Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2002

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Werner K. Vyhmeister

Second Advisor

Ricardo Norton

Third Advisor

Alfonso Valenzuela

Abstract

The frequency of rebaptism has been increasing within the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Venezuela. Some have considered rebaptism as a desirable alternative to reconsecration of active church members. This practice has generated concern among a number of pastors and lay people. Hence, this dissertation.

This dissertation includes a study of the New Testament theology of baptism and a sketch of the history of baptism and rebaptism throughout Christian history. Also studied were the writings of Ellen G. White and Adventist writers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The research was completed with personal interviews and surveys of pastors and lay people in the Adventist Church in Venezuela. A focal element was the perception of the purpose of rebaptism and its validity for church members who have not apostatized. On the basis of the research done, it is clear that rebaptism is legitimate when a Christian, who was not baptized in harmony with biblical instructions, wishes to be baptized by immersion. Rebaptism is also appropriate for a Christian who abandoned the faith and then repents and wishes to become a church member again. Rebaptism of regular church members should not be promoted. However, if for some special reason, an active member requests to be rebaptized, the case is to be studied by church leaders, who may decide that the person can be rebaptized.

Subject Area

Seventh-day Adventists--Venezuela; Baptism--Seventh-day Adventists

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dmin/560

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