Is Infant Baptism biblical?
It's really not as crazy as it sounds. I grew up in a church that only taught that a "believer's baptism" is valid. While a believer's baptism is certainly valid, it does not invalidate the ancient practice of infants being baptized in Christian households. In fact, most Christians today baptize their children and have done so for 2,000 years.
In this post, I've compiled some short videos with a short summary from different Christian traditions on why they practice the baptism of infants. These same churches also practice the baptism of adults and not just children. They baptize everyone according to one's station in life. And they all agree that this practice is proper and right biblically.
These videos present a biblical, historical, and practical overview of infant baptism. All of them are definitely worth watching.
Methodist position
United Methodist, Rev. Taylor Burton-Edwards, mentions that in Acts 16, we have two cases in a row of entire households being baptized based on the conversion of the head of those households. He goes on to quotes Acts Chapter 2. Then, he talks about what Jesus says in the Gospel of Luke and points out that the word used in Greek means "infants."
Lastly, he talks about Paul's reference to circumcision and how this is performed on the 8th day. He wraps up his case by explaining that we have evidence from the Church Fathers than infant baptism was the norm before the 4th century.
This is a great breakdown of this practice from the Methodist perspective and great explanation by Rev. Burton-Edwards.
Anglican position
For an Anglican perspective, Fr. Chris Findley mentions that individuals who come from certain non-liturgical churches (Baptists, Church of Christ, Pentecostals, etc.) wonder what's the deal with infant baptism. Fr. Findley makes an important point that many times, these individuals have been taught that it is flat-out unbiblical. He mentions that we find in the Church Fathers, particularly Origin in 244 AD the practice already well-established. He also mentions in Luke's Gospel the word " βρέφη" which means infants in the original Greek.
He makes a good point that if the Christian church had meant to keep children from getting baptized, that it would not make sense with the statement of Peter in Acts 2:38-40. He then quotes Paul in Colossians 2:11-12 which gives us the Jewish context that baptism is the new circumcision as part of God's new covenant. Baptism new replaces circumcision in the new covenant, according to the Word of God.
Fr. Findley does a great job combining biblical and historical reasons.
Lutheran position
From a Lutheran background, Dr. Jordan Cooper presents us with 5 reasons babies are baptized in the Lutheran tradition.
He says those reasons include that baptism is the work of God, infants are sinners, infants can believe, household baptism in scripture, and the fact that God always includes children.
Dr. Cooper offers a lot of scriptural evidence in his video!
Catholic position
In a very short video Fr. John Kerns, a Catholic priest, points out that baptism doesn't require understanding and that God's grace is not based on our understanding and that infants are brought into the "citizenship of the Kingdom of Heaven."
He emphasizes that parents choose things that are the best for their children and he makes the point about being born in the US grants one citizenship, even though they may not understand what benefits are incurred as a result of that citizenship.
Fr. Kerns offers a very practical explanation for the practice of infant baptism. Definitely worth watching.
Orthodox position
Finally, Fr. Panayiotis Papageorgiou, who holds a Ph.D. in Church History gives us an overview of why the Orthodox Church baptizes infants.
Fr. Panayiotis emphasizes the ancient practice of the church of infants receiving the fullness of God's grace at baptism. According to Fr. Panayiotis, the result of the idea that people ought to "choose for themselves," we see that half of Europe is not baptized. He emphasizes that bringing children into the church fully is a practice that produces Christians.
He does a really thorough job on this video explaining that this ancient practice allows everyone to be a part of the family of God and to become one with Christ in baptism and that this practice allows Christians to experience the fullness of the Christian faith from the very beginning.
Definitely worth watching!
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