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Hi, Joseph —
Thank you for your question.
Once a person is validly baptized, with the proper intention and formula,
no matter what Christian Church he was baptized in, he cannot be baptized
again. Remember, when we pour water over someones forehead or immerse someone in water, it is an outward
sign of spiritual reality.
Therefore any subsequent sprinkling or immersion will simply succeed in
getting the person wet. There is no action of the Holy Spirit to regenerate
again and again. Once someone is "born again" in
Baptism, they don't need to be "born again" as an adult.
They may however, experience a wonderful conversion which many of us do.
Some Evangelicals confuse this experience as being "born again".
They also only believe that Baptism is a symbol and that the action of the
Holy Spirit has already taken place.
Now as to the sinfulness of the act, it lies more in leaving the Church, providing he understands it is a sin, than in trying to be baptized a second
time.
As for Biblical quotes, there are not any which are too explicit. The
practice of the early Church is implicit rather then explicit in the Scriptures.
A fundamentalist reading the text will simply look for a formula, (i.e.
a + b = c ), so they will point to Acts 3 where Peter
says repent and be baptized. From there they go on to say an infant can't
repent, therefore only adults should be baptized. What they fail to see
is that the Scriptures talk about entire households being baptized.
In
Galatians, Paul talks about Baptism replacing Circumcision.
Since Baptism is the sign of the New Covenant, Jews converting to Christianity, who had always understood their children to be part
of the Covenant, would
have baptized their children.
Baptism is a matter of our Sacramental Theology. The essence of what the
Church teaches can never change for any reason be it ecumenical or any other reason.
We are bound by the Revelation of Christ.
We could no more change our teaching on Eucharist, Holy Orders and so
on. The way we practice these may change, but the essence will always be
the same.
Hope this helps,
Under His Mercy,
John C. DiMascio
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