Several people have accused me of heresy for my stance on baptism, including some who are very dear to me and whom I once considered close friends. The accusation of heresy is a serious one. As one response noted, to be a heretic is a damnable offense. To call someone a heretic is inherently to say their beliefs are anti-Christian and therefore threatening to their eternal salvation.
Indeed, I have even had people tell me privately that I am sending my own children to hell and that anyone who listens to my teaching is at risk of the same.
Of course, they are careful to say that I’m not going to hell because I made a profession of faith. Never mind that my whole family makes a profession of faith together every day when we recite the Apostles’ Creed for Morning and Evening Prayers. I guess I should lead them to recite the Sinner’s Prayer instead.
Let me emphasize, though, that it is not enough to merely claim that I am a heretic. They must prove that I’m a heretic for their accusation to hold any weight. For that, they need a standard by which to define how my interpretation of the Bible is heresy. Just because a doctrine bothers someone’s sensibilities and the tradition in which they have been taught does not make it heretical.
Origen would subscribe (maybe?)…
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While every movement has its particular faults, it’s not lost on me that the only ones who have made this accusation so far come from within the Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) movement, a movement generally known for conflating non-essential doctrines with essential ones. While I’m genuinely thankful for the ways they discipled me and the good I received from their witness, I lived in the IFB world for over 15 years and still couldn’t tell you with any clarity what they actually consider essential versus non-essential, outside of the five fundamentals. (For what it’s worth, historic baptismal regeneration does not contradict any of those five.) And important to note, I had to go to college to even learn about these fundamentals, as I never once heard them taught in church.
I understand why they are labeling me as a heretic. Honestly, I probably would have said the same thing years ago. They are simply going off the interpretation of Scripture they were handed and an arbitrary list of essential doctrines someone told them mattered most. However, this list differs widely between each person you ask within the IFB. It does not surprise me that I have also seen some of these same people call others heretics for using a Bible that’s not the KJV, for being Calvinist or Arminian, or just for having a different view on the end times.
To persuasively identify heresy, you must first understand the definition of orthodoxy.
One of the reasons church history matters so much is that it helps us define orthodoxy and heresy. If I thought those accusing me understood the word heretic, I might take their accusation more seriously. But in calling me a heretic, they end up indicting themselves. If I am a heretic for believing in baptismal regeneration, then their churches are built on the work and witness of countless so-called heretics.
Those who gave us the Trinitarian formula at Nicaea are heretics because they believed in baptismal regeneration (See my longer article for evidence of the early patristic witness to the doctrine).
Augustine, who gives the clearest expression of original sin used in many Baptist theology books today, is a heretic because he believed in baptismal regeneration,
“God doth not remit sins but to the baptized. The very sins which He remits first, He remits not but to the baptized. When? when they are baptized. The sins which are after remitted upon prayer, upon penance, to whom He remits, it is to the baptized that He remitteth. For how can they say, “Our Father,” who are not yet born sons?”1Aquinas, widely agreed by most to be the greatest theologian of all time, and who provided in clear format the proofs of God used even in modern Baptist apologetics, is a heretic because he believed in baptismal regeneration,
“[The effect of baptism is] regeneration, which refers to the fact that man by being baptized begins the new life of righteousness.”2John Huss, a pre-Reformation martyr who died for the cause of Christ, was a heretic because he believed in baptismal regeneration,
“For, although Clazianus, a son, drew from his parents the corruption of the first man—which is to be expiated in the sacred font of baptism—nevertheless, who doubts that some of the sin which his father, after begetting him, confessed did not belong to the child, seeing he did not actively partake of it?”3Martin Luther, the father of the reformation, and all Lutherans are heretics because they believed in baptismal regeneration (Against what one objector who tried to claim that Luther did not hold to Baptismal Regeneration, the record is unambiguous that he did.),
“Question: What does baptism give us, and of what benefit is it?Answer: It effects the remission of sins, frees us from death and the devil, and gives blessedness everlasting to those who believe what the word and the promise of God declare.”4
John Calvin, the writer of the first Protestant Systematic Theology, is a heretic because he believed in baptismal regeneration (Yes, I have many more quotes from Calvin I can provide if needed),
“For as God, regenerating us in baptism, ingrafts us into the fellowship of his Church, and makes us his by adoption, so we have said that he performs the office of a provident parent, in continually supplying the food by which he may sustain and preserve us in the life to which he has begotten us by his word.”5Count Zinzendorf and all of his Moravians, who jump-started arguably the most significant missions movement since the beginning of the Church, are heretics because they believed baptismal regeneration (They essentially had a Lutheran view of baptism),
“Externally, his body was washed with pure water, nay even dipped into it, and as it was buried, by the ministry of a servant of Christ, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleansed him at the same time from all sins, and in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and for the sake of the offering made by Jesus, every thing was forgiven him at the same time.”6The translators of the King James Bible, the most outstanding English literary work ever created, were heretics because they believed in baptismal regeneration (All were from the Church of England, which traditionally holds to Baptismal Regeneration).
Most of the founders of our nation, of which some Baptists preach endlessly about being built on Christian values, are heretics because they believed in baptismal regeneration (More than half hailed from denominations that taught baptismal regeneration).
