*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.

To read part 1 of this series, click here.

To read part 2 of this series, click here.

Section 1: The Practical Conclusion Carefully Stated  

Ordinarily¹, baptism and church membership² should be reserved for adults.³

¹—Ordinarily: I have been a pastor too long to want to make absolute and dogmatic assertions about very practical issues like this one. I am keenly aware that very unusual and very puzzling situations can confront us as pastors and in churches. Let me give you an illustration of what I am talking about. Many years ago in Grand Rapids after coming to the conviction that baptism was for adult believers, we faced a such an unusual situation. There was a young man in the church in his 20’s (I think.) who made a profession of faith and wanted to be baptized. So what was the problem? He was a child because of a natural mental defect and would never grow mentally into an adult. In that situation we decided that this young man ought not to be denied baptism, and we baptized him into the church. Please, then, do not take the practical conclusion I am stating as an absolute, universal, and dogmatic law of the Medes and the Persians. Give us credit as your pastors for knowing how thorny and difficult practical issues like this may be.

²—baptism and church membership: Though this study has mainly concerned baptism, since baptism and church membership are closely connected as I have shown, the practical conclusion applies to both.

³—should be reserved for adults: This is what I am willing to say doctrinally and clearly. I refer, of course, adults who are as such able to make and do make a credible profession of faith. I also mean, when I speak of adults, what I have said about the clear, biblical distinction between children and adults. That is my doctrinal statement.

But the next and practical question is this: How old do you have to be in order to be an adult? I do not believe any definitive age can be stated with regard to this and which applies in every case. But there is several things that can be said.

• First, I do not believe that you have to be 18 to be an adult.
• Second, I am also defining adult in light of a clear rejection of the modern invention of the teenage who is neither adult not child.
• Third, I am also defining an adult in light of Jewish and Christian history in which the threshold of adulthood was generally thought to be entered around the age of 12 or 13.
• Fourth, I am also acknowledging that it must be a matter of discernment and judgment on the part of the church and its elders if a person is an adult and as such making a credible profession of faith.

Section 2: The Practical Conclusion Biblically Argued  

I. There is no example of the baptism of a child in the New Testament.

In one way this argument is similar to our argument against infant baptism. Just as there is no instance, example, or precedent for the baptism of an infant, so also there is no instance, example, or precedent for the baptism of a child. This is an astonishing fact given that most of the baptisms taking place in American Baptist churches are the baptisms of children. Just as it is mere assumption to say that there were infants in the households that were baptized, so also it is mere assumption to say that there were minor children in those households or that the children counted as part of the household that was baptized and that any such minor children were baptized.

II. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are covenants and signs of the covenant which children are incompetent to make. 

The simple fact is that children are not competent to make binding covenants. They were not allowed in Jewish culture, and they are not allowed to do so in our culture. Before the age of 18 you have to have your parents’ permission to make the covenant of marriage. Even with parental consent, you have to be 15 in Kentucky. The youngest age that marriage may be contracted in the United States is Massachusetts which according to the website I consulted allows marriage to be contracted at age 12 with parental consent. In the language of the Bible minor children are not old enough to speak for themselves.

III. The immature nature of children as taught in the Bible makes it very difficult for them to make a credible profession of faith and for the church and it pastors to pass judgment on their profession of faith as credible.

Do I as a pastor take seriously what the Bible teaches about the instability of children? Do I as a pastor take seriously their vulnerability to deception (and thus self-deception)? Do I as a pastor have to take seriously the fact that children think, speak, and reason like children? Yes, I do because the Bible teaches each of these things. Consequently, must I not as a pastor take these things into account when I am talking with a child about spiritual things? Am I suppose to lapse into spiritual amnesia and forget 1 Corinthians 13 and Ephesians 4 when I listen to their professions of faith? Am I suppose to adopt some form of spiritual gullibility which is exactly contrary to the warnings of the Bible and too much influenced by the naïveté and sentimentality of our culture?

But let me be clear. This is a suspending of judgment about childish professions of faith. It is not advocating suspicion about such professions or the rejection of childish professions of faith. I do not have to convey suspicion and discourage a child—even if I am suspending judgment about their profession because of their being a child.

IV. Children cannot undertake the duties and liabilities of church membership which they undertake in baptism.

To baptize children is to baptize them into the church and to confer on them all the privileges and liabilities of such membership. These privileges and especially these liabilities like church discipline are not appropriately given to children who cannot speak for themselves in public matters like those involved in membership in the visible church. They are not appropriately given to children who cannot realize like an adult the possible consequences of their actions.

