“Water On The Brain”

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Is it okay for a woman to baptize someone that she has been studying with even if there are several men in her congregation?

Sincerely,
About To Go Under

Dear About To Go Under,

Everything we are taught about baptism emphasizes the person being immersed and not the one doing it.  Baptism saves you from your sin (1 Pet 3:21).  Baptism is a burial with Christ (Rom 6:4).  In order to be baptized, you must believe and repent (Mk 16:16, Acts 2:38).  All of these requirements address what is expected of and what happens to the person being baptized.  As far as we can tell, there are no qualifications given for who must do the baptizing.

Having said that, it is only fair to point out that the only examples we have in the Scriptures are of Christian men baptizing people.  It seems that this is an incidental point though, not a point of doctrine.  For many people, this is an issue of conscience, and if there is any doubt in your mind over this issue (whatever is not of faith is sin – Rom 14:23), the safest way to handle it is to have a Christian man do the baptizing.

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