This is a paper I wrote for my Historical Foundations class as a reflection on the book A History of Christian Education.
“Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
– Acts 2:40b-41
Certainly the Christians did not invent baptism. The practice of symbolically washing or identifying yourself through baptism existed all throughout the ancient world and was common among several ancient pagan religions. But Christians quickly repeated what Jesus had modeled to them. They used baptism to identify new believers with The Way.
Throughout the New Testament’s epistles we read of new believers being baptized soon after conversion. In the period around the first Pentecost thousands were baptized. (Acts 2:40) Paul baptized John the Baptist’s disciples in Corinth. (Acts 19:5) To the church in Ephesus Paul insisted that baptism united the church, (Eph 4:5) Paul and Peter agreed that baptism was to be used to symbolically identify all believers with Jesus. (Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12; 1 Peter 3:21) Among the first generations of believers is was clear that baptism was free and available to all. Remarkably, no restrictions are placed on who may be baptized, when they should be baptized, who should do the baptizing, where baptisms should take place or even how baptism should take place.
Even though the churches practice of baptism had a clear cut direction at the close of the apostolic period, it all changed quite mysteriously. It seems that as The Way became known as Christianity, it took on the formalities of earthly institutionalized religion. Much like Judaism, matters of the heart were soon made institutions as well. Within a few generations baptism was not widely practiced among the laity, even becoming restricted to social class.
It began simple enough as the church sought to make sure that they were baptizing true believers. After all, since these people didn’t have the gifts of an apostle, how else could they distinguish between believers and pretenders since they no longer had circumcision as the entry point as with the God-fearers in Judaism. As this baptismal education grew more formalized, it eventually began to exclude people. During Ignatius’ time this education was open to all and attracted mostly “from the lower, less-educated classes.” (A History of Christian Education, Findley Edge, p.78) By modern standards, this would have been acceptable and well received.
However, as the church became more institutionalized the ordinance of baptism became less available to the lower classes and more a sign of dedication which was reflected in a conscious step rather than an elementary faith step like before. Earlier baptismal education led the way to formal education for ministry. Ultimately, baptism became the entry point into priesthood instead of its originally intended identification with Christ. Such was the case with Gregory of Nyssa. In the 4th century he was not baptized until after he decided to take an active role in his local church. (Edge, p. 90) By the end of the 4th century it was clear that baptism was being made an ever more important separation between laity and clergy. “When Auxentius, bishop of Milan, died, Ambrose was soon named to replace him though Ambrose was still a catechumen. He was baptized and, eight days later, installed as bishop.” (Edge, p. 94) This is a clear paradigm shift from what the first century Christians practiced, taught, and believed.
Into the Middle and Dark ages the church became more and more restrictive and further institutionalized in their baptismal views. It is not that there were not commoners who believed, it’s that in the church they didn’t seem to matter. People became a commodity and not a resource. Little seems to be known about their baptism. Somewhere along the way the church fully associated baptism with salvation. As infant death was common during these times, it only made sense to baptize infants before death could snatch them away to hell. This really didn’t have anything to do with Scripture so much as it became a practical solution to a practical problem. Since the laity was ignorant of Scripture and only responsible to the clergy, why not cut out the education and conversion altogether and baptize everyone?
It was not until the Age of Reason that the people started to question the teachings of the church. It was widely assumed that the church operated both within and alongside the Scriptures. However, while the masses were uneducated the church had managed to create more of an institution than a living breathing organism. Baptism had become so institutionalized that records of infant baptism were substituted for birth certificates. Therefore, if you were not in good standing with the church, not only was your marriage illegal but your children did not really exist.
At the end of the day, the Reformation cried out… where are our ordinances? When the laity was exposed to the truth found in Scripture they were saddened to the point of outrage.
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