Do you believe that there is but one baptism?

The creed confesses: "We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins." The candidate confesses the same thing in the first person: "I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins." There is one baptism, and the single scripture given for this question is Paul's list of the things that are one in the church.

Paul writes to the Ephesians: "One body and one spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and father of all, the one who is over all and through all and in all" (Ephesians 4:4-6). Baptism stands in that list beside the one Lord and the one God. Because there is one Lord, there is one baptism into his name; because there is one body, there is one entrance into it. The unity of baptism rests on the unity of God.

Baptism is one in two senses, and the church has always held them together. All Christians receive the same sacrament, whatever the congregation or century, and a person baptized with water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is received as baptized by the whole church. Baptism is also given once. Article VI of the Confession of Faith describes baptism as a sign of entrance into the household of faith and a representation of the new birth; a birth happens a single time, and the church does not rebaptize. A person who was baptized as an infant and later comes to faith confirms that baptism by profession, which is the language Article VI of the Confession of Faith uses.

Baptism is "for the forgiveness of sins" (the creed's own phrase), and the church understands that phrase in a Wesleyan way. Baptism is a means of grace; the pardon it signifies is received by faith. A Methodist can look back on one baptism with confidence, as the outward sign that God set him within the one body under the one Lord, and can spend a lifetime living into what that sign declares.