Early Christians and Baptism

What Did the Early Christians Believe About Baptism?

The Unity of the Early Church on Baptism

Baptism wasn’t a controversial issue among the first Christians—it was a point of remarkable unity. Despite early theological debates on other topics, there was widespread agreement among the Church Fathers on the essential meaning and effects of baptism.

Everett Ferguson, a Protestant elder, biblical scholar, and Church historian, explores this in depth in his landmark work Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries. Drawing from hundreds of sources, Ferguson summarizes his findings (p. 854):

“Although in developing the doctrine of baptism different authors had their particular favorite descriptions, there is a remarkable agreement on the benefits received in baptism. And these are present already in the New Testament texts. Two fundamental blessings are often repeated: the person baptized received forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). The two fundamental doctrinal interpretations of baptism are sharing in the death and resurrection of Christ, with the attendant benefits and responsibilities (Rom. 6:3–4), and regeneration from above (John 3:5), with its related ideas.”

This is important: the early Christians didn’t view baptism as a mere symbol. They believed it actually did something—namely, that it forgave sins, conferred the Holy Spirit, and spiritually regenerated the baptized person. In this sense, baptism was not simply an outward sign of an inward conversion; it was part of the conversion itself.

Ferguson’s conclusion is striking. For the first 500 years of Christianity, all Christians—East and West, Greek and Latin, lay and clergy—were united in affirming the regenerative power of baptism. A modern-day Christian holding to a purely symbolic view of baptism would find himself at odds with every early Christian writer on record.

Why Was Jesus Baptized?

This clarity and consensus in early Christianity challenges modern assumptions, especially when we consider a central question: Why was Jesus baptized? (Matt. 3:13–17)

If baptism is merely symbolic—just a public sign of repentance—then Jesus’ baptism becomes theologically puzzling. After all, He was sinless. Why would He undergo a rite meant for sinners?

Jonathan Pennington of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary suggests that Jesus was “practicing the required righteousness of submitting to God’s will to repent.” But even Pennington concedes the awkwardness of this explanation, clarifying that Jesus’ repentance didn’t involve sin, but was “a dedication to follow God’s will fully on earth.”

The early Church Fathers saw things differently.

They didn’t interpret Jesus’ baptism as a change in Him—either in His moral state or commitment. Rather, they saw it as a change in baptism itself. In being baptized, Jesus was consecrating the waters of baptism, transforming them into a means of grace for all who would follow. This theological lens shifts the focus away from Jesus’ internal disposition and toward the sacrament’s transformation.

“He sanctified the waters by the descent of the Holy Spirit, so that those to be baptized afterwards might be purified by that same Spirit.” — St. Gregory of Nazianzus

Conclusion

What emerges from Scripture and the writings of the earliest Christians is a consistent, sacramental view of baptism: it forgives sins, imparts the Holy Spirit, unites the believer with Christ’s death and resurrection, and brings about spiritual rebirth. That’s not a fringe interpretation—it’s the unanimous testimony of the early Church.

A time traveler visiting any Christian community from the first five centuries would encounter this sacramental, regenerative understanding of baptism everywhere.

Did you enjoy this excerpt from Joe Heschmeyer’s The Early Church Was the Catholic Church?

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