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Course 11 · Lesson 6.2

Infant baptism and believers baptism

11 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 11 outline

Module 1: What the Church Is

  1. Biblical images of the church: body, people, temple and bride
  2. One, holy, catholic and apostolic: the four marks
  3. The mission of the church
  4. The visible and invisible church in Augustine, the Reformers and the East

Module 2: Ministry and Apostolic Succession

  1. Ministry in the New Testament: apostles, elders, overseers and deacons
  2. The bishop in the early church: Clement, Ignatius and Irenaeus
  3. Apostolic succession: three meanings (a line of bishops, the teaching, the mission)
  4. Ordination in the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions

Module 3: Scripture, Tradition and Church Authority

  1. Scripture and tradition in the early church
  2. The Catholic account: Scripture, tradition and the magisterium
  3. The Orthodox account: the living tradition of the church
  4. The Reformation and the question of sola scriptura

Module 4: Three Systems of Authority

  1. The bishop of Rome in early history
  2. Papal primacy and infallibility in Catholic teaching
  3. Orthodox conciliarity and the role of the patriarchs
  4. Protestant principles of authority: Scripture, confessions and the priesthood of believers
  5. The strongest objections each tradition raises against the others

Module 5: Sacramental Theology

  1. Mystery and sacrament: the words and their history
  2. Augustine and the definition of a sacrament
  3. How many sacraments? Seven, two, or none
  4. Validity, efficacy and the role of faith

Module 6: Baptism and the Eucharist

  1. Baptism in Scripture and the early church
  2. Infant baptism and believers baptism
  3. The Eucharist in the early church
  4. Real presence: transubstantiation, the Orthodox mystery, Lutheran, Reformed and memorial views

Module 7: Reconciliation and Liturgical Worship

  1. The forgiveness of sins in Scripture
  2. Confession and penance in the history of the church
  3. Confession across the traditions: Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran and Reformed practice
  4. Liturgy, word and table, and the church year
  5. Worship without a fixed liturgy and its principles

Module 8: Schism and Christian Unity

  1. Early schisms: the Donatists and the churches after Chalcedon
  2. East and West: the long division and the events of 1054
  3. The Reformation divisions
  4. Ecumenism and the prospects for unity

All courses

Program / Course 11: Church, Sacraments, and Authority / Lesson 6.2

What you will learn

  • State the arguments for infant baptism and for believers baptism as their supporters give them.
  • Describe the historical evidence and why scholars disagree about it.
  • Explain how Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Reformed and Baptist churches understand the question.
  • Describe the sixteenth-century conflict over rebaptism and what it shows.

The big idea

Most Christians in history have baptized infants. Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, Reformed and Methodist churches do so, understanding baptism as God’s gift given within the covenant community and received with faith that grows. Baptist and many other churches baptize only those who profess faith, understanding baptism as the believer’s public answer to the gospel. Each side appeals to the New Testament and the early church. The evidence for infant baptism in the second century is debated by historians, and both positions are held by serious scholars.

Key terms

Paedobaptism
The baptism of infants and young children. From the Greek pais, child.
Credobaptism
Baptism of those who profess faith. From the Latin credo, I believe. Also called believers baptism.
Covenant
A binding relationship established by God with a people. Reformed churches see one covenant of grace running through the Old and New Testaments.
Original sin
In Western Christian teaching, the sinful condition of human beings from birth, after the fall of Adam. Eastern Christians speak of ancestral sin and mortality in different terms.
Anabaptist
A name meaning rebaptizer, given to sixteenth-century radical Reformers who baptized adults who had been baptized as infants.
Sponsors (godparents)
People who speak for an infant at baptism and promise to help raise the child in the faith.
Age of reason
In Catholic usage, the age, usually around seven, when a child is considered able to understand and be responsible.

Background

The question of infant baptism is as old as the earliest evidence. In the New Testament no passage describes the baptism of an infant by name, and no passage forbids it. Accounts of household baptisms, such as those of Lydia and the jailer, are cited by both sides (Acts 16:15, 33). Jesus’ welcome of children (Mark 10:13-16) is cited as well. The question is what these texts imply.

