At What Age Should We Baptize?
I do not think a set age is the way to go. If a child gives indication of having accepting Christ and understands what baptism means and wants to be baptized, how can we deny them? The youngest I (or parents under my supervision) has been 5, but many parents want to hold off to 7 just to make sure.
I do not know that we have a right to deny a professing believer baptism.
BTW— The oldest person I have baptized so far was 86.
"The Midrash Detective"
How do you “make sure” with a seven year old?
G. N. Barkman
I believe the answer lies with one’s theology.
Ed,
I had to do a doubletake. Hold OFF till 7? I think I was saved when I was 5, it’s probably the only thing I remember from that time in my life. I’m so glad I waited until I could remember my baptism. Of course you have the right to withhold baptism from a professing believer. You just said yourself that parents hold off until 7 just to make sure. That would seem to be denying baptism to a professing believer. So you believe that’s possible in principle.
On the one hand, it’s possible for a child to intellectually understand baptism, but I’m not sure how well the abstract concept can be understood until much later, along with visible signs of repentance.
I had to do a doubletake. Hold OFF till 7? I think I was saved when I was 5, it’s probably the only thing I remember from that time in my life. I’m so glad I waited until I could remember my baptism. Of course you have the right to withhold baptism from a professing believer. You just said yourself that parents hold off until 7 just to make sure. That would seem to be denying baptism to a professing believer. So you believe that’s possible in principle.
On the one hand, it’s possible for a child to intellectually understand baptism, but I’m not sure how well the abstract concept can be understood until much later, along with visible signs of repentance.
My daughter gave a very clear and convincing testimony of her salvation to both my wife and I as well as the pastor when she was 5. She was baptized a few weeks later. When she was 14, she was convinced that her prior “conversion” was only head knowledge, accepted Christ, and was baptized again at our (now different) church. I don’t really see the problem with the prior baptism — she clearly understood the meaning of salvation even if her heart was not truly following Christ. What excuse would we give such a person for holding them off? Should we have waited those 9 years to see if it was “really genuine?” She certainly was willing to make a public testimony at the time, and her life bore evidence that she “meant it.”
What about the example of Simon who wanted to buy the Holy Ghost? I don’t know if he was saved or not, but it seems extremely likely he was baptized upon salvation.
What about the example of Simon who wanted to buy the Holy Ghost? I don’t know if he was saved or not, but it seems extremely likely he was baptized upon salvation.
Dave Barnhart
As a Baptist in conviction I believe in believer’s baptism. This means I encourage believers to be baptized, but it also means I need to do my best to see that those being baptized are believers. I must balance two responsibilities: I should not forbid baptism to believers who desire it, but neither must I baptize everyone who requests it. Do they have a credible profession of faith? Do they clearly understand the Gospel, their conversion, and the nature and meaning of baptism? This is hard enough to discern with some adults, let alone young children.
Our church does not have an official policy on this issue, but I developed a Bible study designed for a father or substitute mentor to take an older child or teen through who desires baptism. It has lessons on the Gospel, evidences of regeneration (basically a brief study of 1 John), baptism, and church membership. It is based on a program at Piper’s church but I reworked it quite a bit so it was more of a Bible study.
Tim Challies just had a post with various views on this issue with links. Mark Dever has some really thought-provoking things to say about this even though I don’t go as far as he does by only baptizing adults.
Our church does not have an official policy on this issue, but I developed a Bible study designed for a father or substitute mentor to take an older child or teen through who desires baptism. It has lessons on the Gospel, evidences of regeneration (basically a brief study of 1 John), baptism, and church membership. It is based on a program at Piper’s church but I reworked it quite a bit so it was more of a Bible study.
Tim Challies just had a post with various views on this issue with links. Mark Dever has some really thought-provoking things to say about this even though I don’t go as far as he does by only baptizing adults.
