Baptism at Home
The answer to your question on whether a person can baptize himself at home consists of two layers:
The first layer is that baptism is a public announcement to others that a person has chosen to accept God’s truth and walk in His way and symbolically has chosen to wash his sins away. Being a public announcement, one cannot baptize himself alone. This rite should be in the presence of others as a witness for the Lord (Romans 10:9-13). Jesus Christ got baptized in public by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:13-17). Jesus did not need to wash away any sins because He had never sinned, but He did so to set an example for us to follow.
The second layer is that an ordained pastor or an elder, who has had hands laid upon him in blessing, should be the one conducting the baptism. The laying on of hands is the process used to publicly ordain an individual into a legitimate ministry. “Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership” (1 Timothy 4:14; 2 Timothy 1:6). And the qualifications of these religious leaders are listed in 1 Timothy 3:1–14 and Titus 1:5–11.
The Bible shows that the Lord appointed disciples, ministers, pastors, bishops and deacons to conduct this holy service. The reason for that is the need to have learned men to teach those that decided to follow the Lord. In order to baptize others, these men should be able to fulfill Jesus’ great commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19:20). These religious leaders should be capable to look after the spiritual needs of the people with discretion, knowledge, and wisdom in their ministry.
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In His service,
BibleAsk Team
