The Pre-Requisites of Baptism

Pre-Requisites. It is such a laborious term. Prerequisite. The very mention of it brings fear of tedious drudgery. Most commonly referred to as “Pre-Reqs,” they incite loathing in most university students. There is a boring dry class that you have to take before you get to take the cool and exciting class. This boring and dry drudgery class that you must take is known as your Pre-req before you take the cool class. When I was in university I hated taking pre-reqs. I just wanted to skip past those boring mind-numbing classes, and get to the good stuff. I remember walking into my first year Greek class thinking I would walk out at the end of the semester speaking and talking to my fellow class mates in Greek. I was very excited! My professor’s opening statement to the class: “This course is actually a pre-req to the cool class where you will learn to speak and read Greek.” I was dismayed and flabbergasted. We spent that semester learning the alphabet and deciphering between participial phrases and adverbial modifiers. We also looked at adverbial participial modfying phrases. Don’t ask me to explain. You would need to take a pre-req to get it. I did.

Baptism is sort of like an advanced level class in university. Before you can take Water Baptism, there are some pre-requisites. But the prerequisites are not boring. They are the substance and essence of Baptism.

What are some of the prerequisites of water baptism? To answer this question, let’s begin our examination of the early chuch’s practice of baptism in the book of Acts. Remember, Acts is simply the continuation of Christ’s ministry on this earth through the ongoing work of the Church. (See my previous posting on this topic.) The first time the disciples command baptism in Acts is found in Acts 2:38. Specifically, Peter commands that they, “repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” A simple answer to the question currently under consideration then, is to look at how events unfolded prior to this command. Peter began the simple apostolic preaching of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The crowd gathering that day heard the story of Jesus’ atonement and resurrection, and realized their sin. It is apparent that there was an internal recognition of guilt before God within the crowd. Peter states specifically that Christ now sits at the right hand of the Father, and that Jesus is “both Lord and Christ.” The crowd was cut to the heart. They asked, “What shall we do?” And Peter responds famously, “Repent and be baptized…” So here are some of the basic pre-requisites for baptism:

1. Recognition of personal sin, and understanding of guilt and impending punishment before God.
2. A decision to repent, or, in other words, a commitment to turn away from living life sinfully, selfishly, and for yourself.
3. Agreement to the truth of Jesus’ person and atoning work on the cross, and an obedient trust in that saving work.

The centrality of trust in Jesus Christ to the command ‘be baptized’ is evident in all of the Acts accounts.1 There must be some object for the recipient to trust in, and the scriptures consistently and exclusively put Jesus forward as the only suitable object of man’s faith. This is a natural progression since the act of baptism is tied to the work of Christ in the gospel accounts.

Recipients are also required to repent prior to receiving water baptism. Water baptism is a concomitant act of repentance. It has already been determined that John’s baptism of repentance is now tied to Christ, therefore it is suitable to find clarification for the meaning of repentance in the context of John’s baptizing in the wilderness. John’s use of repentance baptism commanded that mankind do differently than what they had done before oin that they no longer lived in sin or selfishly, but turned and walked in a different direction away from sin.2 “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance,” is potent imagery for living a different lifestyle than the former lifestyle. John is describing the prerequisite for his water baptism as similar to that of becoming a different tree, producing different fruit. John’s ministry is also described in the New Testament account as a ministry designed for “making straight the path of the Lord,” or by making the path to God easier to travel. By demanding that people recognize their own sinfulness and calling them to radically change their lifestyle, John began preparing people to embrace the repentance and change of lifestyle that is demanded by the Savior. This is also attested by the early church father Tertullian:

“Moreover, a presumptuous confidence in [water] baptism introduces all kind of vicious delay and tergiversation with regard to repentance; for, feeling sure of undoubted pardon of their sins, men, meanwhile steal the intervening time, and make it for themselves into a holiday-time for sinning, rather than a time for learning not to sin. Further, how inconsistent is it to expect pardon of sins (to be granted) to a repentance which they have not fulfilled! This is to hold out your hand for merchandise, but not produce the price. For repentance is the price at which the Lord has determined to award pardon: He proposes the redemption of release from penalty at this compensating exchange of repentance.”3

Again Tertullian makes mention of a proper repentance prior to baptism:

“They who are about to enter baptism ought to pray with repeated prayers, fasts, and bendings of the knee, and vigils all the night through, and with the confession of all bygone sins, that they may express the meaning even of the baptism of John: ‘They were baptized,’ saith the Scripture, ‘confessing their own sins.’”4

