*Editor’s Note: The following blog series titled “Shall We Baptize Children” was originally delivered by Pastor Sam Waldron to his congregation, Grace Reformed Baptist Church (Owensboro, KY), as Sunday School lessons to help his congregation better understand Baptism. The view expressed by Dr. Waldron in this series is not the uniform position of all professors of CBTS nor the official view of the Seminary. As more installments of this series are released, each part will be linked together.
Preface
For several years your pastors have discussed the issue of the baptism of children. We have especially wondered when the time was coming when we might have to give this church which we love so much systematic instruction on this issue. This is a difficult and somewhat controversial issue. Personally, I have been reluctant to take this matter public in the past. Yet with so many young families and children now in the church, I with my fellow pastors have become convinced that can no longer refrain from giving specific guidance to you on this issue. I do not claim to say everything exactly as they might if they were preaching on this issue. Yet I can tell you that we are of one mind on this issue and that what I am teaching I am teaching on behalf of us all as pastors.
Section 1: The Present Controversy
Some of you may be entirely unaware that there is any serious difference of opinion among “Reformed Baptists” on this issue. Perhaps you have never questioned the common practice of baptizing children. Perhaps you may be surprised that anybody of any stature should question such a practice. That is why I think you need to know that there are well-known Baptist pastors of Reformed views that have rejected the practice of baptizing children.
Let me give you just two examples of such churches and pastors. I think very highly of Mark Dever and Nine Marks for their publications which embody highly biblical views of church practice. Dr. Dever holds the view that only young people who have reached the age of 18 should be baptized. This is the practice of Capitol Hill Baptist Church. Closer to home Pastors Al Martin and Greg Nichols when they were pastors together of Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, NJ led that church to the same practice by their teaching on this issue.
On the other hand, many of us were previously members of a church whose founding pastor wrote a booklet defending and arguing for the baptism of children.
Thus, there is a difference of opinion on this issue. You need to know that. And …
I suppose that one of my reasons for wanting you to know about this difference of opinion among Reformed Baptists is that so some of you will not simply dismiss the idea that only adults should be baptized as some wacko, fringe idea. It is not! Now let me say very clearly that I am not out to defend the practice of either Capitol Hill or Trinity Baptist. But I do want you to know that such views are not the marginal views of some hyper-Reformed cage-stage Calvinistic pastors.
Section 2: The Personal Chronicle
We live in the post-modern age. One of the things that post-modernism emphasizes is that we are all deeply enmeshed in our own culture’s way of looking at things. Post-modernism believes that our thinking is irresistibly embedded in the societal views in which we have been raised. Now, of course, we reject such ideas.
But one good result of this way of thought is the idea that we all need to be perfectly honest about things in our past experience that may have deeply influenced the way we view things. This has had some good effects. When I was at Kentucky Wesleyan teaching, my boss told me that this gave me the right and even the obligation to give my personal experience of the gospel to the students. I did that in my first class every semester.
And I think it will be useful to you that I tell you some of the things in my experience that have influenced my views of this matter. I have divided my remarks on this issue into two points: my personal experience and my pastoral experience.
My Personal Experience
Here is the first thing. I was first “baptized” when I was seven years old. I spent many years after that struggling with assurance of salvation. After coming to a prevailing assurance of salvation, I then spent many years struggling with whether my baptism at age seven was valid. I was finally “baptized again” when I was 26—about the same time I became a pastor in the church in Grand Rapids in 1977 and where I served for 24 years.
My wife and had a very similar experience of being baptized as a child. She later questioned that baptism, and was baptized at a later age as an adult.
Our experience, of course, influenced us as parents. As a consequence, none of our children were baptized as small children. All of our children were baptized in their mid to late teens. We have no regrets about this at all even though one of our children was probably a Christian from an early age and even though another of our children was probably not a Christian and was baptized again a few years ago.
My Pastoral Experience
But let me continue this candid revelation of my experience by telling you about my experience as one of the elders of the Reformed Baptist Church of Grand Rapids.
The first thing I remember on this subject goes back to when I was a very new pastor in the Reformed Baptist Church of Grand Rapids. I remember vividly a new member of our church in Grand Rapids telling me that he was convinced that his three-year-old child was a Christian and urging me to baptize him. Needless to say, this seemed a little—more than a little—”far out” to me.
Later, but still in the early years of that church we had no qualms about baptizing children. We actually baptized four children at about age 9. A few years later we had to exercise church discipline on every single one of those young people.
This sad experience led us to question the common practice of baptizing children. About the same time, we became aware of the views and practice of Trinity Baptist Church in New Jersey. In the Reformed Baptist Church of Grand Rapids their teaching led us to make the change to adult only baptism. We did not restrict baptism to 18-year-olds, but we did restrict it to those young people whom the pastors considered to be adult.
