House Church Talk - house baptisms

[Bruce Woodford]

Hi David,

You wrote:"I don't believe in baptizing infants either, but I have 
considered the arguments before and like Cliff, I am not sure you appreciate 
the presuppositions involved....It (that one cannot make disiples of 
infants) is a presupposition because the argument from those who baptize 
infants is that we bring infants into covenant with God through our parental 
authority.  Therefore, we do make them disciples of Christ simply by virtue 
of the fact that we are their parents.  In Judaism,this was commanded in the 
form of circumcision on the 8th day.  The infant has no choice in being a 
Jew.  He was born into it and circumcised.  In the same way, it is argued 
that parents can baptize their infants as a sign of the covenant their 
children have with God through the authority of their own covenant with God. 
  The Scriptures teach that our children are sanctified by the believing 
parent (e.g., 1 Corinthians 7:14).  This is the basis for infant baptism."

I am well aware of what those who practice infant baptism believe. Have 
worked among such people for years.  But the idea you have expressed i.e. 
"that we bring infants into covenant with God through our parental 
authority" is a concept totally foreign to scripture and nowhere in 
scripture associated with baptism!

I had written:"It is evident regarding all the household baptisms in 
scripture that all that were baptized believed."

To which you responded:"That is not evident at all.  That is a 
presupposition of the clearest
>kind.  If a document turned up indicating that the jailer had a 6 month 
>infant in his household who also was baptized, it would not contradict the 
>Bible but it would contradict the presupposition that infants did not 
>participate in baptisms."

David, as I clearly showed in my previous post, scripture does demonstrate 
that all those who were baptized within households BELIEVED!  So such a 
document about which you hypothesize above certainly WOULD contradict the 
Bible!

Your brother in Christ,
Bruce

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