Now in their simple earnest
faith, the early Christians suppose the thing signified to accompany the sign,
and apply the same terms—“regeneration,” for example—to both, without
sufficiently discriminating between them, but at the same time without intending
to teach that the mere sign effected the change. (James Heron, The Church of
the Sub-Apostolic Age: Its Life, Worship, and Organization, in the Light of
“The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” [London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1888],
143–144)
This doctrine appeared in the
church at a very early period. Passing the somewhat unreliable Shepherd of
Hermas, the earliest witness is Justin Martyr (middle of second century), whose
words are: “We then lead them [the candidates for church membership] to a place
where there is water, and then they are regenerated in the same manner as we
also were; for they are then washed in that water in the name of God the Father
and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy
Spirit.” (Henry Cowles, “Baptismal Regeneration; As Supposed to Be Taught in
the Words of Jesus: ‘Born of Water and Spirit.’ John 3:5,” Bibliotheca Sacra
33, no. 131 [1876]: 425-26)
A certain theory of Baptismal
Regeneration appears in the first ages of the Church, which seems in some
measure to have merged the internal regeneration into the external adoption. (William
Burt Pope, A Compendium of Christian Theology: Being Analytical Outlines of
a Course of Theological Study, Biblical, Dogmatic, Historical, 3 vols. [London:
Beveridge and Co., 1879], 3:21)
Development of the Doctrine in the Church. Great importance was
very early attached to the rite of baptism—not as a sign and seal of all
Christian blessings, but in that it was regarded as the means of conveyance, by
which those blessings were imparted. In the later Ante-Nicene age, it may be said
that baptism was universally regarded as the rite of admission to the church;
and since it was held that there could be no salvation apart from the church,
baptism came to be associated with regeneration. At first it was looked upon
solely as the completing act in the appropriation of Christianity—the seal of
positive adoption into the family of God. By the middle of the second century,
however, it was regarded as procuring full remission of all past sins, and
consequently we find it spoken of as “the instrument of regeneration and
illumination.” The Fathers taught this doctrine, not in the modern sense of a
grace bestowed, or a change wrought by means of regeneration, but that baptism
was itself regeneration. (H. Orton Wiley, Christian Theology,
3 vols. [Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 1952], 3:163)