Don't Baptize Young Children | Perspective 1

Recently a short clip has been making the rounds where Christian apologist Justin Peters responded to Wretched Radio host Todd Friel’s question: “Should We Allow Young Kids to Be Baptized?” (an eight year old son was in view). Justin Peters responded to Friel as follows:

“You never want to throw cold water on a child’s profession of faith. You want to encourage that. You want to nurture that. You want to say, ‘Son let’s continue to read the bible together, to pray together, to continue to go to church, and talk to the Lord,” but you want to wait on baptizing that child until that boy is older and I mean much older. I would recommend well into their teenage years…because a child is going to adopt the worldview in which he’s raised. That’s just the way kids are.”

Unsurprisingly, a number of paedobaptist (aka infant baptizing) brothers in Christ against believer’s baptism only denounced Peters words calling them  “sad” or even terrible theology. There were a few misleading (at best) even borderline slanderous (at worst) caricatures like Gabe Rench who put quotes around something Peters did not say “Son, I know you want to get baptized but I don’t think you’re a Christian enough yet.” (Gabe should rethink that and even consider taking that down). Surprisingly though, some Christians who are Baptist brothers also denounced and dragged Justin Peters on this as well. Presumably, this was in part because they were baptized as pre-teen children or had their own pre-teen children or church members’ children baptized quickly upon profession of faith. Baptism has long been a matter of fierce debate but how should Christians who are baptists or believers in Christ who humbly reject infant baptism think about when to baptize children?

Remember Age is More a Matter of Wisdom

The famed Reformed Baptist British preacher Charles Spurgeon who by God’s grace knew a thing or two about wisdom in raising godly children waited until his twin sons Charles and Thomas were eighteen years old before they were baptized. Why? Spurgeon sought to “make sure his sons were grounded firmly in the gospel.” Not more Christian…but Christian! Spurgeon rightly did not want his sons to merely be those who profess but did not possess saving and living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And surely that is the case for every Christian man and woman with sons or daughters. Spurgeon’s position was now unwise or bad theology nor was it an anomaly. 

One group of elders helpfully shared with their congregation:

“…while it is not generally known among American evangelicals today, the practice of baptizing pre−teenage children is of recent development (largely early 20th century) and of limited geography (largely limited to the United States, and places where American evangelicals have exercised great influence). Baptists in the past were known for waiting to baptize until the believers were adults (Heb. 5:13-14). Baptistic Christians around the world are still much more cautious than modern American Christians, often waiting in Europe, Africa and Asia to baptize until children are grown and are in their 20's.”

It is important to realize among faithful credobaptists (believers’ only baptizers) the age of when a Christian might be baptized may differ. We ought not to make a law about this or be overly dogmatic but we should think well on the matter (again see an example of deliberating and thinking carefully on baptism and children here). Our aim is to glorify God according to His Word and wisely see to it that (insofar as we can tell) true believers in and disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ are baptized. Disciples—those who are humble learners and followers of the risen Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:18-20).  Disciples are those who have counted the cost to follow Jesus (Luke 14:25-35). It is not your parents faith that saves you or your spouses’ faith or your friend’s faith or your child’s faith. It is the faith once delivered for all the saints (Jude 1:3) and it is deeply personal (Romans 10:9-10). A number of us have prayerfully and carefully studied Scripture and secondarily theology and history/tradition and have seen great wisdom in seeking to bring together baptism, church membership, the Lord’s Supper and accountability/church discipline.  Sadly, among far too many local churches these have recently been separated and confused to the detriment of their local church and the individual Christian. It is now common to find many churches filled with unbaptized self-professing Christians who regularly partake of the Lord’s Supper as well as non-church members being baptized yet refusing to follow/submit to/commit to their local church and the leaders of their local church (Heb. 13:7,17). This is not how it ought to be.

