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Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults
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Early Teachings on Infant Baptism
Although many Protestant traditions baptize babies,
Baptists—and "Bible churches" in the Baptist tradition—insist that baptism
is only for those who have come to faith. Nowhere in the New Testament,
they point out, do we read of infants being baptized.
On the other hand, nowhere do we read of children
raised in believing households reaching the age of reason and then
being baptized. The only explicit baptism accounts in the Bible involve
converts from Judaism or paganism. For children of believers there
is no explicit mention of baptism—either in infancy or later.
This poses a problem for Baptists and Bible Christians:
On what basis do they require children of believers to be baptized at
all? Given the silence of the New Testament, why not assume Christian baptism is
only for adult converts?
This, of course, would be contrary to
historical Christian practice. But so is rejecting infant baptism. As we
will see, there is no doubt that the early Church practiced infant baptism;
and no Christian objections to this practice were ever voiced until the
Reformation.
The New Testament itself, while it does not explicitly
say when (or whether) believers should have their children baptized, is
not silent on the subject.
Luke 18:15–16 tells us that "they were bringing
even infants" to Jesus; and he himself related this to the kingdom of God:
"Let the children come to me
. . . for to such belongs the kingdom of God."
When Baptists speak of "bringing someone to Jesus,"
they mean leading him to faith. But Jesus says "even infants" can
be "brought" to him. Even Baptists don’t claim their practice of "dedicating"
babies does this. The fact is, the Bible gives us no way of bringing anyone
to Jesus apart from baptism.
Thus Peter declared, "Repent, and be baptized,
every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your
sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise
is to you and to your children" (Acts 2:38–39).
The apostolic Church baptized whole "households"
(Acts 16:33; 1 Cor. 1:16), a term encompassing children and infants as
well as servants. While these texts do not specifically mention—nor exclude—infants,
the very use of the term "households" indicates an understanding of the
family as a unit. Even one believing parent in a household makes the children
and even the unbelieving spouse "holy" (1 Cor. 7:14).
Does this mean unbelieving spouses should be baptized?
Of course not. The kingdom of God is not theirs; they cannot be "brought
to Christ" in their unbelief. But infants have no such impediment. The
kingdom is theirs, Jesus says, and they should be brought to him; and this
means baptism.
Baptism is the Christian equivalent of circumcision,
or "the circumcision of Christ": "In him you were also circumcised with
. . . the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism
and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised
him from the dead" (Col. 2:11–12). Thus, like circumcision, baptism can
be given to children as well as adults. The difference is that circumcision
was powerless to save (Gal. 5:6, 6:15), but "[b]aptism . . . now saves
you" (1 Pet. 3:21).
The first explicit evidence of children
of believing households being baptized comes from the early Church—where
infant baptism was uniformly
upheld and regarded as apostolic. In fact, the
only reported controversy on the subject was a third-century debate whether
or not to delay baptism until the eighth day after birth, like its Old
Testament equivalent, circumcision! (See quotation from Cyprian, below;
compare Leviticus 12:2–3.)
Consider, too, that Fathers raised in Christian
homes (such as Irenaeus) would hardly have upheld infant baptism as apostolic
if their own baptisms had been deferred until the age of reason.
For example, infant baptism is assumed in Irenaeus’
writings below (since he affirms both that regeneration happens in baptism,
and also that Jesus came so even infants could be regenerated). Since he
was born in a Christian home in Smyrna around the year 140, this means
he was probably baptized around 140. He was also probably baptized by the
bishop of Smyrna at that time—Polycarp, a personal disciple of the apostle
John, who had died only a few decades before.
Irenaeus
"He [Jesus] came to save all through himself; all,
I say, who through him are reborn in God: infants, and children, and youths,
and old men. Therefore he passed through every age, becoming an infant
for infants, sanctifying infants; a child for children, sanctifying those
who are of that age . . . [so that] he might be the perfect teacher in
all things, perfect not only in respect to the setting forth of truth,
perfect also in respect to relative age" (Against Heresies 2:22:4
[A.D. 189]).
"‘And [Naaman] dipped himself . . . seven times
in the Jordan’ [2 Kgs. 5:14]. It was not for nothing that Naaman of old,
when suffering from leprosy, was purified upon his being baptized, but
[this served] as an indication to us. For as we are lepers in sin, we are
made clean, by means of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord,
from our old transgressions, being spiritually regenerated as newborn babes,
even as the Lord has declared: ‘Except a man be born again through water
and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven’ [John 3:5]"
(Fragment 34 [A.D. 190]).
Hippolytus
"Baptize first the children, and if they can speak
for themselves let them do so. Otherwise, let their parents or other relatives
speak for them" (The Apostolic Tradition 21:16 [A.D. 215]).
Origen
"Every soul that is born into flesh is soiled by
the filth of wickedness and sin. . . . In the Church, baptism is given
for the remission of sins, and, according to the usage of the Church, baptism
is given even to infants. If there were nothing in infants which required
the remission of sins and nothing in them pertinent to forgiveness, the
grace of baptism would seem superfluous" (Homilies on Leviticus 8:3
[A.D. 248]).
"The Church received from the apostles the tradition
of giving baptism even to infants. The apostles, to whom were committed
the secrets of the divine sacraments, knew there are in everyone innate
strains of [original] sin, which must be washed away through water and
the Spirit" (Commentaries on Romans 5:9 [A.D. 248]).
