Treatise on Re-Baptism (Full Script)

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Treatise on Re-Baptism

Post-Apostolic Church

INTRO

The Treatise on Re-Baptism was written around AD 257.  The author is unknown.

WORK

This work discusses a debate in the middle third century about what to do about those who were baptized by heretics but were still baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.  In other words, there appears to be many cases where heretics, perhaps including the Gnostics, who baptized their converts in the name of Jesus Christ.  Once these people realized their error in joining a heretical group, they wanted to come to the Universal Church in repentance.  The question the Church had was whether or not to accept their baptism in the name of Jesus Christ or to baptize them according to the Universal Church.

Very analytically, the author goes through some key Scriptures as well as some realistic situations to make his argument.  Unlike his contemporaries, Cyprian and Dionysius of Alexandria, the author takes a more accepting stance on the baptism of heretics, as long as the baptism was in good faith.  His work goes into much detail.

He wrote,

When he should be baptized--he on whom invocation should be made in the name of Jesus--although he might obtain baptism under some error, [he] still would not be hindered from knowing the truth at some time or another.  [When] correcting his error, coming to the Church and to the bishop, and sincerely confessing our Jesus before men, so that... when hands were laid upon him by the bishop, he might also receive the Holy Spirit, and he would not lose that former invocation of the name of Jesus.  (Treatise on Re-Baptism.  AD 257.  ANF, vol 5, page 670.)

In his work, he addresses questions such as: what if a person dies (specifically martyred) after they believe but before they are baptized or receive the Holy Spirit?  What kind of importance should the Church place in the laying on of the bishops' hands in order to receive the Holy Spirit?

To make his arguments, he isn't afraid to refer to various examples from Scripture such as the baptisms of the Apostles on Pentecost, of Cornelius' family, and of the Ethiopian eunuch.

QUOTATIONS

The writer also wrote,

The Spirit, indeed, continues to this day invisible to men, as the Lord says, "The Spirit breathes where He will; and you do not know from where He comes or to where He goes."*  (Treatise on Re-Baptism.  AD 257.  ANF, vol 5, page 677.)

* John 3:8.

...That hearts are purified by faith, but that souls are washed by the Spirit; further, also, that bodies are washed by the water, and moreover that by blood [in martyrdom] we may more readily attain at once the rewards of salvation.  (Treatise on Re-Baptism.  AD 257.  ANF, vol 5, page 677.)