Have you ever wondered: Who actually has the authority to baptize? Let me ask it another way: What if the wrong person baptized you? Would your baptism be invalid? That’s not just a hypothetical. It’s a real question with eternal implications.
For example, what if a gospel teacher is physically unable to do the baptizing—can he ask someone who isn’t a Christian to assist? What if a prison guard or a nurse, not a believer, is the only one available to help with a baptism? What if someone learns the gospel through this website and asks an unbelieving friend to baptize him? Or what if someone was baptized by a Christian who was later found to be living a secret life of sin? Would any of these situations invalidate the baptism?
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon church, teaches that your baptism—and therefore your salvation—is invalid unless it’s performed by one of their own members who holds what they call the proper priesthood authority.1 For a moment, we need to ignore the fact that they don’t actually teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. But according to them, even if you have repented of your sins, and even if you were baptized exactly as Jesus commanded, God will withhold His promise of forgiveness because the baptizer wasn’t the “right person.”
That is a serious claim. And it paints a picture of a God who breaks His promises—not because the sinner failed to obey—but because a third party didn’t have the right paperwork. That’s not the God we see in Scripture. We trust God to keep His promises. Not because we are perfect, or the person helping us is sinless, but because He is.
And that’s exactly why this topic matters. We’re not placing our faith in water or in the hands that baptize us. We are placing our faith in the blood of Jesus and the word of God. And because we believe God, we take His commands seriously—including the command to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins.
Let’s consider what Scripture says. And if you’re unsure whether your baptism was according to God’s word—or if you’ve never even been baptized into Christ—then stick with this study. At the very end, I will give you a resource that will help you know for sure whether your baptism was biblical or not, regardless of the faith of your baptizer.
Jesus Commanded Disciples to Baptize
Jesus told His disciples:
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.
Matthew 28:19–20
In this great commission, Jesus specified how to make disciples—by baptizing and teaching. And because disciples are taught to obey everything He commanded, that includes this command to make disciples.
So, is the command to baptize restricted to only faithful disciples? Does the promise of salvation fail if the baptizer lacks faith? I don’t believe so—and here are three reasons why.
1. Sometimes the End Result Is What Matters
Careful now—this idea can easily be taken too far. Many important Bible doctrines are dismissed today by questions like, “But doesn’t that miss the big picture?” It creates a false dichotomy, assuming that we can only choose one—either the details or the meaning behind the details. They’re both important! But Paul did make a point in Philippians 1. Some were preaching Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerity. The preachers were not right with God. And yet, Paul rejoiced—not in their motives—but in the fact that Christ was still being preached.
Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.
Philippians 1:15–18
Preaching Christ includes preaching baptism. In Acts 8:12, when Philip preached the good news, people responded by being baptized. If someone teaches the truth about Jesus—even if their heart is wrong—the truth is still true, and the gospel still saves. These teachers with wrong motives were out there teaching and baptizing, but Paul still rejoiced because sincere hearers were being saved.
This shows us something critical: salvation depends on the gospel and on the hearer’s faith in God—not on the purity of the person teaching or baptizing.
2. Paul Didn’t Emphasize Who Did the Baptizing
In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul addressed divisions in the church over who baptized whom. Although every member of the church in Corinth had been baptized, Paul said:
I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name.
1 Corinthians 1:14
If baptism only “counts” when a faithful Christian is doing the baptizing, then it should follow that baptism would “count” even more if an apostle baptized a person. But that was not the case. In fact, Paul seems to be saying here that it does not matter who does the teaching or baptizing, so long as the truth is heard and obeyed.
Pay close attention to how Paul dismantles the idea that whoever leads you to Christ actually has anything to do with your standing with God.
For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
1 Corinthians 3:4–7
In the context of people becoming believers, Paul literally says that the one who leads the lost to Christ is not anything.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
2 Corinthians 5:10
When you stand before the judgment seat of Christ, Jesus will not be concerned about the hearts of others, but what you did as an individual, which leads me to my next point.
3. “Baptize” and “Be Baptized” Are Two Different Commands
In Acts 10, when Peter preached to Cornelius’ household, he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus. But we’re not told who did the baptizing. If it mattered, we’d expect the Spirit to record it. But again, the focus is on those receiving the word, not on who helped them into the water.
Romans 6 makes this even clearer. Paul says:
But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.
Romans 6:17
This obedience from the heart is described earlier in the chapter as dying to sin, being baptized into Jesus’ death, and being raised to new life. That’s why they were freed from sin—not because of who dunked them under, but because they entrusted themselves to Christ.
Who is working during my baptism? You may be tempted to say I am, since I am obeying, but that’s wrong. Is it the baptizer who is working, since “be baptized” is a passive command? Still, the answer is no. Who is working during baptism? God is. Check this out:
In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
Colossians 2:11–12
It’s not about your works or your baptizer’s works. It’s about God’s work at baptism. And we know He is always faithful.
Implications
If salvation really depends on the righteousness or credentials of the baptizer, then two implications follow.
First, we would need a perfect record of every baptism going back to the apostles. We’d have to prove that each person in that chain was a faithful Christian—not at just any point, but at the specific point of the next person’s baptism. I don’t know about you, but if I had to be sure that my baptizer were qualified and faithful, I would have been asking for documented proof—not just for his qualifications, but for everyone in the chain of baptisms going back to the apostles themselves. That record does not exist—and the New Testament never even hints that it should.
Second, we would be forced to judge the hearts of others—something God never authorizes us to do. If I need to be 100% sure my baptizer is faithful, then I must somehow read their soul and declare them righteous enough for my salvation to be valid. Hebrews 4:12 says the word of God discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart—not us.
The doctrine of “authorized baptism only” rests on human credentials. It treats God’s promises as conditional on man’s approval. But salvation is not a system of human ordination. It is a gift of God to those who come to Him in obedient faith.
If we follow this doctrine to its logical end, every baptism would become a legal investigation. We’d ask not, “Were you baptized into the name of Jesus?” but, “Who baptized you? Were they faithful? Do you have proof? And who baptized them?” But Paul already answered that kind of thinking: “Was [your teacher] crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of [your teacher]?” (1 Corinthians 1:13).
Conclusion
How important is it to be baptized into Christ and into His death? Eternally important.
How important is it that a faithful Christian does the baptizing? Not at all. You might prefer it—and that’s fine. But preference should never become doctrine.
We are not saved by human works. We are not saved by the righteousness of other fallible people. We are saved by the righteousness of Jesus, trusting in the mercy and power of God. Baptism is not about trusting in water, our baptizer, or ourselves. It’s about trusting in Jesus.
And if you trust Him—if you believe what He said about salvation, and if you’re ready to turn from sin and be united with His death and resurrection—then “why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16).
We’ve been asking about whether or not your baptizer is faithful enough to baptize you. But what if you don’t know enough to be baptized? Did you know the Bible actually mentions eight different kinds of baptisms? Beyond that, humans have invented “new” ways to be baptized. If you’ve got questions about that, study your Bible with this article.