Scripturally speaking should an adult who is:<\/p>\n
an understanding of who God is, what baptism is,\u00a0or what it\u00a0accomplishes\u00a0be baptized?<\/p>\n\t
A person is held accountable for their sins when they are old enough to have a knowledge of good and evil. This is why the Israelite children were not held responsible for their parent’s rebellion (Deuteronomy 1:39).<\/p>\n
If a mentally impaired person indicates that he wants to be baptized, then there is no harm in doing so. If he is innocent in regard to sin, all that happened is that he got wet.<\/p>\n
But if it is the family of the person who wants him to be baptized, then they need to be further taught about the innocence of children and the mentally disabled. Further, since baptism is an individual’s choice, if a person cannot indicate such a choice baptizing someone without their consent will not save them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Scripturally speaking should an adult who is: mentally impaired, mentally retarded, unable to articulate or demonstrate an understanding of who God is, what baptism is,\u00a0or what it\u00a0accomplishes\u00a0be baptized? Answer: A person is held accountable for their sins when they are old enough to have a knowledge of good and evil. This is why the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[434,52,916,508],"class_list":["post-20685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-age-of-accountability","tag-baptism","tag-handicapped","tag-mental-illness"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31318,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-we-know-for-sure-that-the-mentally-disabled-dont-need-to-be-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":20685,"position":0},"title":"How do we know for sure that the mentally disabled don\u2019t need to be baptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 29, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I have a question. How do we know for sure that the mentally disabled don't need to be baptized? Nowhere in the Bible does it talk about them being baptized nor not being. A lot of people use the Scriptures and of the disciples not letting the children\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26647,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-a-person-who-was-sprinkled-be-baptized-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":20685,"position":1},"title":"Should a person who was sprinkled be baptized again?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I've been reading\u00a0your answers regarding questions on baptism. Since you believe you have to be immersed in water to be properly baptized, would a person need to be baptized again if they were not immersed in water? I ask this because so many people are baptized with just the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31044,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-wait-to-be-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":20685,"position":2},"title":"Should I wait to be baptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am a new convert. I converted about 6 months ago, but I have been always curious about God and learning about Jesus. The only problem is that I'm not baptized through the waters yet. I still know that the Holy Spirit is with me and I can carry\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19001,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-a-person-is-in-an-unscriptural-marriage-must-the-person-divorce-before-becoming-a-christian\/","url_meta":{"origin":20685,"position":3},"title":"If a person is in an unscriptural marriage, must the person divorce before becoming a Christian?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you agree it is scriptural if a non-Christian who was previously married but got divorced for unscriptural reasons and was re-married and wants to become a Christian has to get divorced before they can be baptized? Answer: Can a person become a Christian while remaining in their former\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":95804,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-a-person-be-rebaptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":20685,"position":4},"title":"Should a person be rebaptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 28, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear minister, If a Child is baptized without initial conviction, should this person be rebaptized if he is now convinced? God bless you. Answer: If a person has no conviction, then you are saying they had no faith. Baptism without faith is merely an immersion in water. It does\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83571,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/not-every-one-should-be-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":20685,"position":5},"title":"Not Every One Should Be Baptized","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Babies should not be baptized. They haven't sinned, don't disbelieve or believe, don't know what repentance is about, and can't confess Jesus. Dunking such persons in water only gets them wet. Calling it baptism does not make it \"in the name of the Lord\" (Acts 2:38).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}