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Mez1 ~

Hypothetically, yes, under exceptional circumstances: if an individual comes to repentance and to an informed faith in Christ and desires to enter into fellowship with the people of God ~ those saints both in this world and in Paradise ~ and if there is no Christian available, and none is likely to become available to the individual (or at least not one who is capable of performing a baptism).

In such unusual circumstances (which might occur in a prison, or on a deserted island, or in a pagan nation), the Word reverently received and submitted to by the individual, and enlivened in his heart by the Holy Spirit, may be considered the messenger under the auspices of which he may receive baptism by his own hand, directed by his conscience to fulfill all righteousness.

In the event that the individual later encounters Christians, I think he should seek to be re-baptized, not that his initial baptism was insufficient for its salvific purpose, but in order that his former actions may be acknowledged to be the exceptional expediency that they were, and so that he may be formally commissioned for Christian service within the church in which he could not previously participate.

Yours in Christ,

Waterrock