Who May Baptize?

In a recently released video by Ligonier, both at ligonier.org and on youtube, these were the words heading the audio:

"Are parents authorized by Jesus Christ to baptize their children at home? Can a Bible study privately partake of the Lord’s Supper? From our special online event Made in the Image of God, Burk Parsons and Stephen Nichols consider who may legitimately administer the sacraments." (here)

Two elders responded by saying:

PARSONS: Christ has authorized His elders of His church, His undershepherds, to baptize. Yet, we also have run across many circumstances where people have been baptized by someone other than an elder of Christ’s church, and that’s where we have to use a great deal of wisdom and discernment. We have to consider the circumstances and how the baptism was performed. It takes the wisdom of the plurality of elders in a local body to discern if that baptism was a legitimate baptism.

NICHOLS: There is a large group within American evangelicalism that’s always been there that has a low ecclesiology and a low understanding of how God has ordained the church. I know the question is specifically about baptism, but this comes up sometimes with the Lord’s Supper too. Something that happens a lot among young people who are very sincere Christians is that they want to give each other communion and have communion on Christian college campuses in their dorm rooms. I think it’s reflective of a symptom of American evangelicalism having a low ecclesiology and not recognizing how God has ordained His church as the means of grace and how He has ordained the sacraments or the ordinances, which are in the purview of the church. 

I totally disagree with these men who insist that baptism, to be legitimate, must be performed by certain qualified administrators. I also disagree with Nichols who affirms that those who believe that any disciple may baptize (the signers of the 1644 London Baptist Confession for instance) have a "low ecclesiology."

I dealt at length with this question in my series "Hardshells and Alien Baptism"(June 2017 Archives). I also dealt with it to some lessor degree in my series on "Landmarkism."

In the comment section for the youtube video we have these interesting comments, most of which I would heartily agree with.

Listener Comments

"Can we get a Bible verse or something. Otherwise everything that was stated is moot."

"So if a family of husband and wife are the only Christians in a predominantly Hindu or Islamic region, then they can never take communion together or be baptized legitimately?"

"Sorry Ligonier, you've helped me so much, but not with you on this one."

"Wow- and I thought the Roman Catholics were heavy on man-made traditions! Come on guys---you can do better!"

"So only elders can baptize? Can someone post scripture for this please?"

"Any born again believer can baptize."

"The answer "only elders can do the baptism" seems not consistent with the Bible."

"I must have missed it, but did they answer the question and did we learn anything? Just a talk fest going nowhere."

"Too bad no one answered the question. A group of men sat around using doctrinal buzzwords criticizing others but not teaching. Very poor job."

"I'm a great fan of Ligonier, but I don't see anywhere with this view can be substantiated by the Bible. If he gave the command to the disciples, then everyone can do these things, if he gave it to the apostles, then nobody can, unless there is Apostolic succession."

"Yep, as others are pointing out, this position is simply anti-Biblical. There is not a word in Scripture commanding that only elders baptize believers. Is it preferable, when possible? Perhaps. Commanded? Absolutely not. Get off your high horses guys."

"The priesthood of all believers and the freedom of christ extends to me the right to baptize my children but to administer the sacraments as well. Don't fence the table."