Anthony Pritchard
Well-Known Member
Sacramentalism And The Early Churches: Baptism An Ordinance
By sacramentalism I mean a rite or ceremony that imparts grace. That is the historic and theological definition - a sacred act that confers spiritual benefit by the act itself being performed.
Baptism was never that. Baptism was an ordinance.
An ordinance is something ordained or commanded by the Lord to be done in obedience, as a testimony and a picture. It does not create grace. It declares grace already received by faith.
Sacramentalism is not to be found either in scripture, or in the practices of the early churches. The apostles and earliest churches did not teach a sacramental system. Later generations read it back into them.
The New Testament Teaches Ordinances, Not Sacraments
The New Testament never uses the word sacrament. There is no such concept. The word that was later translated to support the idea is the Greek word mysterion, which means a revealed mystery or truth, not a grace-imparting ceremony.
When the New Testament speaks of baptism, it explicitly denies sacramental power.
"The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ" 1 Peter 3:21
Peter says baptism is a figure. He directly says it is NOT the water doing something to the flesh. It is the answer of a conscience that already believes.
Paul says the same:
"Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Romans 6:4
"Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." Colossians 2:12
Baptism pictures a burial and a resurrection. It does not cause it. Note Colossians 2:12 says we are risen "through the faith" not through the water.
The order in Acts is always the same, faith first, baptism as a witness afterward:
"Then they that gladly received his word were baptized" Acts 2:41
"But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized" Acts 8:12
"And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest." Acts 8:36-37
"Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?" - Acts 10:47
"And many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized." Acts 18:8
If baptism imparted grace, the order would be reversed. It never is.
The Lord's Supper is the same - an ordinance of remembrance, not a means of grace:
"This do in remembrance of me." Luke 22:19
"For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come." - 1 Corinthians 11:26
It shows. It remembers. It does not impart.
Grace in the New Testament is by faith alone, apart from rites:
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8-9
"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" - Romans 5:1
The Early Churches Did Not Practice Sacramentalism
The churches of the first and second centuries knew nothing of a ceremony that imparts grace. They practiced baptism as an ordinance of obedience upon profession of faith.
The Didache, written around AD 90-110, one of the earliest documents outside the New Testament, says:
"And concerning baptism, baptize this way: Having first said all these things, baptize into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in living water."
Having first said all these things... Baptism follows teaching. It is in water, in the triune name. There is no mention of grace being infused, no priestly formula making it valid, no hint of regeneration by water.
Justin Martyr, writing around AD 150, describes it:
"As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and to entreat God with fasting, for the remission of their sins that are past, we praying and fasting with them. Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated in the same manner in which we were ourselves regenerated."
The candidate is first persuaded and believes. Then he is brought to water. Justin calls it illumination because light has come through the gospel they believed, not because the water itself creates new birth.
There was no mediating priesthood to make the rite work. There was no doctrine of ex opere operato. There was no teaching that an infant who died unbaptized was lost because grace had not been dispensed to him. These ideas were completely unknown.
Sacramentalism Was Read Back Into Them Later
Sacramentalism entered as terminology changed and then theology changed.
Tertullian was the first to use the Latin word sacramentum for Christian practice, borrowing a Roman military oath term. Augustine later defined a sacrament as a visible sign of invisible grace. Still not grace-imparting, but the seed was there.
It was the medieval schoolmen who turned the symbol into a cause - who taught that the rite itself confers grace when performed by a priest. The sevenfold list was not fixed until Peter Lombard in the 12th century and the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215.
What had been a simple picture became a power. What had been obedience became a means of grace.
That is why you cannot find sacramentalism in the Bible, and you cannot find it in the practices of the early churches. The apostles taught salvation by grace through faith in Christ, and baptism as an ordinance - commanded by Christ, done after faith, picturing His death, burial, and resurrection.
"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" Matthew 28:19-20
Teaching first, then baptizing. Faith first, then the ordinance that pictures it.
The later sacramental system reverses this, and in doing so, teaches something neither Jesus nor His apostles nor the earliest churches ever taught.
Signum gratiae, non causa gratiae - A sign of grace, not a cause of grace.
~Tony
© A.K. Pritchard 2026 - Free to use with proper attribution.
By sacramentalism I mean a rite or ceremony that imparts grace. That is the historic and theological definition - a sacred act that confers spiritual benefit by the act itself being performed.
Baptism was never that. Baptism was an ordinance.
An ordinance is something ordained or commanded by the Lord to be done in obedience, as a testimony and a picture. It does not create grace. It declares grace already received by faith.
Sacramentalism is not to be found either in scripture, or in the practices of the early churches. The apostles and earliest churches did not teach a sacramental system. Later generations read it back into them.
The New Testament Teaches Ordinances, Not Sacraments
The New Testament never uses the word sacrament. There is no such concept. The word that was later translated to support the idea is the Greek word mysterion, which means a revealed mystery or truth, not a grace-imparting ceremony.
When the New Testament speaks of baptism, it explicitly denies sacramental power.
"The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ" 1 Peter 3:21
Peter says baptism is a figure. He directly says it is NOT the water doing something to the flesh. It is the answer of a conscience that already believes.
Paul says the same:
"Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Romans 6:4
"Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." Colossians 2:12
Baptism pictures a burial and a resurrection. It does not cause it. Note Colossians 2:12 says we are risen "through the faith" not through the water.
The order in Acts is always the same, faith first, baptism as a witness afterward:
"Then they that gladly received his word were baptized" Acts 2:41
"But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized" Acts 8:12
"And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest." Acts 8:36-37
"Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?" - Acts 10:47
"And many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized." Acts 18:8
If baptism imparted grace, the order would be reversed. It never is.
The Lord's Supper is the same - an ordinance of remembrance, not a means of grace:
"This do in remembrance of me." Luke 22:19
"For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come." - 1 Corinthians 11:26
It shows. It remembers. It does not impart.
Grace in the New Testament is by faith alone, apart from rites:
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8-9
"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" - Romans 5:1
The Early Churches Did Not Practice Sacramentalism
The churches of the first and second centuries knew nothing of a ceremony that imparts grace. They practiced baptism as an ordinance of obedience upon profession of faith.
The Didache, written around AD 90-110, one of the earliest documents outside the New Testament, says:
"And concerning baptism, baptize this way: Having first said all these things, baptize into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in living water."
Having first said all these things... Baptism follows teaching. It is in water, in the triune name. There is no mention of grace being infused, no priestly formula making it valid, no hint of regeneration by water.
Justin Martyr, writing around AD 150, describes it:
"As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and to entreat God with fasting, for the remission of their sins that are past, we praying and fasting with them. Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated in the same manner in which we were ourselves regenerated."
The candidate is first persuaded and believes. Then he is brought to water. Justin calls it illumination because light has come through the gospel they believed, not because the water itself creates new birth.
There was no mediating priesthood to make the rite work. There was no doctrine of ex opere operato. There was no teaching that an infant who died unbaptized was lost because grace had not been dispensed to him. These ideas were completely unknown.
Sacramentalism Was Read Back Into Them Later
Sacramentalism entered as terminology changed and then theology changed.
Tertullian was the first to use the Latin word sacramentum for Christian practice, borrowing a Roman military oath term. Augustine later defined a sacrament as a visible sign of invisible grace. Still not grace-imparting, but the seed was there.
It was the medieval schoolmen who turned the symbol into a cause - who taught that the rite itself confers grace when performed by a priest. The sevenfold list was not fixed until Peter Lombard in the 12th century and the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215.
What had been a simple picture became a power. What had been obedience became a means of grace.
That is why you cannot find sacramentalism in the Bible, and you cannot find it in the practices of the early churches. The apostles taught salvation by grace through faith in Christ, and baptism as an ordinance - commanded by Christ, done after faith, picturing His death, burial, and resurrection.
"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" Matthew 28:19-20
Teaching first, then baptizing. Faith first, then the ordinance that pictures it.
The later sacramental system reverses this, and in doing so, teaches something neither Jesus nor His apostles nor the earliest churches ever taught.
Signum gratiae, non causa gratiae - A sign of grace, not a cause of grace.
~Tony
© A.K. Pritchard 2026 - Free to use with proper attribution.