Note: I asked our youth to write down any questions
that they had about faith, the church, or life in general. This is a part of that series.
A question about infant baptism reminds us that
there are two ways to understand baptism, those who baptize infants, children,
and adults and those who only baptize adults.
The second group is generally those who perform “believer’s baptism.” This group (and a great many churches belong
to it) believes that in order to be baptized, a person must be old enough to
understand what baptism means and make a conscious decision to put their faith
in Jesus before being baptized.
Our church (the United Methodist Church) does not
subscribe to this interpretation of scripture for two basic reasons (although I’m
sure theologians could identify – and argue about - more). The first reason for why we baptize infants
is because the disciples did. In Acts 16:14
Lydia and her household are
baptized. In Acts 16:32 the jailer who oversaw the imprisonment of Paul and
Silas, “and his whole household,”
are baptized. In Acts 18:8, Crispus and “his entire household” are baptized and
finally, in 1 Corinthians 1:16 Paul remembers that he baptized “the household
of Stephanus.” It was a time in history
when the head of the household, male or female, decided the faith of
everyone. We might think that’s odd until
we remember that our world isn’t all that different. Few of us decided to attend church as
children. We came to church because our
parents decided we were going to church.
Then, the head of the house decided for everyone, adults, children and
even servants, and today parents still make some of those same decisions for
their children.
The second reason was one that mentioned in my last
blog “What is Baptism?” We believe that
the “thing that happens” at baptism is something that God does and not
something that we do. At baptism, the
Spirit of God enters into us and begins work inside of us. After baptism, God’s presence goes with us
and is active in our lives drawing us toward faith and a belief in Jesus
Christ. Since the disciples baptized
whole families, we understand that God can do what God does in the lives of
children even before they are old enough to make a conscious choice to follow
Jesus. We may not completely understand
what it is that God does, or how God does it, but we choose to allow God to be
a part of the lives of our children, even as infants, through baptism.
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Other questions and answers in this series can be found here: Ask the Pastor
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