Added: 09/12/2006 |
Did the Rebaptizers Need A Re-education?Living in the 21st Century, an age in which large numbers of people practice a religion other than Christianity, the long-ago condemnation of the rebatizers seems foolish and unwarranted. In fact the appearance of the Anabaptists during the 16th Century underscored the failure of the Christian church to quell an attitude that pressed for the re-education of some Christians.
During the Sixteenth Century, even the Protestant Churches failed to agree on the time at which a baptism should occur. The rebaptizers did not want to recognize the baptism of infants. They felt that only those who had matured enough to understand the teachings of Christianity could be baptized.
That belief led some members of the Protestant segment of Christianity to call-for a second baptism. They felt it important to rebaptize any Church members who had been first baptized as infants. Christians with that belief came to be called the rebaptizers.
The rebaptizers were generally not well-liked by the larger percent of the 16th-Century population. In fact, many took to referring to the rebaptizers as Anabaptists. Because a late baptism had not been a requirement set by the earliest teachers of Christianity, those who suggested it were seen as being opposed to the conventional infant baptism. Thus they became known as the Anabaptists.
Groups such as the Amish and the Mennonites were often viewed as different from Christians, because they practiced the late baptism. Even though the Amish and the Mennonites lived by a code that called for the peaceful resolution of disputes, their approach to baptism caused them to be viewed with disdain by many.
That rift over baptism must have perplexed any non-Christians who witnessed its effects. That rift over baptism must have caused some people to wonder which of the two groups most needed a re-education in the “rules” surrounding baptism. Which group needed to re-read what the Bible said about baptism?
Some Protestant groups pointed to the passage in which the older, more mature Jesus receives a baptism from John the Baptist. The Christians in that group were the rebaptizers. Other groups insisted that the Bible did not speak against the baptism of infants.
During a time when sick children did not always have access to needed medical care, parents took some comfort in baptizing a child at an early age. For those parents, the infant baptism prevented the guilt that might come with watching the death of an unbaptized child. Fear of such guilt caused many parents to support the emphasis on an infant baptism.
Neither group thought to question the need for baptism. Only the passage of time has shown the Christian church that the rebaptizers were as strong in their faith as those who followed the teachings of all other Christian churches. The doctrine for rebaptism posed much less of a threat than a doctrine that did away with the need for baptism.
In the 21st Century, most Christians never stop to consider the age at which a person has been baptized. Most Christians think more about encouraging the baptism of others, regardless of when it might come about.
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