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_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"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_featured_media_url":"","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":31442,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-a-person-from-a-baptist-background-need-to-be-baptized-again-if-he-believes-he-has-done-everything-god-asks-of-him-correctly\/","url_meta":{"origin":20685,"position":2},"title":"Does a person from a Baptist background need to be baptized again if he believes he has done everything God asks of him correctly?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question about baptism. My husband and I are setting up to teach a man who has been visiting the church where we attend for going on two years now. His background is Baptist and when I asked him was he baptized for the remission of sins\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":3},"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":[]},{"id":25930,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-was-baptized-as-an-infant-do-i-need-to-be-baptized-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":20685,"position":4},"title":"I was baptized as an infant. Do I need to be baptized again?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was baptized as an infant; however, I have recently found Christ and repented from my sinful ways. I know the importance of baptism and want to ensure that I am in accordance with the Scriptures. There are many different views on this subject; however, I cannot seem to\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":5711,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-about-a-person-who-doesnt-repent-until-after-his-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":20685,"position":5},"title":"What about a person who doesn’t repent until after his baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 10, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear brother, Thank God for your good work. Please, if an unrepented person who concealed his sin then gets baptized and he later comes to his senses, what must he do? Or when the church finds out, what must the church do? What I understand, based on the steps\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":[]}],"_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}]}}