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Everett Ferguson, a Protestant elder, biblical scholar, and Church historian, has written what’s perhaps the definitive work on the subject, Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries. Ferguson spends hundreds of pages carefully combing through the evidence to expose the first five hundred years’ worth of Christians thought about baptism.His findings are neatly summarized on page 854: Although in developing the doctrine of baptism differe …

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 …