Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 6
In the Donatist controversy, the key question becomes whether sacraments/ordinances depend on the purity of the minister; when the speaker asks, “What if the person who baptized you…was a prolific sexual abuser…does that mean your baptism is invalid?”, what view of God’s faithfulness (and of the church’s vulnerability) is at stake in Augustine’s claim that “it’s actually God who is doing it”?
Another way to ask: If the person who baptized you later turns out to be a terrible sinner, does that make your baptism invalid? What does Augustine’s view (“God is the one doing it”) say about God’s faithfulness and the church’s weakness?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
Augustine’s claim protects confidence in God’s faithfulness by saying the efficacy of baptism (and similar ordinances) rests on God, not on the secret purity of the minister. It also acknowledges the church’s vulnerability—leaders can be corrupt—without making every believer’s spiritual history collapse into an impossible investigation.
- Donatists argued sacraments could be “invalid because the bishop administering… was compromised,” especially if a traditor ordained him.
- The speaker personalizes it: if your baptizer was “a prolific sexual abuser… a hypocrite… does that mean your baptism is invalid? What about the people that you baptized?”
- Augustine’s pastoral argument: “We’re never actually going to know which clergy… are pure,” since some sins stay hidden until the last day.
- He warns of a “massive… hornet’s nest” if you trace impurity back through a “family tree” and invalidate everyone.
- Augustine’s theological claim: “It’s not the person… doing that. That’s God,” meaning God “works these mysteries” even through corrupt men.