V. The history of the people of God both in the Old and New Covenants generally supports the baptism of adults. 

Let me summarize the evidence as I understand it and as I have presented it in this study.

• Our own particular Baptist history does not support the baptism of children but exhibits the practice of only baptizing adults. The baptism of pre-teen children does not arise in Baptist circles till the 1800’s.
• The practice of Baptists in other countries not influenced by American practices was generally to reserve baptism for adults.
• The practice of churches’ that believe in infant baptism is to withhold communicant membership until confirmation usually at about age 12. Once again there is the recognition that there is an important developmental milestone reached at around the age of puberty which impacts the membership of the young person in the church.
• The practice of the Jews made a clear distinction between young adults who became such at about the age of 12 or 13 and children. It was only at this age that “a 13-year-old boy is obligated to participate in public, religious fasts. Likewise, any vows he might make are to be regarded as valid.” But baptism is a vow or a covenant, and if this rule is applied, then a child is not permitted to make such a vow.

Here I have to confess that I overlooked an important and confirming piece of evidence in the New Testament for arguing that the important distinction between child and adult occurred at about age 12. Let me ask the question, What important event in the life of Jesus occurred at age 12? You are right. At age 12 he went up to the temple for the feast with his parents. There are a couple of reasons to think that this was the first time Jesus was taken to the feast.

• There is the clear (though implicit) contrast in the account itself. Please turn to Luke 2:41-42: “Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover.42 And when He became twelve, they went up there according to the custom of the Feast.” I certainly grant that the text does not say explicitly that he did not go before, but personally I am unable to explain the text without that assumption. (Luke is the only one of the gospels to note Jesus age at the commencement of his ministry as age 30 in Luke 3:23.) But that brings me to a second reason …
• According to the Old Testament it was the adult males who were commanded to go to the yearly feast. Three times this is commanded. One example is Exodus 23:17 “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD.” But I asked and you may ask were these adult males? I did a word study of this Hebrew word, and I discovered that they were. The same word is used in Deuteronomy 20:13: “When the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall strike all the men in it with the edge of the sword.” But now look at the next verse, Deuteronomy 20:14 “Only the women and the children and the animals and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourself; and you shall use the spoil of your enemies which the LORD your God has given you.” Here the context makes clear that this Hebrew word describes adult males.
• Putting all this together, it looks very much like Jesus was taken to the feast of the Passover when he turned 12 because at that point he was deemed an adult male. This, if true, is confirmation that it was at around age 12 that the threshold of adulthood was reached in biblical times in Jewish society.

Section 3: The Practical Conclusion Systematically Defended

Here I want to take up some of the common objections to confining baptism to adult believers and respond to them. I re-read a book this week defending the baptism of children. I think it will be good to respond to the arguments it presented.

1st Argument: All those who make a credible profession of faith ought to be baptized according to the command of Christ; and it is, therefore, sinful on the part of the church and its pastors to refuse them baptism.

I completely agree! And I disagree with those defenders of adult baptism who admit that children can make a credible profession of faith but refuse to baptize them!

But you know what I am going to say next, don’t’ you? The whole question is whether minor children can make such a credible profession of faith given what the Bible teaches about children. Given their mental immaturity, their vulnerability to deception, their instability, and their inability to think, reason, or speak like adults, how am I as a pastor or we as a church supposed to judge their professions of faith as credible?

2nd Argument: Childhood conversions are discernable.

1st Response: I grant that saving grace is a mighty thing which indisputably transforms everyone it touches.

2nd Response: I grant that children may be converted at very young ages.

3rd Response: I think everyone must acknowledge that childhood conversions are only gradually discernable as children premature. Will the one who says that childhood conversions are discernable be equally confident of the conversion of a child at age 4, at age 8, and at age 12? Will the advocate of this position really present a child of age 4 to the church for baptism? I do not think so. But the reluctance to do this is a clear admission that there is more and more difficulty in discerning the conversion of children at younger and younger ages. Age, then, is a factor in discerning conversion—not just for the advocates of adult baptism—but also for the advocates of childhood baptism.

3rd Argument: Refusing to give baptism to children harms their spiritual development by refusing to them the means of grace connected with baptism like the Lord’s Table and pastoral care.

1st Response—The denial of such privileges only harms those who have a right to them. Since such privileges are dependent on making a credible profession of faith—and minor children cannot make such a profession—, it cannot be harmful to deny them spiritual privileges to which they have no right. May I illustrate? It is harmful to an adult to deny them the privileges and blessings of marriage, but it is not harmful to a child. The same thing is true of the spiritual privileges of dependent on church membership.