In the second to fourth centuries the evidence grows clearer. Origen, in the third century, refers to baptism of infants as an apostolic practice. Cyprian, in the mid-third century, wrote that infants need not wait until the eighth day. By Augustine’s time infant baptism was widespread, and the debate with Pelagius sharpened its connection with original sin. Scholars, such as Joachim Jeremias, who defended an early date for infant baptism, and Kurt Aland, who argued against it, disagreed on how early it became common.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: The case for baptizing infants

Defenders cite five arguments. First, the covenant: God gave Abraham the sign of circumcision for infants (Genesis 17:12), and Paul links baptism to circumcision in Colossians 2:11-12. Second, household baptisms, which probably included children. Third, Jesus’ words that the kingdom belongs to the little children (Mark 10:14), and Peter’s promise that the promise is for you and your children (Acts 2:39). Fourth, the practice of the early church, as in Origen and Cyprian. Fifth, the teaching that grace comes first, before understanding, since God acts toward people before they can respond.

Catholics and Orthodox add that baptism removes sin and gives new birth, and that to withhold it from infants would deny them its benefits. Lutherans hold that infants can have faith given by the Spirit, as John the Baptist leapt in his mother’s womb (Luke 1:41, 44). Reformed writers emphasize that children of believers belong to the covenant community, and that baptism is the sign and seal of that membership.

Step 2: The case for baptizing believers only

Defenders of believers baptism cite the New Testament pattern in which repentance and faith come before baptism (Acts 2:38; 8:12; 18:8; Mark 16:16). They note that no text clearly describes the baptism of an infant. They say that household accounts do not mention infants and sometimes mention the faith of all in the household (Acts 16:34; 18:8). They hold that baptism is a symbol of union with Christ’s death and resurrection that requires a conscious response (Romans 6).

They also argue that the church is a community of believers, and that infant baptism confuses that membership. Early Baptists in England in the seventeenth century made this a matter of faithfulness to the New Testament. They add that Tertullian’s advice to delay baptism suggests that the practice was not universal, and that early evidence is later than the apostles. Defenders of infant baptism reply that Tertullian’s counsel shows that infant baptism existed, since he argues against it.

Step 3: Practice in the major traditions

In the Catholic Church, infants are baptized soon after birth, and adults come through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, which joins baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist in one celebration. In the Orthodox Church, infants receive baptism, chrismation and Holy Communion together, so that the child is fully a member of the church. Godparents answer for the child.

In Lutheran, Anglican, Methodist and Reformed churches, infants are baptized and are later confirmed or admitted to communion after instruction. Baptist, Pentecostal, many Mennonite, Churches of Christ and non-denominational churches baptize on profession of faith, often by immersion. Many of these churches dedicate infants to God in a service without baptism. Some, such as the Salvation Army and Quakers, practice no water baptism.

Step 4: The Anabaptists and the conflict over rebaptism

In January 1525 in Zurich, a group including Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz baptized adults who had been baptized as infants. The act broke with the Zurich council and with Zwingli, who had been their teacher. Within a few years, rebaptism was made a crime punishable by death in many parts of Europe, under Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed authorities alike. Felix Manz was drowned in Zurich in 1527. Thousands of Anabaptists were killed.

The conflict was partly about baptism, partly about the relation of church and state. Authorities believed that the unity of society depended on one baptized church. Anabaptists held that the church should be a voluntary community separate from the state. Modern Protestants and Catholics widely regret the persecutions, and some churches have formally apologized, as the Lutheran World Federation did to Mennonites in 2010.

Step 5: Points of overlap

Both sides agree that faith matters and that baptism belongs within the life of the church. Both believe that children are loved by God. Infant baptism churches ask for the faith of parents and sponsors and for later confirmation of the faith by the child. Believers baptism churches pray for children and seek to nurture them in faith. A comparison reveals that the traditions describe the same concern in different ways: God’s initiative and human response.

  1. What does this tradition say baptism does for an infant?
  2. How does it deal with the New Testament household accounts?
  3. What role does the faith of parents, sponsors or the child play?
  4. What does it say about children who die unbaptized?
  5. How does this tradition treat baptized infants who later reject the faith?
  6. What is the strongest argument of the other side?

Examples

A Greek Orthodox baptism

A baby is brought to church, the godparent renounces Satan on the child’s behalf, the priest immerses the child three times, anoints the child with oil in chrismation and gives Holy Communion. The child is a full member of the church from the first week of life.

