Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

I would say that it would depend on the beliefs and practices of the particular Christian denomination with which an individual becomes affiliated.

If an individual has been baptized as an infant in a denomination that practices infant baptism, and then remains with that denomination, there would be no need to be baptized again. (The Lutheran denomination in which I was raised practiced infant baptism, and then subsequently required children to undergo a course of regular biblical instruction lasting up to two years, leading to them being "confirmed" at approximately age 14 (at which time they gave a public testimony of their beliefs, and were then accepted into full communicant membership in their congregation).) 

If an individual has been baptized as an infant, but later seeks affiliation as an adult with a denomination that does not recognize the validity of infant baptism, then I would say that the individual should submit to that denomination's practices and be baptized in accordance with those practices.

Apart from the above issue with infant baptism, I would say that there would be no general need for an adult to be baptized more than once (again, unless a particular denomination with which a person who had been baptized as a child in another denomination would seek to become affiliated would somehow not recognize the validity of that earlier baptism). (The only possible case that I can think of offhand would be that of a denomination that required "full-immersion" baptism possibly not recognizing the validity of an earlier baptism -- even if a person received that baptism as an adult -- that did not involve full immersion (since full immersion might be regarded as more symbolic of the burial or drowning of the old, unsaved self, and the resurrection of the new person in Christ).)

June 07 2020 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report