Baptism stood at the heart of the early Church’s theological and liturgical imagination—a sacred threshold through which the old self was buried and a new creation emerged. It was not merely a rite of entry but a sacramental rebirth, a solemn seal of forgiveness and divine indwelling, binding the believer to Christ and His Church in a covenant of life, grace, and holy obligation.
Baptism as New Birth and Initiation
In the ancient Church, baptism was venerated as the sacrament of regeneration—the mystical and transformative act by which the believer was born anew into the life of Christ. It served not only as the threshold of salvation but as the formal entry into the communion of the faithful, conferring both the privileges and the demands of the Christian vocation.
For adult converts, this rite was preceded by thorough catechetical instruction, repentance, and faith. Baptism consummated and sealed the process of inner renewal: the old man was buried beneath the waters, and the new man emerged, radiant and alive with the Spirit. It symbolized the forgiveness of sins and the impartation of the Holy Spirit.
Justin Martyr described baptism as “the water-bath for the forgiveness of sins and regeneration,” and “the bath of conversion and the knowledge of God.” The rite was also known by many other titles: illumination (φωτισμός), spiritual circumcision, anointing, sealing, gift of grace, symbol of redemption, death to sin, and more.
Tertullian’s Theology of Baptism
Tertullian offers a vivid image of baptism’s power: “When the soul comes to faith and is transformed by regeneration through water and power from above, it perceives its full light once the veil of corruption is removed.” Through baptism, he writes, the soul enters into fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and the body, united with the sanctified soul, follows in the path of grace.
Though Tertullian leans at times toward a near-magical understanding of the sacrament, he insists—along with the wider Church—on the necessity of repentance and faith as prerequisites. Baptism was viewed as both a divine act and a human vow: a solemn pledge to Christ unto death, a lifelong renunciation of sin, and a covenant that demanded fidelity. Those who broke this baptismal vow faced two paths: repentance or excommunication.
Necessity and Exceptions
Drawing on John 3:5 and Mark 16:16, Tertullian and many other Church Fathers asserted the necessity of baptism for salvation. Clement of Alexandria even speculated, along with the Shepherd of Hermas and others, that the saints of the Old Testament were baptized in Hades by Christ or His apostles.
Yet this absolute stance was tempered by a singular exception: the so-called “baptism of blood.” Martyrdom, it was believed, could atone for the lack of water-baptism. From this arose a broader evangelical principle: it is not the omission of the sacrament but its contempt that condemns. Thus, a door remained open for the salvation of unbaptized infants, devout seekers, and the righteous of other nations.
Postponement of Baptism and the Rise of Penance
Because baptism was believed to wash away only the sins committed before its reception, many deferred it—some out of caution, others from spiritual presumption. Tertullian strongly advocated delay, urging that the grace of baptism be preserved unspoiled by post-conversion sin. He sharply rebuked those who postponed it with irreverent motives, simply to sin freely beforehand.
Many, including Constantine the Great, waited until the deathbed to receive baptism, preferring to risk dying unbaptized rather than forfeit the grace of a pristine baptismal state. These “death-bed baptisms” occupied a role analogous to modern death-bed repentance.
Yet the practice raised an urgent question: how were sins committed after baptism to be forgiven? This theological crisis became the seedbed for the Roman Catholic doctrine of penance. Tertullian and Cyprian were the first to suggest a remedy—self-imposed penitential acts such as fasting, prayer, and almsgiving to compensate for post-baptismal sin.
Tertullian went further still, declaring that seven gross sins—what he called mortal sins—could not be forgiven after baptism and were to be left to the uncovenanted mercies of God. In contrast, the Catholic Church adopted a more pastoral approach, admitting even adulterers and apostates back into communion after public repentance.
Adult Baptism and the Limits of the Patristic Paradigm
In assessing the patristic doctrine of baptism—endorsed by both the Greek and Roman churches, and later by the Lutheran and Anglican traditions—it must be remembered that the early Church baptized primarily adults. Baptism was administered only after personal conversion and moral readiness had been verified.
Thus, candidates received instruction, made a public renunciation of the devil, and professed the Christian faith. These requirements were appropriate for adults, but when applied without adjustment to infants, difficulties arose. Infants, though capable of regeneration by divine grace, could neither repent nor believe. Nor, having committed no personal sins, did they need repentance.
Therefore, infant baptism came to be viewed more as an act of consecration—an initial planting of the seed of faith that looked forward to later instruction, conversion, and full incorporation into the Church. This led naturally to the development of the rite of confirmation, intended to complete what infant baptism had begun.
The Augustinian Legacy and Protestant Divergence
The strictest formulation of baptismal necessity came from St. Augustine, who, though reluctant, taught that unbaptized infants were consigned to damnation due to original sin and the absolute necessity of baptism. This harsh dogma—dogma horribile—was repudiated by many, for it stood in jarring contrast to Christ’s own blessing of unbaptized children and His declaration that “to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
The Augsburg Confession (Article IX) maintained, against Anabaptist objections, that baptism is necessary for salvation. Yet leading Lutheran theologians interpreted this as a relative, not absolute, necessity. Reformed churches, especially under Calvin’s influence, went further still. They anchored salvation not in sacramental participation but in divine election, affirming the salvation of all infants who die in infancy.
The Second Scotch Confession (A.D. 1580) was the first Reformed creed to explicitly denounce “the cruel [popish] judgment against infants dying without baptism” and the doctrine of “the absolute necessity of baptism.”
