Rebaptism

The Donatist controversy was a crossroad in the departure of Catholics from the faith, as they began to teach baptism without adherence to faith.

With the belief in prophets interpreting scripture came a rise in false doctrines. Some believed similar to Jehovah's Witnesses that our blessing was limited to a 1000 year reign, and that eternal life was limited to a few Christians. Some believed the resurrection to be spiritual only, and that this spiritual transformation was past.

Cyprian believed as did 71 Bishops in Africa that rebaptism was necessary for heretics to be saved. In their view a basic belief in the Trinity was necessary in baptism. It was in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and heretics who denied the Holy Spirit or some other basic tenet of faith such as the resurrection were not truly baptized.

Steven, the Bishop of Rome at the time said he only required the person be baptized upon the name of Jesus Christ as directed by Peter in Acts 2:38 The minimum requirement was the belief Jesus was God's Son.. Thus, the question, did incomplete knowledge at the time of baptism make it invalid? The council in Africa determined such a baptism was invalid because it lacked the faith in the truth required.

I don't believe Steven said "upon the name of Jesus Christ" was all the belief necessary, but in the area of understanding Christ's position in the Godhead that was his requirement. Steven believed in the atonement and resurrection and saw them as necessary parts of faith.

Augustine countered that faith could be added later just as with infant baptism and a larger council was called, they determined rebaptism was not necessary. Heretics in their view were baptized even when lacking faith.

This broke with the example in Acts 19, where Paul rebaptized Ephesians who only knew John's baptism. It is right on point as Paul's question centered on knowledge of the Holy Spirit.

Act 19:1  And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,

Act 19:2  He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.

Act 19:3  And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism.

They had not rejected the doctrine, they were simply not aware, so Paul rebaptized them upon Christ's name. Upon Christ's name included some knowledge of the Godhead.

Augustine and the subsequent church councils departed into a baptism without distinct faith, thus making infant baptism the precedent for adults as well. The idea that knowledge is not necessary in baptism, thus departing from the faith.

Paul had settled the rebaptism issue much earlier.