Cyprian of Carthage
"As to what pertains to the case of infants: You
[Fidus] said that they ought not to be baptized within the second or third
day after their birth, that the old law of circumcision must be taken into
consideration, and that you did not think that one should be baptized and
sanctified within the eighth day after his birth. In our council it seemed
to us far otherwise. No one agreed to the course which you thought should
be taken. Rather, we all judge that the mercy and grace of God ought to
be denied to no man born" (Letters 64:2 [A.D. 253]).
"If, in the case of the worst sinners and those
who formerly sinned much against God, when afterwards they believe, the
remission of their sins is granted and no one is held back from baptism
and grace, how much more, then, should an infant not be held back, who,
having but recently been born, has done no sin, except that, born of the
flesh according to Adam, he has contracted the contagion of that old death
from his first being born. For this very reason does he [an infant] approach
more easily to receive the remission of sins: because the sins forgiven
him are not his own but those of another" (ibid., 64:5).
Gregory of Nazianz
"Do you have an infant child? Allow sin no opportunity;
rather, let the infant be sanctified from childhood. From his most tender
age let him be consecrated by the Spirit. Do you fear the seal [of baptism]
because of the weakness of nature? Oh, what a pusillanimous mother and
of how little faith!" (Oration on Holy Baptism 40:7 [A.D. 388]).
"‘Well enough,’ some will say, ‘for those who ask
for baptism, but what do you have to say about those who are still children,
and aware neither of loss nor of grace? Shall we baptize them too?’ Certainly
[I respond], if there is any pressing danger. Better that they be sanctified
unaware, than that they depart unsealed and uninitiated" (ibid., 40:28).
John Chrysostom
"You see how many are the benefits of baptism,
and some think its heavenly grace consists only in the remission of sins,
but we have enumerated ten honors [it bestows]! For this reason we baptize
even infants, though they are not defiled by [personal] sins, so that there
may be given to them holiness, righteousness, adoption, inheritance, brotherhood
with Christ, and that they may be his [Christ’s] members" (Baptismal
Catecheses in Augustine, Against Julian 1:6:21 [A.D. 388]).
Augustine
"What the universal Church holds, not as instituted
[invented] by councils but as something always held, is most correctly
believed to have been handed down by apostolic authority. Since others
respond for children, so that the celebration of the sacrament may be complete
for them, it is certainly availing to them for their consecration, because
they themselves are not able to respond" (On Baptism, Against the Donatists
4:24:31 [A.D. 400]).
"The custom of Mother Church in baptizing infants
is certainly not to be scorned, nor is it to be regarded in any way as
superfluous, nor is it to be believed that its tradition is anything except
apostolic" (The Literal Interpretation of Genesis 10:23:39 [A.D.
408]).
"Cyprian was not issuing a new decree but was keeping
to the most solid belief of the Church in order to correct some who thought
that infants ought not be baptized before the eighth day after their birth.
. . . He agreed with certain of his fellow bishops that a child is able
to be duly baptized as soon as he is born" (Letters 166:8:23 [A.D.
412]).
"By this grace baptized infants too are ingrafted
into his [Christ’s] body, infants who certainly are not yet able to imitate
anyone. Christ, in whom all are made alive . . . gives also the most hidden
grace of his Spirit to believers, grace which he secretly infuses even
into infants. . . . It is an excellent thing that the Punic [North African]
Christians call baptism salvation and the sacrament of Christ’s Body nothing
else than life. Whence does this derive, except from an ancient and, as
I suppose, apostolic tradition, by which the churches of Christ hold inherently
that without baptism and participation at the table of the Lord it is impossible
for any man to attain either to the kingdom of God or to salvation and
life eternal? This is the witness of Scripture, too. . . . If anyone wonders
why children born of the baptized should themselves be baptized, let him
attend briefly to this. . . . The sacrament of baptism is most assuredly
the sacrament of regeneration" (Forgiveness and the Just Deserts of
Sin, and the Baptism of Infants 1:9:10; 1:24:34; 2:27:43 [A.D. 412]).
Council of Carthage V
"Item: It seemed good that whenever there
were not found reliable witnesses who could testify that without any doubt
they [abandoned children] were baptized and when the children themselves
were not, on account of their tender age, able to answer concerning the
giving of the sacraments to them, all such children should be baptized
without scruple, lest a hesitation should deprive them of the cleansing
of the sacraments. This was urged by the [North African] legates, our brethren,
since they redeem many such [abandoned children] from the barbarians" (Canon
7 [A.D. 401]).
Council of Mileum II
"[W]hoever says that infants fresh from their mothers’
wombs ought not to be baptized, or say that they are indeed baptized unto
the remission of sins, but that they draw nothing of the original sin of
Adam, which is expiated in the bath of regeneration . . . let him be anathema
[excommunicated]. Since what the apostle [Paul] says, ‘Through one man
sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so passed to all
men, in whom all have sinned’ [Rom. 5:12], must not be understood otherwise
than the Catholic Church spread everywhere has always understood it. For
on account of this rule of faith even infants, who in themselves thus far
have not been able to commit any sin, are therefore truly baptized unto
the remission of sins, so that that which they have contracted from generation
may be cleansed in them by regeneration" (Canon 3 [A.D. 416]).
NIHIL OBSTAT:
I have concluded that the materials
presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004
IMPRIMATUR:
In accord with 1983 CIC 827
permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004