Remember False Conversions are Pervasive in our Day

Exvangelicals. Nones. The Great Dechurching. High profile once lauded Christian authors, pastors, and leaders have been abandoning the faith. These stories dare I say testimonies are in hot commodity in our day. People want to hear their stories and they sell.  One needs only to spend a few minutes reading the summaries of Ligonier Ministries The State of Theology Surveys to better realize and grieve over where many of our neighbors and friends are at theologically. Biblically illiteracy, theological impoverishment and the charismatic yet blind unregenerate self-professing Christians lead the spiritually blind and unregenerate. This is sadly far too common.  As Pastor Josh Buice observed, “One of the greatest dangers plaguing the church in our present day is the grandiose number of false conversions.” Years ago Pastor Mark Dever preached a powerful and important sermon titled, “False Conversions: The Suicide of the Church.” In light of this, surely when to baptize a believer is one that requires more care and attention and not less. While absolutely God gloriously in His Word especially in Acts brings together repent (of sins), believe (upon the Lord Jesus Christ) and be baptized there is no absolute mandate on when exactly to be baptized in Scripture. That these three are linked together gloriously in Scripture means that it certainly was normative at a time in history. But there is a certain prudence faithful local church pastors may want to employ in our day and age in light of so much apostasy and the need to wisely discern a professing Christian’s life, word and true allegiances (Proverbs 18:17; Matthew 12:34; John 7:24;Acts 20:30; 1 John 2:19; 2 John 1:17; 1 Cor. 11:19; 2 Cor. 13:5; 1 Timothy 4:1). It is no small matter to baptize someone carelessly because they claim to believe and really want to be baptized (for more see Dr. Michael Lawrence’s The Church: A Visible Community—Boundary Markers of the Community). While no one has a silver bullet metric to test another’s faith or the ability to see everyone’s heart perfectly, we do have Scripture’s truth and can test that against the faith or fruit in an individual’s life. Christians can observe their faith and discern better where someone is spiritually to know with confidence they understand God’s grace. They understand and sincerely trust in the Lord and believe in the gospel of Christ.  Faithful pastors and local churches who hold to believers’ baptism only ought to exercise more not less prudence and care in our day. We have to do so humbly, prayerfully, and with the utmost care and wisdom. God is glorified when His people think carefully on the ordinances the Lord gave us and disciples of Jesus Christ are nurtured as the unity in Christ’s church under Christ’s Lordship is promoted.

Remember there is theologically rich, biblically-robust case for believers’ baptism only too

All too well I realize that far too many in our day have a very theologically shallow view of believer’s baptism only. But brother Justin Peter’s views on baptism are not shallow nor are many of us who agree with him on the wisdom in delaying baptism for most children.  While many may not think there is a biblically rich, theologically compelling case for believers’ baptism only, there is. Rather than rehash the case for believers’ baptism only here I would simply direct you to the following resources which demonstrate a theologically and biblically rich basis for believers baptism only but also demonstrate the need for wisdom on one’s exact age:

Children Brought to Christ, Not to the Font by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

A Case for Credobaptism by Allen S. Nelson IV

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper by Dr. Tom Nettles

Children of Abraham: A Reformed Baptist View of the Covenants by David Kingdon

Covenant Children Today: Spiritual or Physical? by Alan Connor

A group of elders/pastors from one church (Capitol Hill Baptist Church) shared their careful deliberations on baptizing children

A String of Pearls Unstrung: A Theological Journey into Believer’s Baptism by Dr. Fred Malone

Believers’ Baptism with Dr. James Renihan (an excellent six part series)

Your Child’s Profession of Faith by Dennis Gunderson

Forbid them Not: Rethinking the Baptism and Church Membership of Children and Young People by Ted Christman

The Church: A Visible Community—Boundary Markers of the Community by Dr. Michael Lawrence

Going Public: Why Baptism is Required for Church Membership by Dr. Bobby Jamieson

Baptism: The Heaven-Drawn Picture by Dr. Peter Masters

Baptism is a Church’s Act by Dr. Bobby Jamieson

An Analysis of Reformed Infant Baptism by Dr. Tom Hicks

A Critical Evaluation of Paedobaptism by Dr. Greg Welty

As always, give great grace and show love to brothers in Christ who differ on the timing of baptism. None of us has it all figured out and some of this is clearly in the realm of wisdom. Build friendships with those who disagree with you even fervently and pray for them. Just recently I prayed with a local brother pastor here in the Chicagoland area. He is a thoroughly convinced paedobaptist. I am not. Yet our conversation and time of prayer was deeply encouraging. It was a sweet reminder that having the Lord Jesus Christ, His Holy Word and the saving Gospel in common to a real extent actually can transcend certain theological differences so every person on every  “side”  can be deeply edified and renewed in their focus to seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness (Matt. 6:33).

So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another (Romans  14:19)

NB - This is the first article of a series which will debate the topic of baptismal age. Look out for more on the topic soon.