Baptism as seen in lesson 11 is easy to justify. But still there are arguments over who should be baptized. The answer is simple, everyone should be baptized. We know that it is a Means of Grace in which the Holy Spirit works rebirth in us. We know that it is a sacrament and not something done out of obedience or as an outward expression of faith. We touched on infant baptism in our lesson and certainly justified it, however it is a touchy subject among different factions of Christianity and therefore deserves some study.
The easiest way is to address some of the misconceptions of why we shouldn't baptise children. Children are precious, anyone who has children can tell you as much. There's nothing a parent loves more than their child, take this with some misquoted scripture and you get the theology that little children aren't sinful. Moses tells us that he and all of us for that matter have been sinful since time of conception. In Genesis when Adam and Eve are created, they are created in the image of God meaning, holy and perfect. But look what happens in Genesis 5:3 "Adam... had a son in his own likeness, in his own image, and he named him Seth." When Adam "creates" a person, he births his son in his own image, sinful. John confirms it in John 3:6, "Flesh gives birth to flesh."
Okay, so little children are sinful, but they aren't held accountable for that sin in the eyes of God. They have to reach the age of accountability. While I often argue the Bibles unchanging truths, the end of childhood has drastically changed since back then, some people consider their 20s to be young now. So where's this age of accountability? What about Seth who is a child specifically pointed out as being born with sin? 1 Corinthians 15:22 says, "In Adam all die." Death meaning eternal separation from Christ. Another thing, Seth was born from Adam so he's damned without forgiveness, but so are you and I and and someone who has born in the last 24 hours, because we're all from Adam. Also think about this morbid fact, sadly children die and often, we would never have needed Jesus because thousands of children over generations would have lived perfect lives already.
So the argument now boils down to you have to believe in Christ to be baptized, and little children are too ignorant to believe or they don't understand what Christianity is. You'll remember I mentioned that child innocence is a misunderstanding of scripture but here's where we can turn that on its ear. Luke 18:16, "Babies were being brought to Jesus. He said, "The kingdom of God belongs to such as these." What Jesus is saying is that we should have a childlike faith, the children and babies brought to Him believed because they weren't cynical and skepticle. They accepted what they saw and heard as truth because that's what children who are still learning do. So what about babies, Titus 3:5 says, "He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit."
Baptism is a the means by which God produces new birth. It creates the faith that accepts the blessings offered. It is literally the Holy Spirit renewing faith within us and allowing Christ to reign in our hearts. God is compassionate. He wants us to share His truths with everyone and wants us to make believers of everyone, and God brings that belief miraculously to those who are taught His word and listen so question why God would work against bringing a baby to faith when the ownership of eternal life belongs to those like babies and small children.
How come The Bible never mentions infant baptism? It's true that the named baptisms we read about were all adults, but the first point to make is that actually several families were baptised in The Bible. Ask anyone to think of a family and you'll usually find children and babies in that dynamic. But it's true that by name, we only read of adult baptisms and the reason for this is that Christ has yet to be taught in those days so naturally after learning of their saviors adults and children alike were going to be baptised and children were not the ones being written about in these instances.
So then we agree that the stressing of the teaching and practice of infant baptism was after the time of the apostles? Another misconception in that the writings of the earlier post-Bible church leaders including infant baptism more speaks to the acceptance of the practice and not an introduction or something they felt as an argument against. In fact, the disagreement of infant baptism did not come until around the time of the Reformation.
Unfortunately there is one last misconception of infant baptism in the world that while arguably for it, more so hurts it cause and practitioners. Now that this baby has been baptised it has a get out of Hell free card. Not so. Mark tells us in 16:16, "He that believeth not shall be damned." There have been people who have been baptised who were never raised nor believed in the word of God. I know people who have been baptised and have since turned their faith to more worldly ideas. Unbelief is the path to Hell. True, those who cherish their baptism are the same who cherish their Savior. God loves when people including babies are baptised, but you need His Word. His Law; His Gospel. These are the things that save.
God wants all of the world to be saved. The Holy Spirit works within us through the Means of Grace including Christ's saving truths in His Word and baptism. When an infant is baptised we see the miracle of the Holy Spirit entering in and giving that soul new life. We can also see parents who believe that the truths of the Bible are the way to eternal life and that they intend to bring their children up this way. When you baptise an infant, you don't wind up with just a wet baby. You give rebirth to that soul. You only need to be baptised once, whether an adult or baby. Ask any Christian who was baptised as an infant if the Holy Spirit is working within them, and see how they praise Christ and there's no denying this miracle worked within them.
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