Many years later when God led us here to Owensboro we came to a church which practiced the baptism of children. When I came to Owensboro, I had imbibed some doubts about some of the arguments for adult only baptism which I had heard. My doubts were sufficient to make me comfortable submitting to the practice of our new church. I did insist when I helped write the constitution of that church that children had to be baptized into the church.
Since 2013 when we removed from that church, and I became a part of the church and the eldership here at Grace, we have practiced neither adult baptism only or child baptism, but have generally followed a conservative practice without settling on or teaching either view. Thus, I have been a pastor of three different Reformed Baptist churches—each with a different practice on this issue. If you want to call me wishy-washy on this issue, I suppose I cannot fault you.
So what are you saying, Pastor Sam? Should this have any authority with us at all on this issue? My answer is NO! Absolutely none. I am simply trying to be honest about my past experience. The point is honesty not authority. This matter must be determined—this questioned must be answered—by sola scriptura and not at all by my experience.
Still, I hope I am not deceiving myself when I hope that telling my own story will in other respects help you as we come to consider this subject. Perhaps at least you will allow that I have had to think about this issue a very long time and from a lot of different perspectives. Perhaps this will help you listen carefully and, I hope, with a teachable heart to what I say to you about this subject from the Scriptures.
Section 3: The Premised Convictions
The last thing I want to do in this first message or lesson on the baptism of children is to review five convictions which are my premises to or assumptions about this discussion. As premised convictions I do not regard these things as in need of lengthy proof or discussion. I believe you share these convictions with me. It will be good, however, to briefly state those premises and briefly show their scriptural basis. Here is the first one:
First Conviction: The answer to the question is revealed and regulated by the Word of God.
I have already alluded to this first conviction when I said that neither my or your experience is authoritative in this matter. On the question of the baptism of children our answer must be based on sola scriptura. We must go “to the law and to the testimony” in order to discover the divine guidance we need to have with regard to the baptism of children. Please turn to just one passage—it is the classic passage—which teaches that the Scriptures reveal and regulate the answer to the question of the baptism of children. It is 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” The man of God is equipped for every good work by the diverse uses of Scripture. The emphasis is clear “adequate, equipped for every good work.” Thus, we ask, Is properly baptizing the disciples of Christ a good work? Yes, it is according to the Great Commission something Christ commands us to do. Then we must conclude that the Scriptures are adequate to equip us for the good work of baptizing and, there, adequate to direct us with regard to the question of the baptism of children.
Second Conviction: The Scriptures teach the Baptism of Disciples Alone and the Wrongness of Infant Baptism.
Once more my goal is not to engage in extensive proof of this. Believer’s baptism is, after all, a confessional commitment of this church. Let me simply turn you to one of the many passages which teach believer’s baptism. I choose Acts 8:12. It reads: “But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike.” When were the Samaritans baptized? The text is clear: “when they believed.” Who were baptized? Those who believed were baptized “men and women alike.” There is no mention of their infants being baptized. There is not even any mention of children being baptized. The language is clear. It is men and women who were baptized; and the Greek words here mean specifically designate adult males and adult females.
It has been observed—and I think correctly—that there really is very little difference between baptizing small children and infant baptism. When child evangelism parachurch groups can get 90+% of conversions in their child evangelism, one really needs to question how much difference there is between baptizing infants and small children.
The Third Conviction: The Scriptures teach that all Credibly Professing Believers should be baptized.
Here my distinct point is that it is not merely permission to be baptized, if you want to be, that believing in Christ gives you. Baptism is a duty for all credibly professing believers in Christ. Some appear to teach that baptism is a kind of luxury item or accessory of the Christina life. It is not. It is a duty for all credibly professing believers. Here my one text is found in Acts 10:44-48:
44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. 45 All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. 46 For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered, 47 “Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?” 48 And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days.
The plainly converted Gentiles were ordered—the word may also be translated, commanded—to be baptized. It was not an option. it was an obligation. Baptism is the appointed covenantal expression of faith in Christ in the New Covenant.
Fourth Conviction: The Scriptures teach that children may be converted to Christ and saved.
Questioning whether minor children should be baptized sometimes creates a reaction that sounds like this: Don’t you believe children can be saved? This forces me to say that it is one my premised convictions that God does save children and sometimes even small children. I even imagine that there are elect infants who die in infancy that are saved. But these beliefs and hopes are not the same as saying that we should baptize such children or infants. All those who refrain from baptizing children—as far as I know—believe that God sometimes saves small children and infants.
Nevertheless, though this is my conviction, it is not quite as simple as you might think to prove that God saves children from Scripture. Here let me point you to one Old Testament and one New Testament example.
