problem from earlier.)

In Summation

To summarize, by believing this doctrine a person ignorantly takes some measure of control over another person’s salvation. Jesus commands us to proclaim the message of salvation. But that doesn’t give us the right to dictate when or where people can receive salvation. Unfortunately, across denominations there exists a mindset of only being saved at church events. (Unintentional, but that’s how society sees it.) God help us all overcome that mindset and show people it doesn’t matter. However, when people add Baptismal Regeneration to the message, it complicates matters. Because now instead of an altar call in a land-locked park of “Come forward and surrender your life to the Lord,” it becomes “If you want to surrender your life to the Lord, come to this address at this time and there you can receive salvation at the time of your baptism.” Can you see the difference?

This approach turns some people off since they may wonder why they can’t do it in a park with no water. It creates greater confusion and more questions. Which could manifest more from the children. And we claim that all you need is child-like faith (see Matthew 18:3). After all, the Bible claims children can grasp and understand salvation. Granted, believers in Baptismal Regeneration probably will never do outreaches somewhere they can’t immediately baptize people. However, this type of approach creates more limitations on salvation. And that creates more control – even though ignorant and unintentional they may be.

What Kind of Salvation Plan?

The fourth, and final, of the Baptismal Regeneration logical problems has to do with what kind of salvation plan the God of the Bible would create. Yes, I believe that looking at the nature of God and who He is will tell us all we need to know about what His plan of salvation would look like.

God’s Desires

First, God is a God of love. And not just any kind of love. Unconditional love that desires only the very best for those He loves. Second, God desires everyone to come to salvation (1 Timothy 2:1-4, 2 Corinthians 5:18-20). If God desires the very best for us and desires everyone to come to salvation, wouldn’t it be logical for God to make the plan of salvation as simple as possible and with as few limitations as possible? Yes, He would! Therein lies the problem with Baptismal Regeneration.

The Problem

As I discussed earlier, Baptismal Regeneration places limits on the where and when salvation can occur. A second person must be present, and they must be at a location where water can be used to baptize (sorry soldier on the battlefield). Those are some hefty and unnecessary limitations for God to require. After all, large parts of the world don’t have nearby water sources. (Looking at you Sahara Desert!) And large parts of the world don’t have modern conveniences that would allow for quick access to water. God is God and can create any plan He wants and make any requirement He wants. But if God truly wants the best, and truly desires all to become saved, then the extra requirements make no sense and contradicts God’s desires.

The Plan

Lastly, God intended for the new covenant to be 100% handled by Him since mankind messes up anything requiring them to do things to get God’s forgiveness. Just think about all the requirements of the old covenant and how many additional things the religious leaders of Jesus’ day added on. Or even the amount of stuff the Catholic Church added on. How is Baptismal Regeneration any different from those? When the Bible talks about the new covenant, it always points to what God planned and what Jesus fulfilled. It’s all about God doing all the work for all time so we wouldn’t have to do anything except receive it by faith – which has always been His requirement (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4, Hebrews 11, Ephesians 2:8-9).

Wrapping Up

Given all that I’ve written now about the subject, I hope you see clearly the truth that Baptism is not necessary to be saved. These logical problems that I’ve shared about Baptismal Regeneration in this final post are not the only ones out there. And truly my thoughts in this post and my previous ones are incomplete in their analysis of the subject. I’d encourage you to read more about it.

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