A Baptist baptism

A fifteen-year-old tells the congregation how she came to trust in Christ. She is lowered into the baptistery by the pastor and raised again. Her baptism is a public declaration of faith and of commitment to follow Jesus. She understands it as obedience and testimony and not as the cause of her salvation.

A Presbyterian view of children

A Presbyterian couple presents their infant for baptism and promises to raise the child in the faith. The pastor says that baptism is the sign and seal of the covenant. When the child is older, she will profess her faith publicly. The couple understand baptism as God’s promise to the child, to be received by faith.

Different perspectives

Catholic and Orthodox

Infant baptism is the ancient practice of the church, and children share in the grace of baptism through the faith of the church. It forgives sin, gives new life and makes the child a member of Christ’s body. The Catholic Church entrusts unbaptized infants to God’s mercy and hopes for their salvation.

Lutheran, Anglican and Reformed

Baptism is God’s gift and promise, extended to children of believers. Lutherans emphasize the gift of faith by the Spirit through the word, Anglicans emphasize incorporation into the church, and Reformed Christians emphasize the covenant. Each requires nurture and confirmation of the faith later.

Baptist and other believers churches

Baptism follows personal faith and is a public act of obedience and witness. These churches hold that the New Testament pattern is of believers baptized, and that the church is a gathered community of those who have professed faith. Many also stress the freedom of conscience, and some Baptists were persecuted for it.

Scholarly view

Scholars agree that infant baptism was practiced by the third century. They disagree on whether it existed earlier. Some, with Jeremias, argue that household baptisms probably included children and that the practice goes back to the apostles. Others, with Aland, argue that it arose later. The surviving evidence is sparse enough that each side can offer a coherent account.

Why it matters

The disagreement over infant baptism divides some of the churches closest in other beliefs, and it connects with how a church understands membership, grace, and the relation of church and society. It also shows how two sides can read the same texts and the same history with equal seriousness and arrive at different conclusions.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Infant baptism is only a social custom with no basis in theology.

Correction: Its supporters give a theology of grace, covenant and the church, and many of the church’s greatest theologians held it. Whether it is correct is a separate question.

Misunderstanding: Baptists do not care about children.

Correction: Baptist churches hold that children are loved by God, dedicate them in prayer and teach them. They differ in holding that baptism should follow a personal profession of faith.

Misunderstanding: The New Testament clearly settles the matter.

Correction: No passage explicitly commands or forbids infant baptism. Both sides argue from inference and from the practice of the early church.

Misunderstanding: Anabaptists were rejected by all because of doctrine alone.

Correction: The conflict combined doctrine with politics. Authorities feared that rebaptism endangered the unity of society. Some radical groups also held views that mainstream Protestants and Catholics rejected, while many Anabaptists were peaceful.

Knowledge check

State two arguments for infant baptism.

Examples: the link between circumcision and baptism in Colossians 2:11-12, household baptisms in Acts, Jesus’ welcome of children, the early church’s practice in Origen and Cyprian, and the teaching that grace precedes understanding. Any two of these are correct.

State two arguments for believers baptism.

The New Testament pattern shows repentance and faith before baptism, as in Acts 2:38 and Mark 16:16. No text clearly describes an infant baptism. Baptism symbolizes a personal union with Christ’s death and resurrection, and the church is a community of professing believers.

What happened in Zurich in 1525?

A group of Zwingli’s former followers, including Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz, baptized adults who had been baptized as infants. This began the Anabaptist movement. Rebaptism was soon punished, and Manz was drowned in 1527.

How do Orthodox churches combine baptism, chrismation and communion for infants?

They give all three together in one service, so the infant is fully initiated into the church. This differs from the Western practice of separating baptism, confirmation and first communion by years.

Think it through

  1. What does it mean to say that grace comes before understanding?
  2. How could a church honor both God’s initiative and human response in its practice of baptism?
  3. Why do you think the persecution of Anabaptists happened, and what should be learned from it?
  4. Which argument on each side is hardest to answer?

Independent assignment

A debate stated fairly

In your notebook, write a 200 to 250 word statement of the case for infant baptism in terms a Presbyterian or Catholic would accept, and a 200 to 250 word statement of the case for believers baptism in terms a Baptist would accept. Use at least two New Testament passages and one early Christian writer in each. Then write 150 to 200 words on what both sides hold in common. Keep the work in your notebook.

Further study