Who can baptise others?

Generally, baptism should be performed in the context of a Christian community. Some traditions, such as the Reformed, are absolutely insistent on that point.

Also, there is the potential that his baptism would not be recognized as valid because there would be no record of it. When emergency baptisms were done in the past, typically people would try to register the baptism with their community's church.

Well, still today I'd expect an emergency baptism to go into the local parish's register.

OP, there's nothing stopping you, and as long as you do in water in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, most everyone will accept it as valid.

But my question would be, would that be the best possible way to do it, or would it be better to ensure preparation, have the support of a gathered community, and so on?

DamianWarS said:

If a friend expresses a desire to me to be baptized to serve Jesus what stops me from baptising him in that place at that very moment?

Click to expand...

Generally speaking, nothing.

FireDragon76 said:

Generally, baptism should be performed in the context of a Christian community.

Click to expand...

An example of an exception would be Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch [Acts of the Apostles 8:26-39].

DamianWarS said:

Is the Ethiopian the exception or the model?

Click to expand...

If we prefer the Bible over tradition, it is probably like the covenant of marriage, an audience is not required, but certainly welcome.

Sabertooth said:

An example of an exception would be Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch [Acts of the Apostles 8:26-39].

Click to expand...

He was an apostle that was ordained by the Lord himself.

FireDragon76 said:

He was an apostle that was ordained by the Lord himself.

Click to expand...

Philip was a deacon.

Sabertooth said:

Philip was a deacon.

Click to expand...

Well, he was still ordained for that by the apostles. A deacon's job in the early church was to catechize and to baptize.

It's different from some random layperson deciding to baptize without commitment to a church community. Baptism is not magic, nor should it be thought of as absolutely necessary for salvation (it's not), there are covenantal aspects to baptism that may not be reflected properly in making the extraordinary (emergency baptism), ordinary.

DamianWarS said:

If a friend expresses a desire to me to be baptized to serve Jesus what stops me from baptising him in that place at that very moment? Is there biblical precedent for me to wait for an organized Christian gathering so a baptism may happen?

Click to expand...

A layman can baptize a person but only someone who has been given the gift of chrismation can compete it.

DamianWarS said:

If a friend expresses a desire to me to be baptized to serve Jesus what stops me from baptising him in that place at that very moment? Is there biblical precedent for me to wait for an organized Christian gathering so a baptism may happen?

Click to expand...

You can and might should if he is wanting you to.

DamianWarS said:

If a friend expresses a desire to me to be baptized to serve Jesus what stops me from baptising him in that place at that very moment? Is there biblical precedent for me to wait for an organized Christian gathering so a baptism may happen?

Click to expand...

The Israelites confessed that the humanity that they experienced wasn’t what they liked. They claimed they were alienated by it, were foreign to it. So good so far.

God promised them a better humanity, a Holy City. They agreed to follow Him without condition based on seeing His ability to deliver, His great works. Still good.

Moses led them out of that situation based on that oath and closed the doors to return for them, as signified by the sea closing behind them. Baptism has taken place. Into Moses.

When someone says, “What must I do to be saved?”, it presupposes that he recognises his existing situation, serving Egypt/world/selfish interest, was unsatisfactory.

Similarly, when someone says, “Look here, there is water, what prevents me from being baptised?” it presupposes that the person has heard the explanation of Isaiah 53:7 to mean that the better situation is a new humanity which has been actualised by the work of Christ on the Cross.

Zechariah 3:9'For behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua; on one stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave an inscription on it,' declares the LORD of hosts, 'and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.

Short answer: baptism depends on the confessor. If he admits that he is not comfortable in the fallen Adam and trusts God to take him into Rest in the second Adam, anyone who is clean like Peter and not unclean like Judas (he has to have understood the confession and have had the same experience, which I confess I myself did not previously understand and experience!) can baptise him, seal the deal.

DamianWarS said:

Is the Ethiopian the exception or the model?

Click to expand...

Interesting wording: "... THE exception or THE model."
As if it must be one or the other.

DamianWarS said:

What is God's standard for recognizing a baptism?

Click to expand...

I know of no biblical record of any standard.

I do know a lot of folk place a big emphasis on what words are spoken; but since the Jewish mikvah/teviliah tradition it grew from only had a short blessing spoken,** I am not sure how binding that formula is.

I do know in Acts 18 Paul determined that a certain group of men had not been properly baptized when they said they had never heard of the Holy Spirit; which could be taken as a support for the Triune Matt 28 formula. But is that actually a "standard?" I am not that sure.


** Blessed are You O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has commanded us concerning being immersed.

Dave-W said:

I know of no biblical record of any standard.

I do know a lot of folk place a big emphasis on what words are spoken; but since the Jewish mikvah/teviliah tradition it grew from only had a short blessing spoken,** I am not sure how binding that formula is.

I do know in Acts 18 Paul determined that a certain group of men had not been properly baptized when they said they had never heard of the Holy Spirit; which could be taken as a support for the Triune Matt 28 formula. But is that actually a "standard?" I am not that sure.


** Blessed are You O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has commanded us concerning being immersed.

Click to expand...

The confession made by the people in Acts 18 is that they were wrong to believe that God's People are those who were circumcised, instead of the right belief that God's People were those who obeyed the more important points of the law, justice, mercy and loyalty to God. This is the baptism of repentance, meta noia, change of mind from serving mammon to serving God. The only people who escaped the coming wrath were the remnant who were set aside because they had not bowed their knee to Baal. John taught the people that this would be explained by Christ and that they should listen to Him because He was the Bridegroom, the giver of blessings.

But didn't Christ say that the Pharisees should have followed the minor points of the law as well as the more important points? He did, but He was critiquing their observance of the Old Covenant.

So the teaching of John was to observe the important points of the old agreement to escape wrath, because this part of the old covenant was a protector until Christ , the New Covenant arrived, which could justify, make a believer a blessing to the world, possess eternal life.

Since the believers were not a blessing to the world, like Philip, Paul asked them to be baptised again. After which they received revelation, edification, ability in understanding Scripture, which would allow them to explain what Isaiah 53:7 meant, to others.

Wordkeeper said:

The confession made by the people in Acts 18 is that they were wrong to believe that God's People are those who were circumcised,

Click to expand...

Sorry - my bad. I meant Acts 19: