Isaiah David Ketterman
Baptized, March 8, 2009
It has been a year since my son, Isaiah David was baptized and I thought it was a perfect time to explain my position on infant baptism and why I find it Biblical. Please keep in mind, this is only a summary. I tried my hardest to touch on every point and shorten it, but when it comes to something like this, you know how long it can end up.
Past understanding as a LDS (Mormon)
When becoming Christian, I cannot count the many debates between my husband (good friend at the time) and me on infant baptism. Coming from an LDS (aka Mormon) background, we obviously didn't believe in baptizing infants until they reached the age of accountability, which was 8 years old. Instead of baptizing infants, they would give the child a blessing in front of the church during sacrament meeting on Sunday while the cute infant was clothed in white. Then the proud parents would show-off their bundle of joy as the church went "awwww". I never questioned why we never baptized infants when I was LDS. Instead, I held the view that maybe their sinless until 8 years old. Now thinking back on that, I was one clueless child! How is it a child is perfect up to 8? I remember being a little devil prior to 8 years old while hitting my siblings, back talking my parents, being bored in church and would try to play sick in hope my family would skip that Sunday.
Scripture to Scripture
As I began to study infant baptism, I obviously didn't find an "age of accountability" in scripture, especially with the determined age of 8. That obviously was not Biblical, so I threw out that theology I once believed. Instead of comparing Scripture to the LDS Prophets or any other secondary book, I would compare Scripture to Scripture. After doing this, I realized how simple it is to study Scripture without the words of a Prophet, Pope, Bishop, nice little nun, etc. The Bible is very clear for the simple-minded person, but that doesn't necessarily mean all Protestant Christians are identical on teaching. With that said, I do believe infant baptism is Protestant going back to the Reformers such as, Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin. Yes, these great guys didn't always see eye-to-eye, but they all agreed on the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Infant baptism has historically been practiced dating back to the Apostolic period.
Covenant of Grace
In the gospels, Jesus left us 2 signs to be observed until He returns; Lord's Supper and Baptism. These signs can easily correspond to circumcision and the Passover and are called covenant signs, because 1) God calls them this and 2) they are signs of His covenant relationship to those He loves. The covenant of grace is God relating to His people. Covenant is a binding oath between the Lord and His people, in which He promises to His people to be their God and His people. To explain the title of this blog "bloody" I was referring that to the covenant of grace, which was signed and sealed in blood.
I discovered covenant theology when becoming Reformed. It is very hard to ignore the word "covenant" in the Bible and I believe it is impossible to understand the Bible without understanding God's covenant to His people.
Back to the "bloody" part of my blog title, the Lord gave a bloody mark as a sign to Abraham that he and his children belonged to the Lord (Exodus 12:1-13, 21-29, 43-51).
God instituted the annual celebration of the Passover. This is to remind God's people that He has mercifully and graciously redeemed them from bondage in Egypt. The Passover has many similarities to circumcision, which is 1) both are bloody and 2) associated with God's promises. Circumcision was applied to both infants and adults (no age restrictions). This was a mark of entrance into God's covenant people.
In with the New and out with the Old
Do you remember the Covenant God made with Abraham? Similar to this covenant, God made a covenant to come later. This new covenant was made with the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is a servant of the New covenant. The Old covenant was becoming more and more obsolete as the glory of the New covenant was becoming permanent. Is there a connection between baptism and circumcision? I believe so. It is pretty clear in Colossians 2. The point of contact between them is Christ and baptism is the sign and seal of that circumcision. Colossians 2:11, Paul says "in him you were also circumcised with the circumcision done by Christ" and in verses 12, he says exactly how it is that we were circumcised in and by Christ, "having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith...." In baptism, we are identified with Christ's baptism/circumcision, as it were, on the cross. Baptism and circumcision does not effect this union. Rather, God the Spirit unites us to Christ, makes us alive and gives us faith.
Scott Clark, Professor at Westminster Theological Seminary CA explains what baptism does:
Baptism and the Lord's supper proclaim the same message as the written Word of God: salvation is God's free gift. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Just as God the Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures, so also God ordained, in his Word, baptism and the Lord's supper. Because sacraments are signs and seals, they do not, in themselves, save. They testify to God's grace, they point us to Christ, and seal to us his salvation. Just as circumcision did not save, neither does baptism.
Why infant baptism though?
So why should we baptize infants when they clearly don't understand what is happening and they cannot repent? We must remember that God is God not only to adult believers, but children as well. Our children shouldn't be treated outside the visible of God's people! Jesus made the same argument in Mark 10:14. He says that the Kingdom of God belongs to children of believers. In Acts 2:39, Peter specifically includes children in the fulfillment of the promise. In Ephesians 6:1 Paul addresses children as if they were in the covenant people of God. Many who oppose infant baptism try to point out that it is not directly commanded to "baptize infants". That might be the case, but is there really a need of command for this? I could easily argue the same for the Trinity.
Ending
Since the New covenant Scriptures never tell us not to apply the covenant sign to our children, we have every reason to believe that the children of believers must receive the sign of entrance into the covenant people. God was gracious to Abraham, God is gracious to us. He has given us visible reminders and marks of that grace and one of those is baptism. What wonderful news!
