Infant Baptism
We believe children should receive the sign that they belong to God. Pastor went through his history of being a reformed baptist. He once came to Trinity and left because of infant baptism. He said I cannot agree to this. He soundly rejected infant baptism. He was holding onto believers baptism.
What are the main arguments against it?
1 – The scripture no where commands it
2 – Scripture gives no example of it
But it is commanded “go out and make disciples of all nations.. baptizing them” – our children are disciples of Christ. We don’t make believers only God can. We are commanded to make disciples. The pattern is believe and be baptized.
The scripture gives no example. But the silence of scripture favors infant baptism because it was always done that way(circumcision). We should expect the texts to say not to.. do not forbid the children to come to me. In Acts at Pentecost you have Jewish believers who would have always included their children . They would have had to been told not to. It doesn’t have to command it. It would have been the expectation to baptize children.
Genesis 17:11-12 (NKJV) 11 “and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 “He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant.
Isaac receives the sign before he believed.
It’s just not the sign of ethnic Israel. Baptism is a sign and seal of the righteousness of faith. One was cutting off the filthy cleansing(bloody) the new is a washing with water. Both are a sign and seal of the righteousness of faith. The sign of faith to 8 day old infants. A lot of unbelievers got the sign.
The church did not begin at Pentecost .
Romans 4:11-12 (NKJV) 11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which [he had while still] uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, 12 and the father of circumcision to those who not only [are] of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham [had while still] uncircumcised.
We believe and confess that Jesus Christ, who is the end of the law, has made an end, by the shedding of His blood, of all other sheddings of blood which men could or would make as a propitiation or satisfaction for sin; and that He, having abolished circumcision, which was done with blood, has instituted the sacrament of baptism instead thereof; by which we are received into the Church of God, and separated from all other people and strange religions, that we may wholly belong to Him whose mark and ensign we bear; and which serves as a testimony to us that He will forever be our gracious God and Father.
Therefore He has commanded all those who are His to be baptised with pure water, into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, thereby signifying to us, that as water washes away the filth of the body when poured upon it, and is seen on the body of the baptised when sprinkled upon him, so does the blood of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit internally sprinkle the soul, cleanse it from its sins, and regenerate us from children of wrath unto children of God. Not that this is effected by the external water, but by the sprinkling of the precious blood of the Son of God; who is our Red Sea, through which we must pass to escape the tyranny of Pharaoh, that is, the devil, and to enter into the spiritual land of Canaan.
The ministers, therefore, on their part administer the sacrament and that which is visible, but our Lord gives that which is signified by the sacrament, namely, the gifts and invisible grace; washing, cleansing, and purging our souls of all filth and unrighteousness; renewing our hearts and filling them with all comfort; giving unto us a true assurance of His fatherly goodness; putting on us the new man, and putting off the old man with all his deeds.
We believe, therefore, that every man who is earnestly studious of obtaining life eternal ought to be baptised but once with this only baptism, without ever repeating the same, since we cannot be born twice. Neither does this baptism avail us only at the time when the water is poured upon us and received by us, but also through the whole course of our life.
Therefore we detest the error of the Anabaptists, who are not content with the one only baptism they have once received, and moreover condemn the baptism of the infants of believers, who we believe ought to be baptised and sealed with the sign of the covenant, as the children in Israel formerly were circumcised upon the same promises which are made unto our children. And indeed Christ shed His blood no less for the washing of the children of believers than for adult persons; and therefore they ought to receive the sign and sacrament of that which Christ has done for them; as the Lord commanded in the law that they should be made partakers of the sacrament of Christ’s suffering and death shortly after they were born, by offering for them a lamb, which was a sacrament of Jesus Christ. Moreover, what circumcision was to the Jews, baptism is to our children. And for this reason St. Paul calls baptism the circumcision of Christ.
Genesis 17:11,12; Leviticus 12:6; Matthew 3:11; Matthew 19:14; Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:16; John 1:29; John 19:34; Acts 2:38; Acts 8:16; Acts 22:16; Romans 6:3; Romans 10:4; 1 Corinthians 3:5,7; 1 Corinthians 6:11; 1 Corinthians 7:14; 1 Corinthians 10:2; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:27; Ephesians 4:5,22-24; Ephesians 5:26; Colossians 2:11,12; Titus 3:5; Hebrews 6:2; Hebrews 9:14; 1 Peter 3:21; 1 John 1:7; Revelation 1:6.