John and Charles Wesley, who were the flames that ignited the awakening in England, emphasized personal conversion, and wrote many of the hymns Baptists sing in Church, were heretics because they believed in baptismal regeneration,
“What are the benefits we receive by baptism, is the next point to be considered. And the first of these is, the washing away the guilt of original sin, by the application of the merits of Christ’s death… And the virtue of this free gift, the merits of Christ’s life and death, are applied to us in baptism. “He gave himself for the Church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word;” (Eph. 5:25, 26;) namely, in baptism, the ordinary instrument of our justification… By baptism we enter into covenant with God; into that everlasting covenant, which he hath commanded for ever… By baptism we are admitted into the Church, and consequently made members of Christ, its Head. The Jews were admitted into the Church by circumcision, so are the Christians by baptism. For “as many as are baptized into Christ,” in his name, “have” thereby “put on Christ;” (Gal. 3:27;) that is, are mystically united to Christ, and made one with him… By baptism, we who were “by nature children of wrath” are made the children of God. And this regeneration which our Church in so many places ascribes to baptism is more than barely being admitted into the Church, though commonly connected therewith; being “grafted into the body of Christ’s Church, we are made the children of God by adoption and grace.” This is grounded on the plain words of our Lord: “Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5.) By water then, as a means, the water of baptism, we are regenerated or born again; whence it is also called by the Apostle, “the washing of regeneration.” Our Church therefore ascribes no greater virtue to baptism than Christ himself has done… Baptism doth now save us, if we live answerable thereto; if we repent, believe, and obey the gospel: Supposing this, as it admits us into the Church here, so into glory hereafter.”7C. S. Lewis, the writer of the Narnia series, who is also widely accepted to be the greatest apologist of the last century, was a heretic because he believed in baptismal regeneration,
“There are three things that spread the Christ-life to us: baptism, belief, and…the Lord’s supper…And perhaps that explains one or two things. It explains why this new life is spread not only by purely mental acts like belief, but by bodily acts like baptism and Holy Communion.”8J. I. Packer, one of the greatest evangelical minds of the last century and whose commentaries, study Bibles, and dictionaries are in many Baptist libraries, was a heretic because he believed in baptismal regeneration (The following is from the approved catechism for the ACNA, which was authored by a team led by J. I. Packer),
“Question: What is the inward and spiritual grace given in Baptism?
Answer: The inward and spiritual grace is death to sin and new birth to righteousness, through union with Christ in his death and resurrection. I am born a sinner by nature, separated from God. But in Baptism, through faith in Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit, I am made a member of Christ’s Body and adopted as God’s child and heir.”9And many, many more…
I understand if you disagree with me, but heresy?
If you genuinely believe I am a heretic for believing in baptismal regeneration, stop giving these men and others like them such a large platform in your Church. If I am a heretic, so are they, and they are leading your people away from God. Exhibit A: Me. Maybe you could shrug it off if it were just one or two people. But it’s not. They are a large part of your worship, theology, and practice.
Start calling America a nation built on heretical values instead of Christian ones. Stop using or honoring the KJV and its derivatives like the NKJV, SKJV, or KJV2000. Stop singing “And can it be that I should gain an interest in my Savior’s blood?” or “Arise, my soul, arise! Shake off thy guilty fear!” Gut your libraries of their most significant works, and relegate yourself to the last 100 years of a highly curated artificial Church history.
Or maybe you can recognize that the Church may be larger than you instinctively think. As a quote attributed to John Newton says, “The three greatest wonders of Heaven will be who is there, who is not there, and the fact that I’m there!
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
(John 13:35)
I’m not writing this article to defend myself. I’m writing because I’m genuinely concerned for you and the Body of Christ you purport to serve. Like the older brother in the story of the prodigal, you are quick to question your lesser’s place in the Father’s house. And I am your lesser. But I believe you are making a grievous mistake, one that is already hurting your life and witness, and will continue to do so if left unchecked.
Not only that, it will continue to hurt Christ’s body. I am not asking for perfect agreement. Nor am I asking for you to stay silent about your disagreement. I am only asking for the simple brotherly love that is due between Christians. Help me build up the Body of Christ, not tear it down.
Augustine of Hippo, “On the Creed: A Sermon to the Catechumens,” in St. Augustin: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. C. L. Cornish, vol. 3, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1887), 374–375.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, vol. 9 (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne, n.d.), 569.
John Huss, The Church, trans. David S. Schaff (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1915), 289.
Martin Luther, Luther’s Primary Works: Together with His Shorter and Larger Catechisms, ed. and trans. Henry Wace and C. A. Buchheim (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1896), 14.
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 1997), IV.xvii.1.
August Gottlieb Spangenberg, An Exposition of Christian Doctrine as Taught in the Protestant Church of the United Brethren or Unitas Fratrum, (1796), 230.
John Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, Third Edition, vol. 10 (London: Wesleyan Methodist Book Room, 1872), 190-192.
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillan, 1969), 62-65.
To be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism (Wheaton: Crossway, 2020), 57.
A text that deserves to be read by many evangelicals
Not every error is heresy. ❤️