In Against Heresies 1.21.1, addressing “heretical notions about redemption,” Irenaeus wrote:
The tradition about their
redemption turns out to be invisible and incomprehensible, inasmuch as this is
the mother of the incomprehensible and invisible beings. And so it is unstable
and cannot be told simply or in one word, because each one of them hands it
down just as he wishes. For there are as many redemptions as there are
mystery-teachers of this doctrine. When in the proper place we shall expose
them, we shall tell how this false picture was injected by Satan in order to
deny the baptism of rebirth unto God, and to destroy the entire faith. (St.
Irenaeus of Lyons: Against the Heresies, Book 1 [trans. Dominic J. Unger;
Ancient Christian Writers 1; Mahwah, N.J.: The Newman Press, 1992], 77)
Commenting on Irenaeus’ theology of baptism in this and
other texts, Everett Ferguson wrote that:
What Irenaeus says in contrasting
orthodox with heretical baptism indicates his central conception: The teachings
of heretics were a denial of “the baptism [βαπτίσματος] of regeneration [ἀναγεννήσεως] to God.” As cited above, baptism is “rebirth to God”
by which we become his children (Demonstration
3) and is characterized as a “baptism of rebirth” and “gives rebirth to God” (Demonstration 7). Regeneration is
Irenaeus’s most frequently recurring motif in regard to baptism. Christ in
Matthew 28:19 gave to his disciples “the power of regeneration [regenerationis] into God.” Because of
sin humanity “was in need of the bath of regeneration [lavacro regenerationis—Titus 3:5],” and the healing of the blind
man in John 9:7 gave him “the regeneration that is by the bath [lavacrum regenerationem].” The treatment
of Naaman’s sevenfold bath in the Jordan34 concludes, “Being
regenerated [ἀναγεννώμενοι]
spiritually, as the Lord said, ‘One who is not regenerated [ἀναγεννηθῇ] by water and the Spirit cannot
enter into the kingdom of heaven.’ ” (Everett Ferguson, Baptism
in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries
[Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2009], 307)
To Support this Blog:
Email for Amazon Gift card: ScripturalMormonism@gmail.com
Email for Logos.com Gift Card: IrishLDS87@gmail.com
