What does the Church teach about baptism?
A: Baptism is the first sacrament that cleanses us from sin, unites us with Christ, and makes us members of His Body.
“Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” — John 3:5
“Baptism now saves you.” — 1 Peter 3:21
“Baptism is necessary for salvation... it frees us from sin and makes us new creatures.” — CCC §1257, §1265
“He who is baptized is enlightened, adopted, and made a son.” — St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures
What Does the Catholic Church Teach About Baptism?
A Catholic Apologetics Defense Against Protestant Objections & Pagan-Myth Claims
By Chris M. Forte
Baptism is the doorway into the Christian life. It is not merely a symbol, not a public declaration, not a cultural rite—it is a supernatural sacrament instituted by Jesus Himself that cleanses us from sin, unites us to Christ, and incorporates us into His Body, the Church.
**“Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”**¹
**“Baptism now saves you.”**²
**“Baptism is necessary for salvation… it frees us from sin and makes us new creatures.”**³
**“He who is baptized is enlightened, adopted, and made a son.”**⁴
The Catholic Church simply teaches what Scripture and the earliest Christians proclaimed without hesitation:
Baptism saves because Jesus makes it a channel of divine life.
But Protestants, Evangelicals, and secular critics raise common objections. Let’s answer them directly.
1. Protestant Objection: “Baptism doesn’t save. It’s just an outward symbol.”
This belief is not found anywhere in Scripture or early Christianity.
In fact, the Bible says the opposite.
Scripture teaches baptism saves:
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John 3:5 — “Born of water and Spirit” is not metaphorical; Jesus is referencing sacramental rebirth.
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Acts 2:38 — Baptism is “for the forgiveness of sins.”⁵
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Acts 22:16 — “Be baptized and wash away your sins.”⁶
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Romans 6:3–4 — Baptism unites us to Christ’s death and resurrection.⁷
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1 Peter 3:21 — “Baptism now saves you.”⁸
There is no biblical category for “symbol only” baptism.
Martin Luther himself rejected the symbolic view:
“Baptism works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil…”⁹
(Small Catechism)
Even the first Protestants did not believe what many modern Evangelicals preach today.
2. Protestant Objection: “John 3:5 refers to physical birth, not baptism.”
This interpretation was unknown in Christianity for 1,900 years until the 20th century.
Every early Christian writing treats John 3:5 as referring to the sacrament of baptism.
-
St. Justin Martyr (150 AD):
Baptism is “the bath of regeneration” through water and Spirit.¹⁰ -
St. Irenaeus (180 AD):
Christ “gave the disciples power to regenerate men unto God” through baptism.¹¹ -
Tertullian (200 AD):
“We are born in water.”¹² -
St. Augustine (400 AD):
John 3:5 is “absolutely to be understood of baptism.”¹³
The “water = amniotic fluid” argument appears nowhere in Christian history, Scripture, Jewish tradition, or scholarship.
Jesus is not talking about pregnancy—He is instituting the sacrament.
3. Protestant Objection: “Infant baptism is unbiblical.”
On the contrary, the Bible, early Church, and Jewish background all support infant baptism.
Biblical Evidence
-
Whole households were baptized:
Lydia¹⁴, the Philippian jailer¹⁵, Crispus¹⁶, Stephanas¹⁷.
The Bible never excludes infants. -
Jesus commanded children to come to Him (Matt 19:14).
-
Circumcision (the Old Covenant entrance rite) was performed on infants;
baptism is its New Covenant fulfillment (Col 2:11–12).¹⁸
Historical Evidence
Every early Christian writer supports infant baptism — and none reject it.
-
Origen (AD 244):
“The Church received from the apostles the tradition to baptize infants.”¹⁹ -
St. Cyprian (AD 250):
Baptize infants “even before the eighth day.”²⁰ -
St. Augustine (AD 400):
Infant baptism is “a custom of the apostles.”²¹
If infant baptism were a corruption, Protestants must explain why every Christian community on earth—Greek, Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian—practiced it for 1500 years.
4. Secular Claim: “Baptism was copied from pagan water rituals.”
This claim is unhistorical, promoted mainly by fringe YouTube atheists, not by real scholars.
A. Jewish baptism predates pagan mystery cults.
Long before Christianity:
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Jews practiced mikveh immersion for purification.²²
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Proselytes (Gentile converts) entered Judaism through immersion.²³
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John the Baptist was baptizing Jews in a uniquely prophetic act.²⁴
Christian baptism comes from Judaism—not paganism.
B. Pagan “baptisms” are nothing like Christian baptism.
Scholars (even atheist ones) agree:
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Pagan water rituals were symbolic washings, magical rites, or seasonal ceremonies
-
None involved forgiveness of sins
-
None united the participant to the death and resurrection of a historical Savior
-
None were tied to a covenant community
-
None were commanded by a historical religious founder
Jonathan Z. Smith writes:
“The supposed parallels are greatly exaggerated… there is no dying-and-rising god cult resembling Christianity.”²⁵
C. Christianity rejected paganism at every turn.
The early Christians were executed by pagans precisely because they refused pagan practices.
Why would martyrs copy what they were dying to reject?
D. Baptism was rooted in a historical person.
Jesus was a real man in a real place who was baptized by John in the Jordan River—a historical event attested by Christian and secular sources.²⁶
No pagan myth resembles that.
5. Protestant Objection: “Baptism is a work—we are saved by faith alone.”
The Bible never says “faith alone saves.”
