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Baptism

Faith Q&A › Metropolitan Youssef › The Sacraments › Baptism

The question

I've been hearing a lot about a second baptism. I was baptized as a baby and not as a grown up to make my own decision. Does God command us to be baptized when we are grown up and know the difference between right and wrong or is it still the same Baptism?

The answer

Infant baptisms have been recognized in the early Church from its inception. Read about Lydia, the seller of purple fabrics, and the Philippian Jailor in the Holy Book of Acts, Chapter 16, and Cornelius the Centurion in Chapter 10, whereby these figures and their households were baptized when they believed. Thus, a household could have included infants and young children who were baptized based on the faith of the parents or adults responsible for them.

Answered by His Eminence Metropolitan Youssef (opens in a new tab)

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