Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Baptismal regeneration

The teaching that God normally gives the new birth in and through baptism, so that baptism effects (not merely pictures) union with Christ and forgiveness.

'Regeneration' (new birth) predicated of 'baptism'.

John 3:5 ('born of water and the Spirit'); Acts 2:38; 22:16; Romans 6:3–4; Titus 3:5; 1 Peter 3:21 ('baptism now saves you').

The dominant patristic view; held by Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, and Anglican (in varying forms) theology. The Reformed and Baptists distanced the sign from the thing signified, allowing they may not coincide in time.

Those who hold it usually add qualifications — the necessity of faith (for adults), the possibility of falling away, and that God is not absolutely bound to the sacrament.

Rejected or heavily qualified by Reformed, Baptist, and most evangelical theology as confusing the sign with the reality.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.