Baptismal Regeneration

Baptismal regeneration is the name given to doctrines held by some Christian denominations which maintain that salvation is intimately linked to the act of baptism, without necessarily holding that salvation is impossible apart from it. The etymological background the term might be taken as implying it means "being born again" (regeneration, or rebirth) "through baptism" (baptismal). However as G.B. Caird has pointed out, etymology deals with the origins and root meanings of words and these “continually change their meaning,… …sometimes moving out of any recognisable contact with their origin … It is nowdays generally agreed that current usage determines meaning”. In this case there is no standard usage: for Reformed theologian Louis Berkhof, “regeneration” and "new birth" are synonymous; for Herbert Lockyer, they are not. Critics of the doctrine frequently allege that it tends to emphasize external form (including the role of water) rather than internal content; supporters associate the two closely.

Adherents of this doctrine include the Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican Churches (especially its High-Church and Anglo-Catholic parties). It is also taught in Mormonism. Lutherans are thought to support this doctrine, but article 251 of Luther's Small Catechism recognizes this is not a necessity, only an ordinary ministerial means that if despised in unbelief, condemns on account of its rejection in unbelief. The twentieth century Lutheran theologian Edmund Schlink citing Titus 3:5 comments, "In this act of salvation all human activity is expressly excluded. It is done entirely by God's deed, by the one act of the washing and the activity of the Spirit through which regeneration and renewal take place."