Baptismal Promises (1928 BCP)

Baptismal Promises (1928 BCP) are the renunciations, professions, and obligations made in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer at Holy Baptism and later rehearsed in the Catechism and Confirmation. They are not a free-standing contract added to the sacrament. In the Prayer Book's order they answer the grace asked and confessed at the font: the baptized is brought to Christ, renounces the old bondage of sin, confesses the faith of the Church, receives Baptism in that faith, and is bound to obedient life by God's help.

The promises therefore belong to the whole sequence of Baptism, catechesis, Confirmation, and communicant life. In the baptism of children, sponsors answer in the child's name and then undertake the child's Christian instruction. In the baptism of adults, the candidate answers personally. In Confirmation, the baptized person publicly renews the same promise and vow before God, the congregation, and the bishop.

The Promises in the Baptismal Office

For children, the 1928 office first states what has been prayed: reception by Christ, release from sin, sanctification by the Holy Ghost, the kingdom of heaven, and everlasting life. The minister then asks the sponsors to renounce the devil, the world, and the flesh in the child's name.

Dost thou, therefore, in the name of this Child, renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and the sinful desires of the flesh, so that thou wilt not follow, nor be led by them?

Answer. I renounce them all; and, by God's help, will endeavor not to follow, nor be led by them.

This first promise is negative only in form. The renunciation marks a transfer of allegiance: the baptized is no longer to follow the devil, worldly vanity, covetous desire, or sinful appetite. The words also refuse a merely sentimental account of infant Baptism. The child is received into a life of spiritual warfare and must later be taught what was promised in his name.

The next questions bind Baptism to the Apostles' Creed, desire for Baptism in that faith, and continuing obedience.

Dost thou believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith, as contained in the Apostles' Creed?

Answer. I do.

Minister. Wilt thou be baptized in this Faith?

Answer. That is my desire.

Minister. Wilt thou then obediently keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of thy life?

Answer. I will, by God's help.

The sequence is deliberate. Renunciation without faith would be moralism; faith without obedience would be verbal profession only; obedience without grace would be presumption. The repeated phrase "by God's help" makes the promises Anglican in their pastoral grammar: they are real obligations, but they are made inside prayer for divine grace.

For adults, the 1928 office keeps the same pattern but adds an explicit confession of Christ as Saviour and Lord before the Creedal profession.

Dost thou believe in Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God?

Answer. I do.

Minister. Dost thou accept him, and desire to follow him as thy Saviour and Lord?

Answer. I do.

This adult form shows that the baptismal promises are not reducible to ethical reform or institutional membership. The candidate is asked about Jesus Christ personally, then about the Creed, Baptism in that faith, and obedience to God's commandments. The Prayer Book thus connects Matthew 28:19-20 with Acts 2:38-39: disciples are baptized in the Triune Name and then taught to continue in repentance, faith, and obedience.

Sponsors and Christian Nurture

After the promises have been made in the child's name, the office immediately turns to instruction. Sponsors are not ceremonial witnesses only; they accept a catechetical charge.

Having now, in the name of this Child, made these promises, will ye also on your part take heed that he learn the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, and all other things which a Christian ought to know and believe, to his soul's health?

Answer. I will, by God's help.

This promise explains why the Prayer Book places Baptism, the Catechism, and Confirmation in a pastoral sequence. The child's sponsors promise that the child will learn the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, not as detached religious information but as the grammar of the baptized life. The same answer, "by God's help," keeps the responsibility serious without treating Christian nurture as self-sufficient.

Michael Ferrebee Sadler's Victorian catechetical manual interprets the sponsor's office in this same covenantal and pedagogical direction. In question-and-answer form, he connects the child's baptismal name, God's covenant, and the sponsors through whom the child answers.

What was then agreed upon between you and God?

God agreed to give me certain benefits, and I agreed to do certain duties.

By whom did God make the agreement?

By the minister who baptized me.

Through whom did you make the agreement?

Through my god-parents.

Sadler's explanation is not itself the authority of the 1928 BCP, but it is a useful Anglican witness to the older catechetical logic behind the office. Sponsors answer through the Church's ministry so that the child may later be taught to own what has been promised.

Catechism and Personal Obligation

The Catechism repeats the baptismal promises in compressed form. It teaches the baptized person to say that the sponsors promised and vowed three things: renunciation, belief, and obedience.

They did promise and vow three things in my name: First, that I should renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanity of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh; Secondly, that I should believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith; And Thirdly, that I should keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of my life.

