Discipleship comes first, then baptism and that order is always the same in the New Testament. A person becomes a believer first and is then baptised. This we call “Believer’s Baptism”. In the New Testament a person was not brought to baptism. A person came themselves to baptism after being invited then accepted into the world of faith.
However followers of the Roman Catholic Church majority of the time practise babies, infant and toddlers baptism, adults who were unfortunate to miss early baptism had the opportunity to be accepted at any age when they felt the desire to do so. The Roman Catholic church believe that:
- Infants are born with original sin and the reality of original sin makes baptism desirable as soon as possible, since it removes the punishment and guilt due to sin. Through the symbolism of water, the sacrament is a sign of God’s forgiveness of sin and his power to save us from all evil. The Bible teaches us quite clearly that with ‘Adam’s sin’, the whole of the human race was infected with sin. Sin is on the soul. Through ‘Adam’s sin’, sin touches even the soul of the infant. Psalm 51:5. “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me”. David demonstrates that sin is on the soul of every one at the time of entering into the world.
- Christ welcomes small children and likewise the Catholic Church welcome children into the church through the pathway of baptism. The sacrament is a bringing of the child into the life of faith and grace within the church, and a welcoming of a new member into the Christian community, which promises to care for the child’s most deepest needs.
- It is important to have a ‘sense of belonging’. When a child is baptised it is weaned as a member of the Catholic Church and belongs to a large family or community.
- The child is given the opportunity of growing up in the faith. There is guidance of direction for their pathway of faith. Being christened a baptism involves a promise to spend our lives trying to become like Christ, a true follower. The sacrament is an assurance that God, who saves us, also gives us his spirit to dwell within us and to teach us how to live in a Christian manner.
- Catholics have to receive baptism in order to receive the sacrament of confirmation and the Eucharist.
In the Catholic Church the parents, relatives and guardians supply the faith on behalf of the child, they are taking on the responsibility to make sure the child grows up according to the Christian ways, being a follower of Jesus. As the child matures to the age of adolescence, then has the option to celebrate and confirm his or her faith during the invitation of the Sacrament of Confirmation.
“Baptise first the children; and if they can speak for themselves, let them do so. Otherwise, let their parents or other relatives speak for them”.
St. Hippolytus of Rome “The Apostolic Tradition”, 215 AD
Although children aren’t born with faith they are not born with disbelief, they do not reject the first grace that God grants through baptism. Once children reach the ‘age of reason’ they should believe and keep the faith, for at that point failure to do so is to reject grace. Multitudes of people baptised as infants, grow up thinking they will automatically be accepted into Heaven, even though they have never been born again through personal faith in Christ. They are trusting in their infant baptism. The important part in growing-up is that they also need to act godly and orthodox towards each other to get into the Kingdom of Heaven; we are all taught that baptism does not guarantee you a place in heaven.
The decision of opinion for infant baptism develops directly from how you interpret the bible. It is often debated by those who deny the practice of infant baptism, that there is not a single text anywhere to be seen in Scripture, which precisely commands or demonstrates the practice of infant baptism. This is true, but this does not mean that infant baptism is unbiblical. While there is not an exact command in Scripture to baptise the infant children of believers in the New Testament, I will argue that infant baptism is biblical because the New Testament stands in direct constancy to the Old Testament.
Take, for instance, the household baptisms, which are mentioned throughout the New Testament.
- Lydia was converted by Paul’s preaching. “She was baptised, with her household” (Acts 16:15).
- The Philippian jailer whom Paul and Silas had converted to the faith, who had been about to commit suicide when they were miraculously freed from their imprisonment, was baptised that night along with his household. We are told “The same hour of the night, he was baptised, with all of his family. (Acts 16:33).
- And in his greeting s to the Corinthians, Paul recalled that, “I did baptise also the household of Stephanas”.
In all of these cases complete households or families were baptised. (Corinthians 1:6).
After considering both infant and adult baptism I conclude that I am in favour of infant baptism. Jesus himself said that little children can believe in Him and used them as examples of faith. Jesus said that if someone does not have the faith of a child, trusting completely in Jesus alone for salvation, then they would not enter the Kingdom of heaven. Jesus used a child as an example because they simply believe and do not yet have reasoning abilities, which interfere with faith. Jesus loved all children and in early Christian time children were baptised as well as adults to remove original sin.
All children need guidance as in the direction of their pathways of faith and examples set for them. I feel that they would have to have a strong faith in their religion to help them grow into a good Christian, baptised in early years gives the child this sense of direction and helps involves the child in a Christian community from birth. If baptism were left to when the child was older then in my opinion the person would never be baptised because it would be hard to accept a completely new religion at a late stage.
Once a child reaches adolescence without foundation knowledge of a strong faith there could be a possibility of corruption of their thoughts and opinions.
