The Gospel Coalition

This is the final installment in this week’s Romanian forum, in which we are discussing Romanian Baptist practices regarding conversion, discipleship, and baptism. (Read Parts 1 & 2 and info about the participants.)

Trevin Wax: How do you deal with teenagers and adults who repent and believe?

Marius Cruceru: Usually, we spend 10-12 weeks catechizing them. After that, they go through a period in which we supervise their spiritual state. After that, we invite them before the elders for an interview. At the end, we have them testify publicly before the church how they came to Christ. And finally, they are baptized.

Doru Hnatiuc: We take them through a catechesis that focuses on discipleship, spiritual growth, and doctrinal clarification.

Corneliu Simut: I think we could make some improvements here. Generally, Baptist churches hold evangelistic services throughout the year and then fix a date for a baptismal service. The problem is that if the baptism is in the month of August, and yet we begin evangelism in January, there might be a number of people who repent during those months. Those who repented in January will go through more catechesis than those who repented in July; and yet we still baptize them all in August.

What do we do with the teens and adults? We catechize them and then seek to involve them in church ministry. We have some problems here too. We tend to direct them to only a few places of service (choir, orchestra, etc.) when there are other ministries that we sometimes neglect.

Trevin Wax: How long is the period between conversion and baptism?

Corneliu Simut: There is not a fixed time frame, but it is usually about 6 months.

Marius Cruceru: Sometimes it can be up to a year.

Doru Hnatiuc: It varies depending on the person and depending on the church. Usually, it’s a few months.

Trevin Wax: What does catechism in Romanian Baptist churches look like?

Corneliu Simut: Very simple. It is a presentation of the most important teachings of Scripture (God, revelation, man, salvation, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Church, and Last Things).

The Romanian confession of faith was put together in a single night in 1948 at the request of the Communist authorities. That’s why the first half is very detailed, and the second half only has a few verses and without explanation. Thankfully, the teaching on salvation is well-represented, but sometimes other important doctrines are ignored.

Marius Cruceru: The catechism is an overview of the Confession of faith. It involves free and open discussion, and much talk about the changes one makes when called to follow Christ.

Doru Hnatiuc: The catechism varies from church to church. When I participated in catechesis, I followed a course of biblical doctrines. They were very well explained to me and applied to my personal life. There were also lessons on discipleship and spiritual growth.

So in my case, I try to combine an education in doctrine and discipleship. I use only my Bible. The people take notes. It is helpful to have something for them to fill out.

Trevin Wax: How would you advise Southern Baptists in America regarding this problem of rebaptism?

Corneliu Simut: Don’t look for quick results. Conversion is something the Holy Spirit does, not us. All we can do is preach the gospel, the Word of God revealed for our salvation. We can do no more than that.

Sometimes, I think in our desire for efficiency, we prefer to lift up the banner of great spiritual awakenings (one great sermon and 1000 new converts) and we downplay the example of the prophets (one great sermon and very few, if any, converts), forgetting that God does the work of rebirth, not us.

Marius Cruceru: The problem of “rebaptism” is not the real problem. It’s an ecclesiological crisis. It goes back to an understanding of the church. We don’t need a hyper-sacramental understanding of baptism, but neither do we need a relaxed and casual view of baptism.

Doru Hnatiuc: There is no simple answer. The question has major theological and doctrinal implications. The practice of the church in this matter leads to a reorientation around other key doctrines (like church discipline, methods of evangelism, the gospel, salvation, evangelistic invitations, decision/faith, etc.).

In the U.S., I once helped at a church where the pastor offered a Bible to all those who had been baptized the week before. One of the baptized people was his wife, who had declared that her baptism at 10 years old had been invalid. The pastor and his wife were in that church for many years. She had been a teacher in Sunday School. She had led many children to Christ, who had later been baptized. She had taught these children the way of faith, lived in obedience to the Lord, and had raised her own children in godliness.

Was all of this fruit invalid? Or just her baptism? No one at the church was thinking through these sorts of implications. She might have said that her fruit is not invalid just as it is possible for a lost pastor to lead others to Christ and to baptize them, and his state before God not affect the act of baptism.

My question is this: If there is evidence of a new life in Christ, of a life of obedience to him, why then does that evidence not confirm the validity of the early decision and baptism? We need to think about these implications and make some decisions. Otherwise, we are going to wind up in ridiculous situations, teaching deformed doctrines and leading others in aberrant practices.