In fact, it explicitly says:
“You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.”²⁷
And baptism is not a “work” at all—it is God’s action, not ours.
-
God regenerates (Titus 3:5).
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God forgives sins (Acts 2:38).
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God unites us to Christ (Rom 6:3–4).
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God makes us His children (Gal 3:26–27).
Baptism is not human effort.
It is divine grace entering the soul.
6. The Catholic View: Baptism Actually Does Something
The early Christians did not treat baptism like an altar call or public ceremony.
They believed it supernaturally transformed the soul.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem wrote:
“He who is baptized is enlightened, adopted, and made a son.”⁴
St. Paul wrote:
“We were buried with Christ in baptism… so that we might walk in newness of life.”²⁸
The Church simply preserves what Scripture and the Apostles taught.
Conclusion: Baptism is the Beginning of the Christian Life
Baptism is:
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the new birth (John 3:5),
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the washing of regeneration (Titus 3:5),
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the moment sins are forgiven (Acts 22:16),
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the entrance into Christ (Rom 6:3–4),
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the means by which we are saved (1 Pet 3:21).
This is not a Catholic invention.
This is not a pagan adaptation.
This is the universal Christian teaching of the first century.
The more deeply I study Scripture and history, the more obvious it becomes:
The Catholic understanding of baptism is the biblical and apostolic one.
Author’s Note
By Chris M. Forte
As someone who left the Church for a season and returned through Scripture, history, and prayer, I’ve come to see that the Catholic Church’s teaching on baptism is not just “one interpretation” among many—it’s the ancient Christian faith preserved without compromise.
I didn’t return to Catholicism because of nostalgia or culture or family heritage. I came back because the Catholic Church is the only Christian body that still teaches what the Apostles taught, what the earliest Christians lived, and what the Fathers defended with their blood:
that baptism is not a symbol, but a supernatural rebirth.
When I read Scripture without modern assumptions, when I read the early Christian writings without Protestant filters, I saw the same pattern over and over:
the first Christians believed that baptism regenerated, saved, forgave sins, united the believer to Christ, and brought them into His mystical Body.
It wasn’t later “tradition.”
It wasn’t pagan influence.
It wasn’t medieval invention.
It was the original faith.
The modern Evangelical claim that baptism is “just a symbol” would have been unrecognizable to the apostles. It would have been rejected by Ignatius of Antioch, condemned by Irenaeus, refuted by Augustine, and simply laughed at by the earliest African, Middle Eastern, Greek, and Roman Christians. Nobody in the ancient world—neither Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish, nor pagan—believed baptism was merely a declaration or ceremony.
I returned to Catholicism because I wanted all of Christianity, not a minimalist version. Jesus didn’t promise us a symbolic kingdom. He promised us a real Church, with real sacraments, real grace, and a real rebirth “of water and the Spirit.”
If Jesus thought baptism was important enough to tie to salvation,
if the Apostles preached baptism for the forgiveness of sins,
if the earliest Christians risked their lives to baptize converts,
then who am I—who is anyone—to call it optional?
The Catholic Church didn’t invent baptismal regeneration.
The Catholic Church simply never abandoned it.
And that—more than anything else—is why I came home.
Footnotes
¹ John 3:5 (NRSV).
² 1 Peter 3:21 (NRSV).
³ Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§1257, 1265.
⁴ Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, 3:14.
⁵ Acts 2:38.
⁶ Acts 22:16.
⁷ Romans 6:3–4.
⁸ 1 Peter 3:21.
⁹ Martin Luther, Small Catechism, Baptism, “What benefits does Baptism give?”
¹⁰ Justin Martyr, First Apology, 61.
¹¹ Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.17.1.
¹² Tertullian, On Baptism, 1.
¹³ Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John, 11.5.
¹⁴ Acts 16:15.
¹⁵ Acts 16:33.
¹⁶ Acts 18:8.
¹⁷ 1 Corinthians 1:16.
¹⁸ Colossians 2:11–12.
¹⁹ Origen, Commentary on Romans, 5:9.
²⁰ Cyprian of Carthage, Letter to Fidus.
²¹ Augustine, Sermon 293.
²² Mishnah, Mikvaot.
²³ Babylonian Talmud, Yevamot 46a.
²⁴ Mark 1:4–5.
²⁵ Jonathan Z. Smith, “Dying and Rising Gods,” in The Encyclopedia of Religion (1987).
²⁶ Josephus, Antiquities 18.5.2.
²⁷ James 2:24.
²⁸ Romans 6:4.
Bibliography (With Hyperlinks)
Augustine. Tractates on the Gospel of John.
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1701.htm
Catechism of the Catholic Church.
https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM
Cyril of Jerusalem. Catechetical Lectures.
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3101.htm
Cyprian of Carthage. Letters.
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0506.htm
Irenaeus. Against Heresies.
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103.htm
Josephus, Flavius. Antiquities of the Jews.
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/
Justin Martyr. First Apology.
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0126.htm
Luther, Martin. Small Catechism.
https://bookofconcord.org/small-catechism/
Mishnah: Mikvaot (Jewish laws of ritual immersion).
Overview: https://www.sefaria.org/Mikvaot?lang=bi
Origen. Commentary on Romans.
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0416.htm
Smith, Jonathan Z. “Dying and Rising Gods,” Encyclopedia of Religion.
Summary: https://www.baslibrary.org/bible-review/16/6/2
Tertullian. On Baptism.
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0324.htm
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