TEXT: I Thessalonians 5:21

SUBJECT: Elizabeth’s Baptism

Baptists have a long history of writing, preaching, and lecturing on the doctrine of baptism. I agree with just about everything they say, but I still have a problem. The teaching is all negative. Baptists have long

• Written against Infant Baptism

• Lectured against Sprinkling

• Preached against Baptismal Regeneration

We can never win the argument over baptism as long as we stay negative. The Baptists need to develop a positive doctrine of Baptism.

But until we do, I’m staying with the negative!

Many Reformed Baptists nowadays are reluctant to baptize children who profess faith in Christ. Some will do it—but don’t like to. And others won’t do it at all. I know of two churches that have a formal age requirement for baptism. No one may be baptized until he’s eighteen years old. Until then, no profession of faith is credible enough and no life is holy enough to warrant baptism.

When you ask them why, they never say "Because God cannot save children".

And their right, of course. The Lord can—and often does—save children. I was baptized as a young boy. And looking back more than thirty years, I very much believe I was a Christian at the time. Some of you can say the same thing.

So that’s not the argument used against baptizing young people.

What is the argument? The details differ from church to church, but the ones I’ve heard most often are these:

• Children are ignorant.

• Children are unstable.

• Children are apt to be influenced by other people (parents who talk them into being baptized or friends who are themselves being baptized).

Is there anything in the Bible to support the arguments? Yes there is—quite a lot, in fact. The Bible often portrays people as ignorant, unstable, and easily manipulated into doing things they don’t really understand.

The problem with the verses though, is this: They’re all applied to adults!

Are children ignorant? Yes they are—but so are their parents!

Are children unstable? Yes they are—and so are grown-ups.

Can children be manipulated? Yes they can be. But so were Ananias and Sapphira, whom—I think—were stampeded into selling their goods, and so on.

If the arguments prove anything, therefore, they prove too much. They not only make us reluctant to baptize young people, but anyone, for that matter.

Yet this is not a problem in the Early Church. People were saved and baptized the same day. There is no warning about baptizing people too soon. There is no example of baptizing kids and regretting it later.

The whole thing is Human Wisdom put over the Word of God. I don’t mean to be offensive by saying that; I don’t malign anyone’s character or motives. But, if you’re going to refuse baptism to children on a credible profession of faith, you’ve got to do better than this!

The Bible teaches that believers are to be baptized. And we’re to baptize them—not after a long probation—but on a credible profession of faith. Which means:

• They publicly own the Lord Jesus Christ.

• Their lives—young or old—support their words.