Posts
19
Ask the Pastors
Posted by Pastor Dancy on December 19, 2008Dear Pastor, My friends at a local church won’t baptize their children until they are old enough to make their own decision and know what’s going on. I know baptism is important for babies, but what can I tell them from the Bible?”
Dear ‘S’, Sometimes Baptists, “non-denominational” and reformed ‘Christians’ say that one must be able to repent before being baptized, and that children aren’t old enough to repent. “Repent and be baptized,” Peter preaches in Acts 2:38, but just read the rest of the story in verses 38 and 39! “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” In a crowd of 3,000 on Pentecost there must have been men, women and children of all ages, and Peter instructs “every one of you” to be baptized! Peter specifically mentions children twice in connection with baptism’s promise!
However, if some object saying that the order is important (repent first, then be baptized), I look to Mt 28:19-20, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all things….” Baptism comes first! We are also commanded in this verse to baptize “all nations,” and children are a part of all nations. In Acts chapter 16, two entire families were baptized, as with Crispus in Acts 18:8 and Paul in I Cor 1:16. The odds that all these first-century families had no children are very slim!
Colossians 2:9 draws a direct connection between circumcision in the OT and baptism in the NT, both which denote the entry point into the community of believers. How old were little Hebrew boys when they were circumcised? Eight days old! (If it was a lot older, they probably wouldn’t have allowed someone to cut a tender piece of them off!) The child’s parents made this decision for them! The parents didn’t say, “Let’s allow them to make their own decision when they’re older!” Like circumcision, baptism is for infants- but now inclusive for bothgenders!
The basic problem is that children are also sinners (Ps 51:5, Gen 8:21, Jn 9:34, Rom 3:23, Rom 5:12, Eph 2:3) and are born enemies of God! (Rom 5:8-10) They are born unsaved. There is nowhere in the Bible one verse that even suggests that children are born innocent, and that there is some older “age of accountability” at which their sin suddenly puts them in danger of hell. Since children, especiallyinfants cannot understand much language (like preaching,) God the Holy Spirit gave us baptism as His way of reaching down and saving babies by giving them faith! It’s physical grace. However, this seed of faith will need to be regularly watered and nurtured by the Word- or its growth will stop and the faith will die.
Does baptism actually do anything? When Jesus came to be baptized by John (Mt 3:13ff), the Baptizer objected at first, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” John understood that this was a washing away of sins, and since Jesus doesn’t have any sins, Jesus’ request was confusing to him! But our Lord responded that He needed to be baptized “to fulfill all righteousness.” He would be our exact substitute in every way, so that His perfect life and His sacrificial death could count for ours. If baptism were merely a “commitment of our faith” (as some say) John would not have hesitated one moment to baptize Jesus! Jesus has perfect commitment and faith and John would have baptized Jesus without question. But baptism is God “washing away our sins,” not we making a commitment to God. The activity in baptism is God’s action, not ours! The language is always passive, (be baptized) not active (go baptize yourself.) God is the Giver of the gift; we are the recipient.
Reformed people miss the entire point that baptism is one of God’s means of saving us; they think that baptism is our way of proving our faith to God. They see it as an act of obedience on our part, instead of an act of grace on God’s part. And then the actual “washing away of sins” image in baptism (Acts 22:16) is lost if this is an act on our part; in fact, it would become a self-righteous act!
Going hand in hand with the erroneous idea that baptism is not for infants are those who limit the mode of baptism. They say baptism must be by immersion, and that a pouring or sprinkling baptism would not be valid. And furthermore (they conclude), if you immerse an infant…she may not survive the baptism! However, many of the ‘washings’ in the OT temple were done by sprinkling and pouring! (Lev 16:14; Heb 10:22; 1 Pet 1:2; Titus 3:4-6; Jn 3:25) The word, “baptism” in the Greek of the NT specifically means, “to apply water,” as we find in Mark 7:7ff, NOTimmersing! The NIV translators actually removed the words “dining couches” from that text (which remain in the KJV) because they couldn’t imagine how one couldimmerse a large piece of furniture in water! But since the word simply means “to apply water,” it’s no problem to wet a rag and wipe the couch! It’s very dangerous to tamper with God’s Word to conform it to our pre-conceived beliefs! If we resort to our own “reason” to interpret God’s Word, we are on very thin ice (Prov 3:5.) When the apostles baptized 3,000 people in the city on Pentecost, where would they have found any body of water large enough in which to immerse them? But the laver (basin) at the temple or a few stone jars would have provided enough for thousands of people to have had handfuls of water poured or sprinkled on them.
I pray that you will be able to convince your friends with clear Scripture that they should indeed baptize their children for the salvation of their souls in obedience to our Lord’s command, and trusting in His promise! “Baptism now saves you,” (I Pet 3:21) as one of God’s “means of grace.” We can’t “make a decision” one day to believe and follow our Lord, since He tells us, “You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you….” (Jn 15:16). He saves us through the power of His Word and sacraments. “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy.He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom hepoured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:4-5) See also: Ezek 18:4, 20; Mk 16:16
Yours in Christ, Pastor Paul Dancy
(If you have any other questions about the Bible or things spiritual, please contact Pastor Dancy (pastord@praiselc.org) or Pastor Brown (pastorb@praiselc.org)
