If you are still in doubt about the practice of infant baptism, please answer the following questions....

1. In Mark 10:15 and Luke 18:17, Jesus specifically mentions that the Kingdom of God can be received by little children (even infants, if you compare Luke 18:15). Jesus further indicates in John 3 the necessity of being “born again” (and born of “water and the Spirit) for “entering” the Kingdom of God, obviously indicating a spiritual change within. How can someone “receive” the kingdom or enter it without faith?

2. In Matthew 18: 6 Jesus says that “these little ones” can actually “believe” Him. From the context we know that the “little ones” are children, even little children (see vss. 2-4.) Can someone believe in Jesus without faith? If Jesus did not mean that little children can believe, why did he call the “little ones” “those who believe in me”? Or, if He did not mean to compare “little ones” with children, why didn’t he simply call them “God’s children” or something else to avoid confusion? [Note: there are other words, such as neanias (young man, youth) or paidarion (boy, small child, young slave) that could have been used.]

3. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:15 that Timothy has known the Scriptures “since infancy.” If Paul simply meant that he was familiar with them all the way back in childhood, why would he use such a specific word that indicates very young children, and not a more general term for “child”?

4. In Acts 16 when Lydia’s household and the jailer’s whole family were baptized, why was there no indication that some within that family were to be left out, such as children below a certain age? And why is there no indication anywhere in the New Testament that Jesus meant for children below a certain age to be excluded from Baptism?

5. In Matthew 28:19 when Jesus tells his apostles to go forth and make disciples of all nations, he tells them to “baptize….and teach.” If it was critical that all candidates for baptism first be instructed so as to be able to make a formal declaration of faith, then would it not have been more logical for him to say: “teach…and baptize” in that order?

6. In Acts 2 after the Pentecost sermon, Peter calls on his hearers to “repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins,” saying further that they would “receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (vs. 38). In the very next verse he also states that “the promise is to you and your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the Lord our God calls to him.” If the “promise” involves “forgiveness” and the “gift of the Holy Spirit,” how can this be offered to their “children” if they cannot have faith? Or is the “promise” here offered something else? And if that is true, what would that be, or why would it be different than what he just stated?

7. If Baptism is just a symbol and not an actual means through which God offers his gift of grace, then why are these gifts connected with Baptism? Or why are changes in the Christian’s life connected with the act of baptizing?

Why does Peter connect being baptized with forgiveness and the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:38?

Why is being “saved” connected with Baptism in such places as Titus 3:5, Acts 22:16, and Mark 16:16?

Why does Paul talk about being “buried” and “raised” with Christ (Colossians 2:12, Romans 6:3-4) in Baptism, instead of saying that we are to die to sin and are raised to newness of life simply through faith?

Why does Jesus tell Nicodemus that to be spiritually “born again” is to be “born of water and the Spirit” (John 3)? Why the water and not just the Spirit alone?

Why does Paul say that we are “washed with water and the Word” in Ephesians 5:26? Why doesn’t he say that we were washed by the Word alone?

Why does Jesus say in Matthew 28:19 that we are to “make disciples” of “all nations” by “baptizing” and “teaching” and not simply “teaching” alone? If baptism is just a symbolic act only, how can we “make disciples” through the act of “baptizing”?

Paul writes in Galatians 3:27 that “as many of you as were baptized into Christ Jesus have put on Christ.” If Baptism is only symbolic, wouldn’t it have been more appropriate for Paul to say that those “who believe in Christ have put on Christ”? Why did he choose to connect the act of being baptized with putting on Christ, which is obviously a term indicating a close relationship with the Lord?

8. If the act of baptizing infants or babies was unknown in the New Testament, why did the Early Church baptize babies and why was there no obvious opposition to the practice?

Pastor Engebretson
September 15, 2005