Requirements for a Scriptural Baptism

Proper Administrator

The Scriptures require that the man who baptizes be an ordained teacher in the church. This point is easily confirmed by reviewing the record of the early church in the book of Acts. It was only the apostles or other ordained teachers who baptized in the New Testament.

Proper Subject

The Scriptures teach that an individual to be baptized must first repent and believe the gospel. This requires the subject to be of sufficient age to comprehend the essential elements of the gospel and agree with them. The Scriptures know nothing of baptizing infants. The subject of baptism must have an active conscience in order to give answer.

Proper Doctrine

The essential elements of the gospel that must be believed prior to baptism center around the Lord Jesus Christ and His role as the Son of God and the only Saviour from sin. It is the Person of Jesus Christ that is the basis of true doctrine.

Proper Mode

Baptism is an immersion of the subject completely under water. This is done to represent (show a likeness or figure of) the burial and resurrection of Christ, which put away our sins. As everyone knows, a thing is neither buried nor planted with only a sprinkling. Baptism must provide a figure of the resurrection of Christ, which is only done by immersion.

Proper Design

Baptism does not put away sin. It is only a figure of how our sins were put away by Christ’s death and resurrection. Baptism is simply an answer and testimony to God for what He did by Himself. It is the answer toward God of a conscience made good by the blood of Christ.

See Also

Denominational Summary

How do various denominations measure against the scriptural requirements for valid baptisms?