This question is not posed in the Bible, and so, one must reflect on the ramifications of possible answers to it. It would be easy to say that since the New Testament (by which people living today are bound) does not explicitly authorize a non-Christian to baptize one to become a Christian, therefore, the answer would be, “No.” Furthermore, since no conversion recorded in the New Testament shows a non-Christian baptizing one to become a Christian, therefore, again, the answer would be, “No.” Hold that thought for a moment, and then consider some ramifications of answering the question before us with a “No.”
Affirming “No” to the inquiry of whether a non-Christian may baptize one who desires to become a Christian would lead to the conclusion that there are no Christians today—as far as anyone living can verify. Why? Any person desiring to be baptized would not only need to inspect himself or herself, but he or she would have to validate the one doing the baptizing was baptized by a Christian, who was baptized by a Christian, and so forth all the way to the first century church. Otherwise, no one could have confidence that his or her baptism were valid. In addition, since Bible miracles ceased long ago, no divine demonstration is available to mankind to circumvent the need to trace the succession of Christians from the present baptizer all the way to first century Christians. The mess of trying to verify that true Christians have always been available to baptize others to become Christians is much worse than the Catholic Church’s claim for apostolic succession.
Answering “No” to the question above refocuses attention from the candidate for baptism to the one doing the baptism. Yes, Jesus definitely calls upon Christians to evangelize lost souls with the Gospel (Matthew 28:19–20; Mark 16:15–16). However, Scripture places the responsibility for one’s baptism upon the candidate for baptism (Acts 2:38). Christians must saturate their communities with the Word of God, but the responsibility of Christians ends where the responsibilities of the recipients of the Gospel plan of salvation begins. We cannot make anyone submit to Bible baptism.
In summary, consider the following points.
- The Bible neither addresses the question nor does it provide examples of non-Christians baptizing people to become Christians.
- The proposition that only Christians may baptize persons desiring to become Christians would require either a verifiable succession of Christians from the first century to the present or a biblical miracle to make a verifiable succession of Christians unnecessary. Neither are possible!
- Therefore, a non-Christian could baptize a person to become a Christian, but certainly, that is not what we expect to occur normally in our time.
- God’s plan of salvation focuses on the sinner desiring to become a Christian rather than upon the person doing the baptism.
