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Examined Doctrine

Council of Nicaea I on Baptism

325 · ECUMENICAL COUNCIL · DOCUMENT, NOT A PERSON
READ IN A PRIMARY SOURCELEANS TOWARD°
STANCE

Infants included, and effective for regeneration

Canon 19 — "it has been decreed that they must by all means be rebaptized."

THE POSITION

Baptism is treated as an objectively efficacious, unrepeatable act, called "the spiritual laver." Its validity turns on the trinitarian faith of the body administering it: Novatianists are received into the clergy without rebaptism, while Paulianists — followers of Paul of Samosata, who denied Christ's deity — must by all means be rebaptized. The council assumes baptism confers something real rather than signifying it.

8 OTHERS HOLD THIS

AquinasAugustineChrysostomConstantinople IIrenaeusLutherPhilip MelanchthonWesley
Believers only, on profession of faithVODDIE BAUCHAM · THE CHURCH OF ELEVEN22 STATEMENT OF FAITH · JOSH HOWERTON · SECOND LONDON BAPTIST CONFESSION · JOHN MACARTHUR · GAVIN ORTLUND · JUSTIN PETERS · JOHN PIPER · CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON
Infants included, as a covenant signJACOBUS ARMINIUS · CALVIN · JONATHAN EDWARDS · TIM KELLER · JOHN OWEN · R.C. SPROUL · WESTMINSTER CONFESSION · ZWINGLI
See all 29 figures on baptism →

ABOUT THIS FIGURE

Settled that the Son is homoousios — of one substance — with the Father, against Arius. Also fixed a common date for Easter and issued 20 disciplinary canons.

5 OF 5 POSITIONS QUOTED
Everything Nicaea I holds →
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"Council of Nicaea I on Baptism", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/nicaea-1/baptism (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/nicaea-1/baptism).

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