The Catechism then asks whether the baptized person is bound to believe and do what was promised. The answer is important because it joins obligation, thanksgiving, and perseverance in grace.

Yes, verily; and by God's help so I will. And I heartily thank our heavenly Father, that he hath called me to this state of salvation, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. And I pray unto God to give me his grace, that I may continue in the same unto my life's end.

This answer is the clearest short statement of the Prayer Book's doctrine of baptismal promises. The promises bind the baptized person, but the answer begins and ends with grace: "by God's help," thanksgiving for being called to "this state of salvation," and prayer for grace to continue. The baptized life is therefore covenantal without being Pelagian.

Confirmation as Renewal

The 1928 rite of Confirmation makes the same logic public when the candidates are old enough to answer for themselves. The bishop asks them to ratify what they or their sponsors undertook at Baptism.

Do ye here, in the presence of God, and of this congregation, renew the solemn promise and vow that ye made, or that was made in your name, at your Baptism; ratifying and confirming the same; and acknowledging yourselves bound to believe and to do all those things which ye then undertook, or your Sponsors then undertook for you?

And every one shall audibly answer, I do.

Confirmation is therefore not a second Baptism and not a replacement for Baptism. It is the Church's episcopal rite for instructed baptized persons to renew, ratify, and confirm the baptismal promise and vow. This is why the confirmation rubric requires children to know the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments before being brought to the bishop.

Anglican Interpretation

Anthony Sparrow, a seventeenth-century Anglican bishop, interpreted the baptismal interrogations as both ancient and reasonable because Baptism is covenantal. His explanation is especially relevant to the promises because it treats God's promises and human vows together.

We have seen that it was Ancient. And that it is Reasonable we shall perceive, if we consider, that in baptism we are making or concluding a Covenant, the New Covenant of the Gospel; in which Covenant Gods part is promises, precious promises, as S. Peter calls them, 2 S. Pet. 1. 4. for performance of which he hath given his word; and therefore good reason it is, that we also should give our word, and promise for performance of conditions on our parts, viz. to renounce the Devil and the World, and swear fidelity to our LORD.

Sparrow's language helps explain why the 1928 BCP can ask for solemn promises without making the sacrament depend on human merit. God's covenant promises come first; the baptized answer them with renunciation, faith, and fidelity.

Edward Harold Browne's nineteenth-century exposition of Article XXVII makes the same doctrinal point from the Articles of Religion. He defines Baptism as admission into the covenant of grace and lists the blessings promised to the baptized.

Now baptism is the formal act by which we are admitted into covenant with God. It is the embracing of God's covenant of grace in Christ: in the case of adults, by their own deliberate choice; in the case of infants, by God's merciful appointment, and according to the election of grace.

For Browne, covenant does not mean bare external membership. He immediately connects Baptism with pardon, the Spirit's aid, and final life if not forfeited.

Hence again, we infer that the promises to the baptized, and therefore the blessings of baptism, are: (1.) Pardon of sins. (2.) The aid of the Spirit of God. (3.) If not forfeited, everlasting life.

This is why the 1928 promises must be read with the prayers around them. The office asks God to receive, sanctify, regenerate, and incorporate; the sponsors or adult candidate answer by renouncing sin, confessing faith, desiring Baptism, and promising obedience. Anglican teaching keeps those two sides together: divine promise and human obligation, sacramental gift and lifelong repentance.

Pastoral Use

In parish teaching, baptismal promises should be taught from the text of the rite rather than as a slogan. The threefold pattern is simple enough for catechesis: renounce evil, believe the Christian Faith, and keep God's commandments. The pastoral depth lies in the repeated dependence on grace. The answer is never merely "I will"; it is "I will, by God's help."

The promises also shape the Church's responsibility toward children. A baptized child is not left with promises made over him and then ignored. Sponsors, parents, clergy, and congregation are bound to teach the faith so that the baptized may later renew the promise personally in Confirmation and continue in the life begun at the font.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Baptism (1928 BCP)
• Baptismal Exhortation (1928 BCP)
• Sponsors and Godparents in the 1928 BCP
• Catechism (1928 BCP)
• Confirmation (1928 BCP)

External Links

• The Ministration of Holy Baptism in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• The Catechism in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• The Order of Confirmation in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• Anthony Sparrow, A Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer: Of Baptism
• Michael Ferrebee Sadler, The Church Teacher's Manual of Christian Instruction
• Edward Harold Browne, An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles