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Transcript 336A — Does the Bible Have Anything to Say About Infant Baptism?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Brother Camping, I want to thank you for all the help you have been to me. My question is, does the Bible have anything to say concerning infant baptism? And I'll hang up and listen to you.
HC: All right. Fine. Thank you. Good night.
The question is raised, Does the Bible have anything to say about infant baptism?
The Bible does not say anywhere, ''Thou shalt baptize infants." But by implication it has quite a bit to say of it. In the Old Testament, in Genesis 17, when Abraham was given the sign of the covenant, that God would be a God to him, we read that he was circumcised with his whole household. We read in verse 10 of Genesis 17: "This is My covenant, which ye shall keep, between Me and you and thy seed after thee. Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin. It shall be a token of the covenant between Me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you. Every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money, or any stranger that is not of thy seed, he that is born in thy house and he that is bought with thy money, must be circumcised. And My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant."
And so on this day we read that Abraham, in verse 23, "took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin, the very same day as God had said unto him."
Now circumcision, you see, was the outward sign that was used to indicate that someone had become identified with the Kingdom of God. Abraham was the head of his household, and because he had become a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ (to use the New Testament language), he had entered the Kingdom of God. Now as the head, having entered the Kingdom of God, what about the rest of his household, whom he ruled over?
They had not necessarily become saved at all, but they certainly now corporately were to be identified with the Kingdom of God. Inasmuch as Abraham as the head had entered the Kingdom of God, therefore everything he ruled over was to be identified with the Kingdom of God. And this was done through the rite of circumcision.
And you'll notice that circumcision was done with any male child that was 8 days old or older. Incidentally, when a proselyte, that is, a Gentile, would become a member of the Jewish faith in the Old Testament, the rite that was employed was circumcision. He was circumcised, and this was the sign that he also had become identified with the kingdom of Israel, or the Kingdom of God.
Now this rite of circumcision was an Old Testament ceremonial rite. It took its place alongside the other ceremonial laws. And therefore, it was not to be used once Christ went to the cross.
But Jesus did give two New Testament signs which indicated identification with the Kingdom of God. One was that of baptism. Anyone who was saved was to be baptized in water, even as in the Old Testament someone who became saved, and wanted identification with the kingdom of Israel, or the Kingdom of God in the Old Testament Jewish law was to be circumcised. So the New Testament declares that if anyone becomes saved, he is to be baptized in water. And this again is an outward sign to indicate that such identification with the Kingdom of God has occurred.
But now what about children? Well, we read, very interestingly, in Acts 16, that Lydia, a seller of purple (which is not important to our discussion at this point), was saved. And we read in verse 15 of Acts 16, "And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there."
We're surprised, aren't we, that she was baptized with her household. Actually, the verse before declares that her heart the Lord opened. "So she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul." But when she was baptized, her household was baptized. We have exactly a parallel situation to what occurred in Abraham's house when he, as the head of the house, entered the Kingdom of God, was identified with the covenant of God. His household was circumcised.
And by the same token, when Lydia was saved, she was baptized, the New Testament sign of identification with the Kingdom of God. And her household was baptized. Now as if to make sure that we would not misunderstand this, we read in the same chapter of the family of the jailer of Philippi. He also was saved. The promise was given to him in verse 31 of Acts 16, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." This is a restatement of the Old Testament promise, "I will be a God to you and your children." This is the way God has always worked in salvation - through families.
If the head of the house is saved, if he would bring up his children in the fear and the nurture of the Lord, then he could also expect that they in turn would begin to give evidence of having been saved. At least to a very high degree this would occur. And therefore they were to be raised, or trained, reared as citizens of God's Kingdom.
Well, then notice what the jailer of Philippi did . . . verse 33: "He took them [that is, Paul and Silas] the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was baptized, he and all his, straightway" [or he and all his household]. That same night, you see, when he was baptized, after he believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, he was the head of the house, and his family also was baptized directly parallel language to Genesis 17, where Abraham was circumcised along with his household, all that he ruled over.
And so we see here, therefore, that there certainly is strong implication in the Bible that children of believers ought to be baptized. I am a believing parent. I am in the Kingdom of God, according to everything the Bible states. I have a family. I have children. Do I want them identified with the Kingdom of God? Absolutely I want them identified with the Kingdom of God. I'm praying for their salvation. I'm going to bring them up in the fear and the nurture of the Lord. I'm going to trust God's promise that if I bring them up in the way that they should go, in their old age they'll not depart from it. So I'm going to rear them, faithfully, carefully, diligently, as citizens of God's Kingdom. I'm going to be obedient to all that the Bible says, in order to bring up my children in the fear and the nurture of the Lord.
But I want my family identified with the Kingdom of God, too. And therefore, I want them baptized. Now this baptism of my family is not going to save them. Water baptism does not guarantee salvation in any sense whatsoever. God is the one who has to do the saving. But I know that He will work through my faithfulness in bringing up my children in the fear and the knowledge of the Lord, even as He works through my faithfulness in witnessing, so that there will be others who will be saved. Or He will work through my (and when I say my, I'm talking about yours, also, and all faithful believers) prayer on behalf of others, that they might be saved. God in his providence, God in his mercy, makes us human instruments in His hand, so that we carry out His program to bring the Gospel to others, to our own family, as well as to those who are outside of our family.
I feel that infant baptism is on very solid Biblical ground, based on what I read in the Old Testament concerning salvation, based upon what I read in the New Testament concerning salvation. There's only one salvation in the Bible. Let's never forget this. There is only one kind of salvation in the Bible. The Old Testament Jew was saved exactly as the New Testament Gentile. There are not two kinds of salvation. There's only one kind of salvation, and that's through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is through coming with a broken and a contrite heart to God, trusting in Christ as the Savior, or as the one who would forgive our sins.
The Old Testament believer looked forward to the atoning work of Christ on the cross, and the New Testament believer looks back on the cross as an accomplished event. In both cases the efficacy of the cross is the same... it is by Christ's shed blood. It reaches back to Adam and Eve, and cleanses all the Old Testament believers from their sins. And it reaches forward to you and me as we experience salvation.
Therefore we are not surprised to see the parallel language in Genesis 17, when Abraham and his house were circumcised, to that of the language in Acts 16, where we read of Lydia and the jailer of Philippi and their respective households being baptized.