Q&A 0605 - Baptism and dementia “I have a question that has been troubling me this few days and I hope you can help. My mom studied the bible and was baptised in 2000 after being reached out to for almost 10 years. She has been faithfully attending services, joining evangelistic meetings and coming to all the activities even though she is 71 years old. Every week we have Bible studies and prayer together. During one of these sessions I asked her whether she knows why she got baptized—what is the purpose of getting baptised. Alas, she wasn't able to answer me. She asked me to explain it to her. (I said we need to believe, repent and be baptised and stay faithful to be Christians.) Is her baptism valid if she has forgotten the reason she was baptized—considering she is 71 years old and very forgetful? I have my doubts whether she really understood the reason for baptism when she was studying the Bible initially. I have spoken to my evangelist about this, and his advised me to ‘trust God,’ since God is fair, and ‘don’t worry about anything.’ I want to trust God that my mom’s baptism is valid and He is in control.” — Peter Fang Bok Lim (Singapore)
I can see that you love and very much care for your mother. Here are my thoughts: Dementia does not invalidate a baptism! Otherwise a serious head injury would (a) make you lost and (b) unable to grasp the gospel again – how unfair! I imagine she had an adequate understanding at baptism.
They key thing is to make Jesus Lord. Your preacher was right; trust God, the righteous Judge.
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