Infant Baptism vs. Dedicating Babies

There is a schism within the Christian community over the appropriate age at which a person should be Baptized. I recently wrote an article titled “Planning an out of State Baptism” and received a comment from a gentleman who was scolding me for promoting infant Baptism. The comment took me aback because he used my article which was meant to help others plan a baptism out of state as an opportunity to sell his views on infant baptism. I’ll review his argument below, but his conclusion was that babies should only be dedicated while Baptism should only be reserved for adults. I shared this feedback with my family members to get their opinion, and there seemed to be a sense of uncertainty in how to respond, so I decided to conduct a little research on the subject.

In his comment on my article, my protagonist, focused on Mark 16:16 which states: “Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. ” His argument was that based on this verse, a person must believe in order to be baptized. Since babies cannot yet reason, he argued, they cannot believe and therefore should not be baptized. I argue that this verse is simply stating that baptism alone will not save you, but you also must believe to be saved. This verse is not instructing us to only baptize those who believe. Another part of his comment was that the Bible does not state that infants should be baptized so I set out to find whether this was true and whether there are instructions in the Bible that support infant baptism.

In my review of scripture, I have found many verses in support of infant baptism. In Matthew 28:19 Jesus says: “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Infants are included in the statement all nations . In Acts 2:38-39 Peter says: “Each of you must repent of your sins, turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ to show that you have received forgiveness for your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit . This promise is to you and to your children…” Peter did not say that this promise was just to adults. In fact he makes the point that the promise of baptism applies to children as well.

Finally, Holy Baptism is the only means whereby infants can be regenerated and brought to faith. In John 3:6 Jesus says: “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can only produce human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. ” In this second verse Jesus is talking about being regenerated by the Spirit and signifying that rebirth by Christian Baptism. For an infant, baptism is the only way to bring them into the faith!

I’m sure there are many who will read this article and may disagree with the points that I have made. If that’s the case we may just have to agree to disagree. I plan to continue to support the practice of baptizing our children and believe it’s a necessary component of our religious tradition according to God’s Word.