2nd Response—The pastors ought to take children who are expressing concern for their souls and a profession of faith under their special care. The delay or deferring of baptism ought not to mean the refusal of pastoral care. This will be one of my applications to pastors below.

4th Argument—Special provisions for the church membership of children which are reasonable may be made.

1st Response—I commend the commitment to baptizing children into the church. It is right and biblical that all baptism must be into the local church. This is much better than baptizing children into no relationship to the local church.

2nd Response—The provisions for a special membership of children which are advocated in this book are probably contrary to the regulative principle which never provides for a different membership of children and adults. Matthew 18 does not say “tell it to the church,” not to the children who are members of the church. 1 Corinthians 5 does not say when you are assembled, but, of course, I am not talking about the children who are members of the church. 2 Corinthians 2 does not say that the person was excommunicated by the majority—not counting the children.

3rd Response—I strongly suspect that, though these provisions sound good theoretically, they are very problematic to implement consistently. This could lead to all sorts of abnormalities with regard to maintaining a regenerate membership in the church. For instance, the provision is made that age 18 the child member will take a class and become, if they wish, and become an adult member. But what is often happening at this age? Young people are moving away to college and are not even near their home church. Perhaps this may be dealt with by great effort, but the realities of the Christian pastor make this unlikely in my view and are the recipe for all sorts of abnormalities.

5th Argument—Children ought to be baptized before age 17 or 18!

1st Response—I agree, but the question is whether they are still children in their mid-teens. Yes, they should, but this is not the position which I am advocating. I am saying that the threshold of adulthood is reached at age 12 or 13. Thus, the book is addressing a position which I do not accept. Listen to this quotation which in this pamphlet is brought forward in support of his position. It is from John Angell James:

Unscriptural caution is sometimes displayed towards those towards those converts, who are young in years, when a young person is proposed as a candidate for fellowship; and if they happen to discover that the youth is only fifteen or sixteen years of age, they seem to feel that the church is either going to be profaned or destroyed. Is there, then, a canonical age for membership? Is the same rule established in the kingdom of Christ, which is observed in the kingdoms of the world, and every one considered as unfit for the privileges of citizenship, till he arrives as the age of one and twenty? If not, what right have we to speak or think about the age of a candidate? Piety is all we inquire into; and whether the individual be fourteen, or fourscore, we are to receive him, provided we have reason to suppose that Christ received him.

It is clear that John Angell James is combatting a conservatism about membership that I also would oppose. I have no issue with considering the application of a 14 or 15 year-old. And I also think that it is legitimate to wonder what he would have thought of the membership not of 14 or 15 year-olds but of 4 or 5 year-olds.

2nd Response—The author has in a subtle way accepted the cultural norm which assumes that teens are not adults. But this is contrary to the Bible which only distinguishes adults and children. I do not assume that teen-agers are not adults.

Section 4: The Practical Conclusion Practically Applied

 I. Regarding Minor Children

• Children should be pressed to be converted.
• Children should be taken under special care who profess Christ and seek baptism by the pastors. If your child expresses a profession of faith which you as a parent think may be genuine, then, if you think good, bring them to a pastor to talk. We will not reject them. We will not discourage them. And we do want to talk to them.
• Such children should be encouraged to wait patiently for young adulthood for baptism and church membership. But they should not be discourage in their profession. Kindness and attention will be sufficient for such children until they are truly ready to be baptized.

II. Regarding Parents

• Parents should remember that baptism does not assure the perseverance and final salvation of their children.
• Parents should remember that others may not see in their children what they see and may not be able to see it.
• Parents should remember that they are not the gatekeepers of the church.
• Parents should remember that premature baptism and church membership for their children may lead to painful situations later.
• Parents should encourage children who are concerned for their souls and concerned to be baptized to talk to the pastors of the church. They should know that they will receive a kind reception and be taken under special care.

III. Regarding Pastors

• Pastors should preach for the salvation of children.
• Pastors should resist being controlled by parental sentiment in the holy matter of baptism. It is easy for us to imagine some parent getting really angry with us and picking up their marbles and going home if we cannot discern s sufficient credibility in their child’s profession to baptize them. Baptize, however, is too holy for us to be controlled by such carnal fears.
• Pastors should provide special care for minor children who profess Christ and seek baptism.

Sam Waldron

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.