Jesus' Name Doctrine - Views

Views

The views of mainstream Christianity to Jesus' Name baptism is varied. The Roman Catholic Church states that only baptisms performed using the Trinitarian formula are valid. However it does accept that theologians of the past considered baptism in the name of Jesus only to be an acceptable form. St. Thomas, St. Bonaventure, and Albertus Magnus held the view that the Apostles baptized in this way by special dispensation. Pope Nicholas I wrote to the Bulgarians that a person is not to be rebaptized who has already been baptized "in the name of the Holy Trinity or in the name of Christ only".

Martin Luther in his Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church describes disagreements over the wording of the baptism as "pedantry" and argues for acceptance of baptisms in the name of Jesus if carried out with proper intent.

  • In circa 254, Pope Stephen I in the midst of the baptismal controversies with Cyprian declared that all baptisms in the name of Jesus are valid.
  • St. Gennadius in his work Lives of Illustrious Men states that in the 3rd century, one Ursinus the monk, during the Cyprian controversies, argued that "those who were baptized in the name of Christ, even if by heretics, did not need to be re-baptized."
  • St. John Chrysostom argues for a literal interpretation of the Luke's records of baptisms in the name of Jesus, as accounted in Acts.
  • St. Basil states that, "the naming of Christ is the confession of the whole."
  • St. Ambrose, mentor to Augustine, argued for the validity of baptisms "in the name of Jesus."
  • St. Augustine states that "those baptized into other names need to be rebaptized into Christ." Elsewhere, he states knowledge of those who had been baptized into the name of Christ alone . and likewise argues for a literal interpretation of Acts 2:38 "in the name of Jesus".
  • St. Thomas Aquinas (while arguing for Trinitarian baptism), states that the apostles (Peter, James, John, etc.) baptized in the name of Christ alone by "special dispensation." (Whereas many modern scholars, by contrast, interpret the saying "in the name of Jesus Christ" figuratively instead of literally in an attempt to reconcile the two conflicting passages ).
  • The Baptist Standard Confession of 1660 declares baptisms in the name of Jesus to be valid.

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