The Biblical Arguments for Infant Baptism

The Problem: There is no explicit command for children of believers to be baptized, nor for them not to be baptized.

A Baptist Solution: There is a big discontinuity between the old covenant which was earthly and fleshly and national with Israel, and the new covenant which is spiritual and universal. Only believing adults are given this sign and given membership in this new covenant.

A Reformed Solution: There is a discontinuity between the old covenant of Mount Sinai with its national civil laws and ceremonial laws, but not with the over arching covenant of grace of the whole OT. Christ has fulfilled the old covenant, but this does not replace the covenant of grace that God made with Abraham and all who have the faith of Abraham, both OT and NT. Galatians 3:16ff,29 make very clear that show that the intentions of the Abrahamic covenant are in the New Covenant and the New Covenant brings the Abrahamic Covenant to its perfection. Circumcision is a sign and seal of this covenant of grace by faith which is not just national or fleshly, but spiritual. See Romans 2:29, Philippians 3:3 It is fulfilled with New Testament water baptism. Like with Abraham, the sign and seal and membership in the covenant are graciously given to children of believers as well as new convert adult believers.

The Biblical Arguments:

Children Belong to the Church as Members of the Covenant in OT and NT.

From the beginning of their lives Gen 17:12

Gen 17:7 An everlasting covenant from generation to generation

Rom 4:9 A sign and seal given of a righteousness that is by faith, not works or ritual.

Deut 30:6 A sign is given that is about inward, spiritual cleansing.

Infants of believing parents were given this sign: Gen 17:11-12

2. Baptism is the New Sign.

New testament coverts did not need to be circumcised, but baptized.

The Sign is of inward cleansing by being born again. Acts 22:16, Titus 3:5

Like with Abraham, it is also a sign of being set apart to a holy life. Gal 3:27, Acts 22:16

Water baptism is the SIGN of an event, not the event of the reality itself. The SIGN of water baptism does not save, it only pictures what the blood of Jesus can do, and what the Holy Spirit does in making us born again.

Household Baptisms:

For this reason, not only the people converted in the NT stories are baptized, but their families/households also. Acts 16:15, 33-34, 1 Cor 1:16 .

We can’t prove that there were or weren’t infants, but the emphasis is on Lydia being converted and the whole household then taking the sign.

Acts 18:8 Not only were believing Corinthians baptized with Crispus, but also his house.

Acts 16:30-34 The Philippians jailer “believed”(singular)<. It is emphasized that the whole house didn’t, yet they were baptized as well. After the baptisms, it states that they rejoiced with all his house that he (singular) had come to faith in God.”

There are only 12 bapitsms recorded in the NT, two were individuals (Paul, Ethiopian Eunuch), four are large crowds of new converts, one is a false believer, but the rest the biggest category are new converts with their households. A.A. Hodge “Thus in every case in which the household existed it was baptized.”

3. Circumcision Fulfilled by Baptism

Passover was fulfilled by Christ death and resurrection and the sign of the meal is fulfilled in the Lord’s Supper.

In the same way Baptism takes the place of Circumcision as the sign of salvation.

In the OT when a person believed in the God of Abraham and trust in Him, he was converted. This was marked with the outward event that represented a clean heart. The outward sign of entering the covenant community was circumcision.

SO too, in the NT when a person believed in the God of Abraham and trusted in Him in the NT he was baptized. The external event that represented the clean heart was baptism. The outward signed that marked a person’s entrance was baptism.

When a group said no its still circumcision in Colosse, Paul said no baptism is fulfilled circumcision in Christ . Colossians 2:11-12

4. God and the OT Family:

In Genesis 17:7 God made a covenant of salvation not only with Abraham but with his children, grand children and great grand children, before they had been born or expressed faith. God was promising to deal with them in a special covenantal way. This was not predictive prophesy of who would believe, but a covenant.

This is how the Exodus begins: Exodus 2:24-25. This works negatively too for covenant breakers. But positively:

Psalm 103:17

5. God and the NT Family

In so many healings, the faith of a father or mother bring blessing on a whole household. Matthew 9, Matthew 17, Luke 7, John 4. When Zaccheus is converted, Jesus says today salvation has come to ________________.

Peter at Pentecost says: Acts 2:39

This doesn’t mean that children were present in the crowd, but that the New Covenant promises would be extended to children of believers and to Gentiles who would come to believe. God was working in the same way he did in the OT - children of believers would be held by God in special regard.

1 Cor 7:14 Shows even an unbelieving spouse is sanctified/set apart in a believing household, as are the children. While a spouse is set a part in this way, he or she is responsible to make their own profession before the Lord, but children unable to make such a profession bear the mark of their believing parents faith, which calls them to the Lord in earliest years!

6. The Testimony of the Early Church.

In the generations when the late NT was written 70-95AD, there is no indication of children of believers growing up and then being baptized as adults.

Polycarp, a disciple of the Apostle John, testifies in his death, I have been a disciple of Christ 86 years, when he was 86 years old. He would have been referring to being baptized and made a disciple in his childhood, as he died in AD 155.

Similarly Justin Martyr writes in AD 150 “many men and women of the age of sixty or seventy years who have been disciples of Christ from their early childhood.” Having become a disciple refers to Matthew 28:19 being baptized.

Later Origen in in 185 says “The Church received from the apostles the tradition of baptizing infants also.”

Hippolytus in the Apostolic Tradition in 215AD describes new families admitted to the church, with the children including infants baptized first, then adult males, and lastly women.

Tertullian arguing for delayed baptism of little children of recent converts, accepts that infant baptism is in accordance with the Word of God, and his reservations were against established practice of the apostolic church.

Earliest Archeology shows children baptized by pouring water