- The Old Testament Example—Samuel
It appears that my namesake, Samuel, was converted as a small boy. Turn to several connected statements in 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel 2:26 reads:
“Now the boy Samuel was growing in stature and in favor both with the LORD and with men.” 1 Samuel 3:7, speaking of Samuel as a small boy, adds: “Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, nor had the word of the LORD yet been revealed to him.” The succeeding context records, however, how Samuel responded obediently to Eli and the Lord’s call. It records his faithful following of the Lord and his faithful prophesying. It appears the God’s call of Samuel to salvation and to prophesying happened at about the same time. As a young boy Samuel came to know the Lord. 1 Samuel 3:19 says this: “Thus Samuel grew and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fail.”
This language of knowing the Lord speaks of someone being saved. Listen to three parallel texts.
1 Samuel 2:12 Now the sons of Eli were worthless men; they did not know the LORD Judges 2:10 All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.
Jeremiah 31:34 “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
Thus, Samuel coming to know the Lord as a small boy means that he was saved as a small boy.
- The New Testament Example—Ephesians 6:1
The text reads: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” Notice two things. First, Ephesians 6:1 addresses young children. That is the meaning of the word, children, here. It is children who have parents charged to bring them up in the Lord. Second, it calls them to follow gospel motives in obeying their parents. They must obey “in the Lord.” All this assumes that at least some children listening to this letter read were converted or could be converted and influenced by gospel.
Fifth Conviction: Baptism must be into the membership of a local church.
It is the practice of our church only to baptize people who are or are becoming members of a local church. If any of you want to see a more lengthy argument for this, just ask me to send you my essay entitled, Ten Reasons Why Baptism Must Be into the Membership of a Local Church.
I only have time to show you one passage teaching this conviction. It is found in Acts 2:41: “So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.” Added! Added to what? The whole preceding context makes clear that they were added to the church consisting of 120 disciples mentioned in Acts 1:15. But the succeeding context is also clear. Acts 2:42 tells us that those baptized continued as active members of the church and its worship: “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
Consequent Exhortations
Children, should not think they are too young to be saved! Samuel came to know and serve the Lord when he was just a boy. Other children may too. Your children also may have the wonderful privilege of knowing and serving the Lord from your youth.
Children, must not think that they can worry about being saved when you are older! I do not know how children could have received that impression in this church, from these pastors, or from this pulpit! How could anyone ever think that you do not need to worry about being saved until you are older? No one came to that conclusion here. Do not think that you can put off being saved or worrying about this matter until you are older. I began to be concerned for my soul when I was three years old. I was right to be concerned. If children are old enough to understand what I am saying to you right now, then they are old enough to be saved. They are also old enough to be lost forever if they die in your sins. Whatever the Bible teaches about when they should be baptized, it is clear that they should seek salvation right now—here—today!
Church, whatever we practice about this issue—even if we conclude that we should not baptize children—we must never allow our children to think that salvation is for when they are older. Suppose we conclude that only adults should be baptized. Such a conclusion would not be and never would be an excuse for lethargy, complacency, or laziness with regard to the salvation of our children.
Church, we must believe that the Bible is able to guide us on even an issue as difficult as this one! Some of you may be ready to say: Well, if learned pastors disagree about this issue, then how can I ever be certain? Or you may use the “great men of God” excuse. Well, if great men of God have differed, then how can we ever get this right. Don’t go there! Learned pastors have blind-spots. Great men of God have been terrible husbands and fathers. Let the Word of God be true; and every man a liar. The Scriptures are sufficient and alone sufficient to guide us in every good work including the good work of a being a thoroughly biblical church! The Scriptures are able to make clear whether we should baptize 6 year old Jimmy, 9 year old Sara, 11 year old Matthew, or 13 year old Barbara! But you will not find the answers—you will not even search for the answers—unless you first believe in the sufficiency of the Scriptures to guide us in this and every religious duty.
The gold miner will only spend years panning for gold and digging for gold if he believes that there is gold “in them thar hills.” The riches of Scripture, similarly, are only for those who begin by believing that they are there and then search for them as hid treasure. On this and every other issue: only believing leads to searching and only searching leads to finding. It is because you really do not believe that the Scriptures can show you the answer you need on some issue or other that you do not search for and then find the answer!
Dr. Sam Waldron is the Academic Dean of CBTS and professor of Systematic Theology. He is also one of the pastors of Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Owensboro, KY. Dr. Waldron received a B.A. from Cornerstone University, an M.Div. from Trinity Ministerial Academy, a Th.M. from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. From 1977 to 2001 he was a pastor of the Reformed Baptist Church of Grand Rapids, MI. Dr. Waldron is the author of numerous books including A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, The End Times Made Simple, Baptist Roots in America, To Be Continued?, and MacArthur’s Millennial Manifesto: A Friendly Response.
