Sermon Tone Analysis

Music

10,000 Reasons

10,000 Reasons

Blessed Be Your Name

Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me

All Creatures Of Our God and King

5. Who should get baptized?

1.

Who should get baptized?

Last week, I mentioned about how Christians should be baptized.

We baptized people by immersion, but there are some Christians who baptize for sprinkling or affusion.

Similarly, the question of who should get baptized gets into some disputes.

This question raises two sides of the debate:

Infant Baptism vs. Believers’ Baptism

If you want technical words, it is called:

Paedobaptism vs. Credobaptism

In Greek, paedo means “child.”

In Latin, credo means “I believe.”

That’s where we get the word, “creed.”

(Not Assassin’s Creed).

Let’s talk about each of these positions.

a. Infant Baptism

The Christians who usually practice infant baptism come from Presbyterian, Lutheran and Anglican churches.

There are probably at least three reasons why they baptize babies.

First, they argue that infants were circumcised in the Old Testament.

If you know your Bible story in , God made a covenant or promise with this man called Abraham.

In summary, God told Abraham that every male shall be circumcised.

After the baby boy is borned, he is to be circumcized when he’s 8 days old.

(Do they know what circumcision is?)

Circumcision was an outward symbol of entering into a community of God’s people.

What does circumcision have to do with baptism though?

They’re not exactly the same, right?

Of course they’re not the same.

Even those who argue for it also knows it very clearly that baptism does not equal to circumcision.

But…and this leads me to the 2nd reason:

Second, baptism is parallel to circumcision.

Paul seems to be doing that in:

Colossians 2:

Baptism carries a similar function to circumcision.

Just as circumcision is an outward symbol of entering into a community of God’s people, baptism means that we enter into the body of Jesus Christ.

Baptism carries a similar function to circumcision.

Just as circumcision is an outward symbol of entering into a community of God’s people, baptism means that we enter into the body of Jesus Christ.

The body of Christ is another imagery to talk about the church.

Christ is the head of the body, but we are members of His body.

Paul gives the illustration that we are either a nose, an eye, a ear, a thumb or a finger and etc.

And the point he’s making is that we need each other in order to function as a body.

We need each other to compliment one another in our strengths and weaknesses.

Anyways...

Third reason is the household argument or household baptism.

In the book of Acts and in Paul’s letters, there seems to be a report of household or family of a person becoming Christians and baptized.

Perhaps the reason why a family household becomes Christian is because the gospel promise is for the adults and children and everyone.

When it talks about household, it includes children and infants.

I think reason #3 is a strong argument for Paedobaptism.

If it is a household, then it might include everyone from babies, children, youth, young adults, adults (mom and dad) and senior adults.

We practice this belief called “Believers’ Baptism.”

However, the weakness with reason #3 is that you have make an inference or you have to imply that household also includes infants.

There is not enough weight of evidence to suggest that there were babies in the household of the family.

(it’s possible, but not always the case)

In , those who were baptized were the ones who received the preaching of Peter’s sermon.

They’re the ones who made the decision to believe in Jesus.

Babies do not have the cognition or the knowledge to make decisions.

Those who received the his word implies that they understood something about the sermon.

Babies do not have the capacity to understand many things (I know because I have one).

Again, the family household are the ones who had believed in God.

They must be able to have the knowledge and capacity to believe.

Infants can’t do that.

So, it seems that those who were baptized were also the ones who believed in God.

It seems that 100% of the time we see that people who were baptized were the ones who made the decision to follow Jesus.

Unlike circumcision in the Old Testament, we do not see explicitly babies getting baptized in the New Testament.

You’re encouraged to read through it and see if I made a mistake.

b.

Believers’ Baptism

According to the teachings of the Bible, the people who should get baptized are believers.

Only those who personally profess repentance toward God and faith in and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ can participate in baptism.

Only those who personally profess repentance toward God and faith in and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ can participate in this ordinance.

Only those who personally profess repentance toward God and faith in and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ can participate in this ordinance.

Acts 8:36–37, 2:41, 8:12, 18:8

2. How old am I allowed to get baptized?

2. How old am I allowed to get baptized?

This is probably a difficult question to respond because the Bible does not clearly give a command.

Unlike circumcision where it is explitly says that boys are circumcised when he’s 8-day old, there is not explicit verse that says a believer has to be “this old” to get baptized.

There were some young people in the past who wanted to get baptized, but their parents did not allow them because they were still too young and that they should wait until they’re much older (such as graduating from high school).

But, there were some young people in the past got baptized (I remember seeing a little girl at around 10 years old getting baptized at another church).

I think it requires wisdom and prudence to address this issue that is not settled directly by the Bible.

The answer would vary from church to church, from child to child, from culture to culture, and from conscience to conscience.

I think there are principles that could help guide us (not necessarily give us answers).

Under the direction of the parents:

The answer seems to differ from churches with different ethnic backgrounds.

The answer seems to differ from churches with different ethnic backgrounds.

The answer seems to differ from churches with different ethnic backgrounds.

a.

This person should have the basic understanding of the gospel and is able to explain it.

b.

This person should have a good understanding of what it means to trust Jesus and follow Jesus.

b.

c.

This person should have evidence of genuine spiritual life at church, at school and at home (e.g.

reading the Bible, praying, loving and obeying Jesus, repentance of sins, and sharing the gospel).

There is wisdom for children to get baptized until they’re more mature and older in age and in their faith.

Sometimes, a child is not old enough to make a credible profession of faith.

Now, some people think by delaying a child’s baptism, the church is dismissing the child’s faith as invalid.