Baptism a Cardinal Doctrine? (QoW #994)
A listener named Chris pushes back on Dr. Craig's video "What About Baptism?", where Craig said baptism "is not a cardinal doctrine that need divide us." Chris argues that Galatians teaches only one true gospel — so if baptismal regeneration (the belief that baptism is necessary for salvation) is wrong, its proponents are preaching a false gospel, making fellowship with them untenable. Dr. Craig responds that Chris has misread the sacramentalist position: those who hold to baptismal regeneration don't see baptism as a meritorious work, but as one more means of grace, like preaching or Scripture reading. Craig explains why he can disagree with fellow baptized Christians on this point without treating them as false brethren.
Guest (Male): Hello Dr. Craig, I'm a Christian and enjoy your work very much. The other day I listened to your video, What about baptism? This is a great video and the different beliefs concerning baptism are very well explained. I just have a problem with the very end. Craig says that baptism is not a cardinal doctrine that need divide us.
This I disagree with. There are some that believe that one must be baptized in order to receive salvation. No excuses or any other options. Must means must without equivocation. How can we agree to disagree with such teaching? Paul writes in Galatians 1:6-9 that there is only one gospel, not two. Therefore either one has to be baptized to receive salvation or one doesn't. And if one doesn't need to be baptized for salvation, then proponents of baptismal regeneration are promoting a second false gospel, which cannot bring about salvation. Thank you. Chris, United States.
Dr. William Lane Craig: Although I myself do not believe that water baptism is a means of saving grace and therefore necessary to salvation, as many of the church fathers believed, I am quite willing to work with and fellowship with Christians who disagree. Why should we allow our disagreement on such a seemingly minor issue to divide us?
Since I am baptized and think, along with the New Testament authors, that every Christian should be baptized, those who think that baptism is necessary to salvation should have no problem with me. So, should I separate myself from them because they, although baptized like me, think that baptism is necessary for salvation? They're wrong, but is their error so serious that I must break fellowship with them? Why?
Your answer is that proponents of baptismal regeneration are promoting a second false gospel, which, if true, would indeed be grounds for separation. But I think that you have misunderstood the sacramentalist's point of view. Those who believe in baptismal regeneration do not think that baptism is a meritorious work which we perform whereby we obtain salvation.
Rather the sacraments are mere means of grace, like hearing the gospel preached or reading the New Testament. These are just channels through which the grace of God reaches us. So, while I think that God's saving grace comes to us in manifold ways and is not restricted to the typical sacraments, those who do so believe, while in error, are hardly to be regarded as false brethren.
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The Daily Defender is a 31-day journey through the attributes of God, drawn from Dr. William Lane Craig’s Defenders Sunday school class. Each day features a verse of Scripture, a Defenders reading, and a short prayer designed to engage both the mind and the heart.
Whether you’re new to theology or have studied it for years, this daily reader will help you:
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Cultivate a worshipful response to God’s greatness and goodness
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Join the Reasonable Faith community as we grow together in our knowledge of God!
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Reasonable Faith features the work of philosopher and theologian Dr. William Lane Craig in order to carry out its three-fold mission:
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About Dr. William Lane Craig
William Lane Craig is Emeritus Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California. He and his wife Jan have two grown children. At the age of sixteen as a junior in high school, he first heard the message of the Christian gospel and yielded his life to Christ. Dr. Craig pursued his undergraduate studies at Wheaton College (B.A. 1971) and graduate studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (M.A. 1974; M.A. 1975), the University of Birmingham (England) (Ph.D. 1977), and the University of Munich (Germany) (D.Theol. 1984). From 1980-86 he taught Philosophy of Religion at Trinity, during which time he and Jan started their family. In 1987 they moved to Brussels, Belgium, where Dr. Craig pursued research at the University of Louvain until assuming his position at Talbot in 1994.
He has authored or edited over thirty books, including The Kalam Cosmological Argument; Assessing the New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus; Divine Foreknowledge and Human Freedom; Theism, Atheism and Big Bang Cosmology; and God, Time and Eternity, as well as over a hundred articles in professional journals of philosophy and theology, including The Journal of Philosophy, New Testament Studies, Journal for the Study of the New Testament, American Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophical Studies, Philosophy, and British Journal for Philosophy of Science. In 2016 Dr. Craig was named by The Best Schools as one of the fifty most influential living philosophers.