THE QUESTION:
Unending Debate: Should Christians Baptize Babies?
THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER:
Yes or no, depending what church is answering the question.
A quote posted in August by Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary says this “debate over baptism has raged in the church for millennia” and “all sides argue passionately for their view.” Jesus’ evangelism command to his followers in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) directed water baptism for church membership as observed in all types of Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant groups (except for the Quakers and Salvation Army).
Along with this, Baptists, and other Protestants of like mind, view baptism as an “ordinance” to symbolize faith, not a “sacrament” where God bestows grace or regeneration. And, as discussed below, full immersion of the body in the water is their trademark practice.
Who should be baptized? Baptists et al. make a simple, straightforward argument. They see no explicit examples of infant baptism in the New Testament, only cases where baptism followed conscious conversion to a personal belief in Jesus Christ as Savior. Such “believer’s baptism,” of course, is impossible for infants and young children. The Great Commission linked baptism with religious instruction, and Acts 2:38 records that the original 3,000 Christian converts on the day of Pentecost repented for forgiveness of their sins before baptism.
Christians on the opposite side respond by citing New Testament examples where a “household” or “family” was baptized as a group and reason that young children were surely included. Note these passages: Acts 11:14, 16:15, 16:33, and 18:8, and I Corinthians 1:16.
Documented history shows that children of believing Christian parents were being baptized by at least the early 3rd Century, because that practice was criticized in a treatise by the church father Tertullian. Some think the early church would have used baptism for newborns or very young children only with danger of death.
Historian Michel Meslin, president of the University of Paris – Sorbonne, wrote in “The Encyclopedia of Religion” that “infant baptism, though possible, was probably not practiced in the early period of the church,” but officially permitted by the 6th Century if not before, became popular by the 10th or 11th Centuries, and was the common Catholic practice by the 13th Century, with parents taking vows on behalf of their youngsters.
The 16th Century Protestant founders continued this Catholic tradition except for dissenting “Anabaptists,” “Brethren” and Mennonites, centered in Switzerland and Holland, later succeeded by pioneer “Baptists” in 17th Century Britain and its American colonies.
Canadian Priest John Hainsworth wrote a helpful explanation of the Eastern Orthodox viewpoint for the online Pravmir.com. He drew especially upon Colossians 2:12, which portrays continuity between baptism and God’s command, beginning with Abraham, for Jews to circumcise all boys eight days after birth. Colossians teaches that with the spiritual “circumcision of Christ” that is “made without hands,” a Christian is ”buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the work of God.” Unlike circumcision, Christian baptism is a rite of admission applied equally to both females and males.
Circumcision was part of the ancient “covenant” of God not just with individuals, Hainsworth said, but with the Jewish people collectively. Yes, “intellectual consent” is crucial for adult converts, but as with circumcision, Christian infants through baptism join “communion with the whole Church” as their “spiritual family.” Linkage with circumcision is central to “covenant theology” associated with Presbyterian and Reformed Protestantism that stemmed from John Calvin.
Others say that infant baptism carries out Jesus’ own welcome, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14, paralleled in Mark 10:14 and Luke 18:16).
Presbyterian layman Jack Lee posted several blog articles on patheos.com defending infant baptism to fellow evangelicals who often take the opposite view. For one thing, he argued from Ephesians 6:1-4 that the Apostle Paul treated children as accepted members of “the body of Christ” by giving all youngsters in the church at Ephesus admonitions “in the Lord.”
“The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church” observes a major problem in modern times. Parents who present an infant for baptism may be “only nominally Christian” and unable to fulfill their baptism vow to raise the child as a Christian. Yet churches find it difficult to deny this sacrament.
Regarding full bodily immersion, the New Testament Greek word for baptism means to “immerse” or “wash.” A common Baptist biblical proof text is the immersion of the Ethiopian convert in Acts 8:36-39. Baptists also cite the baptism of Jesus himself in the Jordan River, performed by John the Baptist, and some traditionalists consequently enact baptisms only in running river water. Immersion has remained Orthodoxy’s unaltered practice since ancient times for both infants presented by believing parents and for adult converts.
“The Catholic Encyclopedia” stated that “the most ancient form usually employed was unquestionably immersion,” as seen in early church writings and rituals. In Catholicism, “immersion seems to have prevailed until the 12th Century,” but “infusion” (pouring the water on an initiate’s head) gradually became nearly universal. Catholicism’s current Code of Canon Law states that either immersion or infusion is valid.
A useful summary of these discussions can be found in the paperback anthology “Baptism: Three Views” (InterVarsity Press). What’s the third view? Britain’s Anthony Lane from the London School of Theology advocated “dual practice,” which is found in some U.S. independent congregations, where families are allowed to choose either baptism for their infants or a “dedication” ceremony with baptism delayed till the child reaches the “age of reason” and can make a personal profession of faith.
[Disclosure: The Religion Guy was a Baptist till age 29 and since then a member of churches that baptize infants.]
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