For many years, I took a Baptist stance on Baptism. First of all, I was raised with that belief. Second of all, I never really questioned it since I was taught it from childhood. Third of all, even when I started digging into various theological authors as well as Scripture, I never bothered with Baptism, because I had always thought that infant baptism was just a Romanist carryover. Thus, no need to question the topic of Baptism. I thought it was a non-issue and that Christian churches following Scripture only dunked believers after a credible question of faith.
Then I read some guys I shouldn't have. The Reformed authors I read made some sense, but no more than the Baptist authors that I read. This is mainly due to the continuity of the covenant idea that Reformed authors import in order to justify paedobaptism. I don't think that argument is necessarily bad, but it's not a slam dunk case for paedobaptism either. I think that is why there are Classic Calvinists who baptize infants and there are also Calvinistic Baptists, who hold to the sovereignty of God in salvation and the TULIP and all that stuff, but will only Baptize professing believers.
Thus, whereas I was still firmly a Baptist, I now at least understood that some evangelicals can make a case for paedobaptism and at the very least stopped seeing the doctrine as nothing more than a Romanist error that carried over into the Reformers.
But what about all those churches that held to the doctrine of baptismal regeneration? After all, the doctrine is a huge heresy in Reformed as well as Baptist circles. It's considered heretical because in their theology, it adds to faith alone, hence mingling works into justification and thus salvation by extension.
So how did I ever end up Lutheran? I was an unlikely candidate to jump to Wittenberg, that is for certain.
To put it simply, I re-examined all of the passages in the New Testament that spoke of water and baptism and simply read them and compared them to what different churches believe. By different churches, I mean the big ones like Rome and the East, and the Lutherans, and the Reformed, and the Baptists. I wanted to have a clear understanding of Baptism and what it is.
To begin with, the Baptist understanding of Baptism has holes in it. Every passage in Scripture that links Baptism directly to salvation must be interpreted in a manner that is different than what the text plainly reads. Usually this is done by saying that the Baptism spoken of in those passages is a reference to "Baptism of the Holy Spirit." Essentially, this "Baptism" is accomplished by God at the moment of belief. In other words, this Baptism of the Holy Spirit in Baptist theology is nothing more than when the Holy Spirit indwells a person and they are saved. Hence, in an instance like Romans 6:3-4, the passage could be read as those who believe. They are the ones baptized into Christ. That interpretation certainly fits their theology. Hence, all the Scriptures that speak of Baptism and link it to salvation end up speaking of Baptism of the Holy Spirit and not "Water Baptism."
To prove this doctrine, the Baptists will go to passages that speak about faith and say that because of the faith passages, the Baptism passages can't be speaking about water Baptism. I am not going to rehash that interpretation as to why it is wrong, because I already did. It can be found here:
Faith - Baptism Likewise, how do these interpretations that there are multiple baptisms jive with St. Paul in Ephesians 4:5? Not to mention, how do they connect with passages that link water and the Word, or water and Spirit? Normally, the pat Baptist answer here is to eliminate Water Baptism from the passage altogether, thereby making water nothing more than a symbolic reference to something else. Sometimes it refers to being cleansed figuratively by the Spirit and other times it can even refer to the amniotic fluid that a baby is born from.
Thus, suffice it to say, my Baptist presuppositions were rocked to the core. Eventually I came to realize that the Holy Scriptures, nor the early church and the Fathers, do not teach the Baptist doctrine of Baptism.
Yet, I was still stuck in Reformed world. So, I embraced the Reformed Covenantal view of paedobaptism. But this has holes that might be even bigger. It's much easier to simply say that Baptism (and the Eucharist for that matter) is just a picture and deny all efficacy altogether of the ordinance (what we call a Sacrament). Reformed Theology wants to have the cake and eat it too. They want to affirm, along with St. Peter, that Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you (1 Pe 3:21). They want to say that Baptism does something for the infant. And they answer that it makes the infant part of the Covenant Community and then subsequently works into the assurance and sanctification of the infant later in life. Not to mention, the Reformed simply cannot affirm what the Scriptures plainly say about Baptism simply because to do so would annihilate the precious L and P in the TULIP. In my mind, however, if it does not do something in a salvific manner, what is the point? So I stayed Baptist, despite agreeing to an extent with the Reformed Covenant stance on paedobaptism.
Enter Lutheranism. (Yes, I looked at Rome and the East too, but this is already getting too long, so I will forego those two. Suffice it to say that I rejected those churches for other reasons.) Lutheranism gave me a clear and concise answer to Baptism, all the while upholding sola fide. (See the link above) Lutheran Theology gives us a clear and plain reason to Baptize infants that is completely biblical and does not need to extrapolate from Genesis 12-17 and the Abrahamic Covenant. I'm not saying there are no correlations there, of course. Certainly St. Paul makes this link in Colossians 2:11-12. Not to mention, Lutheranism affirms another doctrine that I was 100% convinced is taught clearly in the Scriptures: Election. Yet, in passing from Reformed Theology to Lutheranism, I did have to relinquish the Calvinist doctrine of reprobation or double predestination. That one was also difficult, but in the end, I have come to realize that this too is what Scripture teaches on the topic: single predestination, precisely as the Lutheran Confessions hold (See:
Solid Declaration - Election)
That dirty heresy of baptismal regeneration (as I was always told), I was coming to realize, is true. Why? Because the Bible clearly teaches it. It is plain as day. One has to read a presupposed theology into the Bible in order to deny it.
The explanation is so simple that many people reject it because it's just far too simple. All you need to know are two very important theological truths. The easy argument goes like this.
1. All people, including infants, are sinful. Therefore, even our infants need to be saved.(Rom 5, Ps 51) This is called the doctrine of original sin. Denying this doctrine leads to numerous other enormous errors. Ultimately, the Gospel itself is undermined.
2. Baptism buries us and raises us with Christ (Rom 6, Col 2), and saves us (1 Pe 3).
3. Conclusion. Baptize infants. They need it. It's pure Gospel promise for them. The work of God given to them through the means of grace that Christ instituted.
That's it. Simple and to the point. We do not need a long extrapolated argument of covenant continuity (Calvinist Covenant Theology). Likewise, we err when we reinterpret clear and plain didactic teachings to be symbolic or figurative (Baptists, Dispensationalism). Ironically, the Dispensational Baptists interpret the book of Revelation literally and clear didactic teachings symbolically or figuratively. Seems backwards to me.
Done. Your kids need it. It saves them. Not only is this argument simple and almost too easy, it's 100% biblical. Not to mention, it's what the Church has always believed. For instance, the Council of Carthage in 253 AD took infant Baptism for granted and instead debated if the Baptism should take place on the 8th day like circumcision. There was no debate over Baptism in the early church. Certainly with a core doctrine like Baptism, you would expect to see all sorts of theologians and pastors protesting paedobaptism. Nobody did.
Likewise, if this clear and plain reading of Baptism is correct and the Scriptures are not a big puzzle on this topic, then it is the gravest of sins for a Christian parent to withhold Baptism from their children. Such is equivalent to withholding Jesus and His pure Gospel from them.
If there are Baptist readers here, one objection might be that getting an infant wet does nothing. This objection is empty and vain. To answer that, I will leave a link to Dr. Martin Luther's Small Catechism below. Read and enjoy!
Small Catechism - Baptism
+Pax+
