What the Early Church Believed: Baptismal Regeneration

The view and the tradition

Some Protestants say baptism (an "ordinance") only symbolizes becoming a Christian and does not regenerate. That idea is modern compared with the early Church.

The witness of the early Church

• The Epistle of Barnabas (about 70), citing Jeremiah 22:13, Isaiah 16:1-2; 33:16-18 and Psalm 1:3-6: we go down into the water burdened with sin and come up bearing fruit.
• Hermas (140): we go down into the water dead and come out alive; the seal is the water, and without it we cannot enter the kingdom.
• Theophilus (181): men receive remission of sins through water and the bath of regeneration and are born again.
• Justin Martyr (148–155): converts are reborn in water in the name of the Trinity, as the apostles taught.
• Tertullian (200–206): our sacrament of water washes away sins and frees us for eternal life; it is a bodily act with a spiritual effect.
• Clement of Alexandria (before 202): baptized, we are enlightened, adopted, perfected, made immortal and "sons of the Most High" (Psalm 81:6).
• Origen (after 244): there is now regeneration in water and Spirit, as there is true food in Christ's flesh (John 6:56); the Church received from the apostles the tradition of baptizing infants, whose inborn stains of sin are washed away.
• Cyprian (246): the water of rebirth washed away his past and made him a new man.
• Aphraates (336–345): in the second birth, through baptism, we receive the Holy Spirit.
• Cyril of Jerusalem (350): without baptism no salvation, except martyrs (cf. Mark 10:38); we go down dead in sin and come up alive.
• Basil (before 379): baptism is ransom, forgiveness, regeneration and adoption.
• Ambrose (389): whoever comes to Christ's washing lays aside his sins.
• Jerome (415): baptism forgives past sins but does not guarantee future righteousness.
• Augustine (412): baptized infants are grafted into Christ's body; baptism is "the sacrament of regeneration."