Second half of December 1527 (Part 10)

Martin Luther interrupts his work on the Confession Concerning Christ’s Supper to write Concerning Rebaptism, A Letter of Martin Luther to Two Pastors. Today’s Quotation is taken from paragraphs 33 -36 of this letter, in which Luther concludes his response to the question, “Does baptism depend on belief?”

Quotation:

[continued from the previous post] I say the same thing about any baptized person, if he receives baptism or makes it depend on his faith, for no one can be sure of his own faith. I would compare an individual who permits himself to be rebaptized with a person who, for instance, broods and has scruples because perhaps he did not believe in his childhood. If then the devil comes tomorrow, and disturbs him in his mind, causing him to exclaim, “Alas, now I feel true faith for the first time; yesterday I don’t think I truly believed! Well, I must be baptized the third time, and consequently the former baptism must also be ineffectual.” Do you think the devil cannot do this? Yes; learn to know him better; he can indeed, dear friend, do worse than that.

He can, in the same way, cast doubt on the third baptism and the fourth and so on, without ceasing, (for such is his intention), just as he did with my confession and that of many others, when we could never sufficiently confess certain sins and when we continually sought one absolution after another, and one father confessor after another, without any rest and without ceasing, because we wished to save ourselves by our confession, precisely as these to be baptized now want to rely on their faith. What indeed will result from this? A perpetual baptizing would result.

All this is nonsense. Neither the baptizer nor the baptized can ground baptism on a certain faith. Consequently this passage of Scripture is far more a judgment on them than on us. These, now, are the people who are unwilling to trust those who are witnesses of their baptism, but they are ready believe themselves — notwithstanding they are men — that they are baptized precisely as if they were not men, or as if they were more certain of their faith than of the witness of Christendom allows.

Therefore I conclude in opposition to them, that if they wish to do justice to the declaration, “Whoever believes,” they must, according to their understanding, condemn rebaptism much more earnestly than the first baptism. And neither the baptizer nor the one baptized can maintain his position, because they are both uncertain of their faith, or at least are in doubt and perplexity. For such is the precarious nature of faith, that frequently he who thinks he believes, does not believe at all and, on the contrary, he who thinks he does not believe but despairs, believes the most. Hence the passage, “Whoever believes,” does not compel us to determine who believes or who does not believe. Rather it brings the matter home to every person’s conscience, that if he wishes to be saved, he must believe, and pretend that it is sufficient for a Christian to be baptized. For it does not say, “Whoever knows that he believes, or if you know that this individual believes,” but it says “Whoever believes.” He who has this faith, has it. One must believe, but we neither should nor can know it for certain. [to be continued in a future post]