Baptism

==Non-practitioners==

===Quakers===
[[Quakers]] (members of the [[Religious Society of Friends]]) do not believe in the baptism of either children or adults with water, rejecting all forms of outward [[sacraments]] in their religious life. [[Robert Barclay]]'s ''Apology for the True Christian Divinity'' (a historic explanation of Quaker theology from the 17th century), explains Quakers' opposition to baptism with water thus:

{{Blockquote|I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.<ref>{{bibleverse|Matthew|3:11}}</ref> Here John mentions two manners of baptizings and two different baptisms, the one with water, and the other with the Spirit, the one whereof he was the minister of, the other whereof Christ was the minister of: and such as were baptized with the first were not therefore baptized with the second: "I indeed baptize you, but he shall baptize you." Though in the present time they were baptized with the baptism of water, yet they were not as yet, but were to be, baptized with the baptism of Christ.|[[Robert Barclay]], 1678<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.qhpress.org/texts/barclay/apology/prop12.html |title=Apology, Proposition 12 |publisher=Qhpress.org |access-date=July 28, 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090617033930/http://www.qhpress.org/texts/barclay/apology/prop12.html| archive-date= June 17, 2009 | url-status= live}}</ref>}}

[[Robert Barclay|Barclay]] argued that water baptism was only something that happened until the time of Christ, but that now, people are baptised inwardly by the spirit of Christ, and hence there is no need for the external sacrament of water baptism, which [[Quakers]] argue is meaningless.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}

===Salvation Army===
The [[Salvation Army]] does not practice water baptism, or indeed other outward [[sacraments]]. [[William Booth]] and [[Catherine Booth]], the founders of the [[Salvation Army]], believed that many Christians had come to rely on the outward signs of spiritual grace rather than on grace itself. They believed what was important was spiritual grace itself. However, although the [[Salvation Army]] does not practice baptism, they are not opposed to baptism within other Christian denominations.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www1.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/www_uki.nsf/vw-print/C28E39B2CA06E8F98025708A003D9FAC?openDocument |title=Why does The Salvation Army not baptise or hold communion? |publisher=The Salvation Army |date=February 28, 1987 |access-date=July 28, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081120233651/http://www1.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/www_uki.nsf/vw-print/C28E39B2CA06E8F98025708A003D9FAC?openDocument |archive-date=November 20, 2008 }}</ref>

===Hyperdispensationalism===
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There are some Christians termed "[[Hyperdispensationalism|Hyperdispensationalists]]" (Mid-Acts dispensationalism) who accept only Paul's Epistles as directly applicable for the church today. They do not accept water baptism as a practice for the church since Paul who was God's apostle to the nations was not sent to baptize. Ultradispensationalists (Acts 28 dispensationalism) who do not accept the practice of the Lord's supper, do not practice baptism because these are not found in the Prison Epistles.<ref>The "prison epistles" include [[Ephesians]], [[Colossians]], [[Philippians]], and [[Epistle to Philemon|Philemon]]</ref> Both sects believe water baptism was a valid practice for covenant Israel. Hyperdispensationalists also teach that Peter's gospel message was not the same as Paul's.<ref>{{cite web |first=David M. |last=Havard |title=Are We Hyper-Dispensationalists? |url=http://www.bereanbiblesociety.org/articles/1011392439.html |publisher=Berean Bible Society |access-date=January 19, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090204081633/http://www.bereanbiblesociety.org/articles/1011392439.html |archive-date=February 4, 2009 }}</ref> Hyperdispensationalists assert:{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}
* The great commission<ref>{{bibleverse|Matthew|28:18–20}}</ref> and its baptism is directed to early Jewish believers, not the Gentile believers of mid-Acts or later.
* The baptism of Acts 2:36–38 is Peter's call for Israel to repent of complicity in the death of their Messiah; not as a Gospel announcement of [[Atonement in Christianity|atonement]] for sin, a later doctrine revealed by Paul.

Water baptism found early in the Book of Acts is, according to this view,{{citation needed|date=February 2021}} now supplanted by the one baptism<ref name="bibleverse|1 Corinthians|12:13"/>{{Primary source inline|date=February 2021}} foretold by John the Baptist.<ref>{{bibleverse|Luke|3:16}}, {{bibleverse|John|1:33}}, {{bibleverse|Matt|3:11}}{{bibleverse|Acts|1:5}}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=February 2021}} Others{{Who|date=February 2021}} make a distinction between John's prophesied baptism by Christ with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit's baptism of the believer into the body of Christ; the latter being the one baptism for today.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}} The one baptism for today, it is asserted,{{By whom|date=February 2021}} is the "baptism of the [[Holy Spirit]]" of the believer into the Body of Christ church.<ref>{{bibleverse|Acts|11:15–16}}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=February 2021}}

Many in this group{{Who|date=February 2021}} also argue that John's promised [[Baptized by fire|baptism by fire]] is pending,{{citation needed|date=February 2021}} referring to the destruction of the world by fire.<ref>{{bibleverse|Matthew|3:12}}, {{bibleverse|Luke|3:17}}, {{bibleverse|2 Peter|3:10||2 Peter 3:10}}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=February 2021}}

Other Hyperdispensationalists{{Which|date=February 2021}} believe that baptism was necessary until mid-Acts.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}

===Debaptism===
{{main|Debaptism}}
Most Christian churches see baptism as a once-in-a-lifetime event that can be [[sacramental character|neither repeated nor undone]]. They hold that those who have been baptized remain baptized, even if they renounce the Christian faith by adopting a non-Christian religion or by [[irreligion|rejecting religion]] entirely. But some other organizations and individuals are practicing debaptism.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Beardsley |first1=Elenanor |title=Off The Record: A Quest For De-Baptism In France |url=https://www.npr.org/2012/01/29/146046428/on-the-record-a-quest-for-de-baptism-in-france |website=NPR |access-date=22 June 2022}}</ref>