Recording an incident on May 4, 1832, during a mission:
The next morning as we were about
to come away, David Johnson manifested a dessire to be re-baptized for he felt dissatisfied
with his former baptism, he having been baptized by Edson Fuller, who, while
baptiseing him was under the influence of an evil spirit. It was a very short
time before Edson------ was cut off from the Church of Christ and it also was
the case that David Johnson had lived unworthy of the communion of the
Sacrament. Now this was to us a case as we had not before experienced but we,
after praying to our heavenly father, concluded to leave it to him. HE then
said he would be baptized. Accordingly I baptised him and the heavens bore
record of the spirit rested upon him in a powerful manner. We then went out way
to the East. (Jared
Carter journal, 1831 January-1833 January 20, p. 11)
The idea of one's initial baptism being questionable smacks of Donatism; today, the Church does not practice rebaptism if the minister of the ordinance is "unworthy"–if worthiness were a contingency for the efficacy of any ordinance, we would be, to put it nicely, in "one mell of a hess."
