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Thursday, February 16, 2006

Baptists baptizing "infants"?

In general children come into churches at much younger ages than in times past. They probably join earlier in progressive churches as opposed to primitivistic churches, and probably earlier in "Arminian" churches as opposed to "Calvinistic" churches. Whether or not this general observation is really true, what do you think about the relationship of children and church?

1. What biblical basis is there for children coming into churches at very young ages?
2. If you use believers' church and believers' baptism as a basis, why do you think the apostolic church did not seem to have any significant outreach to young children?
3. If children are church members on an equal footing with all other members, how do you feel about their equal vote in church business with mature adult members?
4. How much actual difference is there between baptizing 3 and 4 years olds who can answer the right questions (often as prompted by parents or pastors), and baptizing infants whose parents have faith for them?
5. Why is there a trend among the modern Baptist churches to baptize children at younger and younger ages? (were our forefathers unfaithful? are we unscriptural? are children smarter now, or more spiritual?)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Having been brought up in the Anglican Church, I had the idea in my own mind that the age for Confirmation was an appropriate age to baptize children, upon profession of faith. In most of our Fellowship Churches, we used the legal age for voting (18 at the time) to receive baptized individuals into church membership with full rights.

If I had any criticism to offer regarding baptism in many American churches it is the rush to baptize converts. It was almost as if they were looking to numbers for some reason.

Cheers,

Jim

clinch64 said...

It is unfortunate that for numbers sake that so many children who surely are not at the age of comprehension are rushed and prodded.

Someone gave this comparison about the matter once that sticks with me. I think it sums it all up rather well. To pressure a young child in regard to salvation, baptism, etc, is kind of like telling a 5 year old, they need to decide what college they are going to attend or whom they are going to marry for life. It just isn't possible.

Neil Vaught

R. L. Vaughn said...

Neil, that's an interesting illustration I hadn't thought of before.

R. L. Vaughn said...

A friend sent me a link to When the Denominational Center Doesn't Hold: The Southern Baptist Experience by Bill Leonard, which contains the following related material:

"First, in the 20th century Southern Baptist modified their theology of a 'believers' church' to permit the baptism not simply of children but of preschoolers. Statistical analysis of current SBC baptismal statistics would indicate that anywhere from 10 to 20 percent of that number, depending on the church and the region, is composed of persons six years of age or younger. Thus the SBC has opened the door to semi-infant baptism. A believers' church that baptizes preschoolers is committing heresy against its theology of conversion and its ecclesiology.

How did this happen? To some extent it was the natural outgrowth of the churches nurturing impulse and sensitivity to children raised within the community of faith. It also developed alongside the emphasis on child evangelism and the notion of an age of accountability by which people, even children, become morally and spiritually responsible. No doubt it was linked to the desire for conversion of all people and the concern of Christian parents that their children be saved. It may also have been influenced by some congregations' desire for statistical growth. It developed, I believe, not intentionally but from the popular needs and spiritual realities of the community of faith. The SBC center nurtured it, directly and indirectly acquiescing to the reshaping of a major tenet of Baptist conversionism."

RSR said...

I wish I had better information on Leonard's statistics, though I don't think he made them up.

For 2002, the SBC reported 4,386 baptisms of children 5 or younger and 49,287 baptisms of children 6-8, out of a total of 394,893 baptisms.

An interesting report from 2000 observes that:

"In addition to the long-term declines of baptisms of children ages 9 to 11 and youth ages 12 to 17, there has been a decline in baptisms of adults ages 18 to 29. In contrast, there have been longterm increases in baptisms of adults ages 30 to 59 and baptisms of children ages 6 to 8. In addition to these two age groups, increases have
occurred in baptisms of persons ages 60 and older and children under age 6; however, both of these age groupings account for only 3 percent and 1 percent, respectively, of the total number of baptisms reported."

Now, to your questions:

1. We don't know of any biblical basis specifically for baptism of very young children. The closest you can come is Acts 16: "And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family." (Acts 16:32-33, ESV) This, of course, does not deal directly with the age of anyone involved.

2. I assume the apostolic church was operating according to its Jewish roots, which specified the age of bar mitsvah and bat mitsvah to be 12 and 13. (Or the influence of Greek culture, which specified around 15 years of age for girls, the time of marriage for females in ancient Greece, and around 17 or 18 for boys, the age at which they entered the military, or even the Roman custom, which presented the toga to Roman boys between the ages of 14 and 17.)

3. I would suggest this is a problem in theory, not in practice. The likelihood of a young child sitting through a business meeting, much less participating, seems unlikely. (I can only speak from experience here.)

4. Very little.

5. Not really sure. I would defer to Leonard. Is there any good research on the age of baptism in the 19th century or other periods?

Anonymous said...

If a believer is under an obligation to be baptized, then the only question is... can a young child be a believer? I would answer yes. For scripture, how about:
Isaiah 49:1, 5
Luke 1:41

I have definitely known young children, say 4 or 4 years of age, to make a credible profession of faith, and with no prompting from their parents or other adult. The Lord did say "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God."

Terre Schill