Welcome to Defenders, the teaching class of Dr. William Lane Craig.

Today, the Doctrine of the Church, Part 8.

For more information and resources from Dr. Craig, go to reasonable faith.org.

We've been discussing the doctrine of the church,

and today we turn our attention from the subject of baptism

to that other major sacrament or ordinance of the church, namely the Lord's Supper.

Now as we do so, a major difference between baptism and the Lord's Supper becomes immediately apparent.

Namely, baptism is a unique act, never to be repeated, whereas the Lord's Supper is something

that is to be regularly commemorated and repeated.

Baptism, you'll remember, is the climax of one's conversion initiation of becoming a Christian.

When a person undergoes baptism, this is the pinnacle of his initiation into the Christian faith, his identification

with the death and resurrection of Christ, and with the church, the body of Christ.

Therefore, this is an act which is never to be repeated. I think that it's very important that we remember the significance of that act.

A few years ago when reasonable faith first sponsored a trip to Israel, my Baptist pastor, John Herring,

approached me and said, Bill, some people have expressed

an interest in being baptized in the River Jordan during this trip.

And I said to John, well, have they already been baptized?

And he said, yes, but they want to repeat this and to do it in Israel.

And I said, John, we can't do that. That would be completely inappropriate.

To repeat one's baptism is in effect to invalidate the earlier baptism that you underwent. It's to say that really

wasn't my initiation into the body of Christ. This act is, and therefore you're invalidating the

baptism that you underwent before.

...