In my humble opinion, it is not necessary to stay awake all night long attempting to recall every past misdeed and sinful act ever committed and to ask for forgiveness for each specific sin. However, the early church father Tertullian did think that this was necessary! (I do think that baptism must be preceeded by a decision to turn away from sin, and to live for Christ, but I find it impossible for people to recall every past sin prior to baptism. This is absurd since we all sin many times on a daily basis.) Belief in Christ accompanied by repentance was necessary for Christian baptism. Not only is this attested by the early church fathers, but these elements are seemingly obvious in every account of baptism in the book of Acts. However, there is a third item that appears to be a prerequisite to Christian baptism. This item has direct implications for the doctrine of ecclesiology (the doctrine of the church) and the appropriate administration of Christian baptism. There appear to be traces of a baptismal formula used in the early church which center around a question using the Greek word “κωλύω” (choluo) that is posed during the baptism. The Greek word “κωλύω” has the basic meaning of “forbid, withhold, or prevent.” Four examples of this early baptismal formula are cited here:

1. “And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, ‘See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?’”5.
2. “Then Peter declared, ^‘Can anyone prevent water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’”6.
3. “If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I should prevent God?”7.
4. “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’”8.

This baptismal formula in the New Testament serves to illustrate that the individual or corporate entity that was performing the baptism had authority to withhold baptism or to prevent the baptism from taking place if certain conditions were not met. Notice from the example cited in Acts 11:17 that Peter could not withhold baptism from someone who had already received the Holy Spirit. God had already baptized with the Spirit; therefore, Peter must relinquish the right of water baptism to be performed. However, if certain conditions were not met by the prospective recipient of water baptism, then the agent performing the baptism should withhold water baptism. Cullman refers to this operation as a “terminus technicus.” Citing this interesting textual construction, Cullman expounds upon the fact that whenever someone who had come to faith was brought before the church for Baptism, the apostles and agents of the early church took upon themselves the responsibility to make inquiry into the believer’s faith, to examine their faith, to see if that faith was genuine, and to discover the existence of any spiritual objection that would hinder the rite of baptism. At the heart of the issue was whether the candidate had really fulfilled the conditions demanded by God.9

We see from this that people did not simply swarm into the rivers to be dunked. There was obviously an examination. A person would be prevented from being baptized unless it was safely concluded that they had met the condition necessary for baptism. The authority to perform baptism is entrusted by scripture to a local congregation, and it is incumbent upon the local congregation to make every inquiry into the nature of the candidate’s belief in Christ and repentance from sin for the purposes of ascertaining the validity of the baptismal candidate’s conversion. This only serves to underscore the requirement that there must be certain spiritual conditions present in the prospective baptismal candidate prior to baptism. The tragedy that baptism is slowly disappearing from the local church is now beginning to take shape. An absence of emphasis upon baptism indicates an absence of a legitimate God-fearing congregation.10

In summary, the three elements needed for water baptism are as follows:

1. Recongition of and repentance from sin.
2. Trust in the atoning work of Christ.
3. Affirmation and approval from a local congregation of Christians that the first two elements had been fully satisfied.

[1.] See also Acts 2:38-41; 8:12; 8:35; 18:8; 19:3; 22:8

[2.] Matthew 3:8-10. Holy Bible. English Standard Version. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001).

[3.] Roberts, A., Donaldson, J., & Coxe, A. C.  The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325. “Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian,” (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1997), 661.

[4.] Ibid., 678.

 [5.] The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (Acts 8:36). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

[6.] The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (Acts 10:46-47). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

[7.] The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (Acts 11:17). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. **This translation softens the literal rendering of the Greek verb. A literal translation would be: “…who was I that I could forbid/prevent God.” This serves to highlight that the church must seek out the Baptismal candidates status before God prior to baptizing them into Christ.

 [8.] The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (Matthew 3:13-14). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

 [9.] Cullmann, Oscar. Die Tauflehre Des Neuen Testaments. Baptism in the New Testament, Trans. by J.K.S. Reid. (London: SCM Press, 1950), 75.

 [10.] The episode of re-baptism in Acts 19:1-7 indicates that proper Baptism is a necessary precursor to proper church membership. This account demonstrates Paul’s willingness to re-baptize an individual if their first baptism was invalid. Church membership hinges on a proper baptism in the authority of the Trinity with appropriate instruction in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ performed by a doctrinally orthodox church. If inquiry is made into an individual’s baptism and any of these elements are lacking, the scripture commands re-baptism.