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Greg Long, Ed.D. (SBTS)
Pastor of Adult Ministries
Grace Church, Des Moines, IA
Adjunct Instructor
School of Divinity
Liberty University
[G. N. Barkman] How do you “make sure” with a seven year old?Alas, I have been misunderstood! I will gladly baptize a five year old who has made a clear profession. But I defer to a Christian parent(s), and sometimes they hold off until they are 6 or 7 so that their child will better remember to the event and so they feel more comfortable about it. I do not recommend that.
When it comes to “make sure,” you really cannot with anyone. In that case, I used my sloppy Chicago garb. I should have put on more of an Ivy League style and written, “have a deeper sense of assurance on the part of parents that their child understands.” I was tempted to put on a raccoon coat to write that one!
"The Midrash Detective"
[Ed Vasicek]Here is my view, which I expressed well, IMO :)[G. N. Barkman] How do you “make sure” with a seven year old?Alas, I have been misunderstood! I will gladly baptize a five year old who has made a clear profession. But I defer to a Christian parent(s), and sometimes they hold off until they are 6 or 7 so that their child will better remember to the event and so they feel more comfortable about it. I do not recommend that.
When it comes to “make sure,” you really cannot with anyone. In that case, I used my sloppy Chicago garb. I should have put on more of an Ivy League style and written, “have a deeper sense of assurance on the part of parents that their child understands.” I was tempted to put on a raccoon coat to write that one!
I do not think a set age is the way to go. If a child gives indication of having accepting Christ and understands what baptism means and wants to be baptized, how can we deny them?The rest was about parents, those meanies.
"The Midrash Detective"
[Ed Vasicek][Ed Vasicek][G. N. Barkman] How do you “make sure” with a seven year old?Alas, I have been misunderstood! I will gladly baptize a five year old who has made a clear profession. But I defer to a Christian parent(s), and sometimes they hold off until they are 6 or 7 so that their child will better remember the event and so they feel more comfortable about it. I do not recommend that, but I respect parental domain.
When it comes to “make sure,” you really cannot with anyone. In that case, I used my sloppy Chicago garb. I should have put on more of an Ivy League style and written, “have a deeper sense of assurance on the part of parents that their child understands.” I was tempted to put on a raccoon coat to write that one!
Here is my view, which I expressed well, IMO :)I do not think a set age is the way to go. If a child gives indication of having accepting Christ and understands what baptism means and wants to be baptized, how can we deny them?The rest was about parents, those meanies.
"The Midrash Detective"
[Greg Long]
Our church does not have an official policy on this issue, but I developed a Bible study designed for a father or substitute mentor to take an older child or teen through who desires baptism. It has lessons on the Gospel, evidences of regeneration (basically a brief study of 1 John), baptism, and church membership. It is based on a program at Piper’s church but I reworked it quite a bit so it was more of a Bible study.
Greg, in some ways I completely agree with what you are saying, but to what extent does it reflect human wisdom? I know we naturally have a desire to identify and root out the tares, but given what scripture says, I’m not sure that is something we should spend much time doing.
All these studies designed to see if someone understands sound like a really good idea from our perspective, but to what extent do they reflect the scriptural pattern?
I completely agree that a pastor or deacon is required to baptize no one, but what criteria for saying no would you give someone like say, the Ethiopian eunuch, who understood and agreed with your witness, accepted Christ on the spot, and then said, “see, here is water — what hinders me from being baptized?” knowing that Philip did it immediately upon his testimony, and apparently without “evidence” beyond the Eunuch’s testimony that the his life had turned around?
And given that you likely believe that when the jailer’s “household” was baptized means believer’s baptism and not covenant baptism, again, how would you make the determination of each family member’s sincerity if you were the apostle in question doing the baptizing? I just don’t read of them doing a detailed scriptural study of I John or any other NT passage.
Dave Barnhart
I just don’t read of them doing a detailed scriptural study of I John or any other NT passage.Byut don’t we have to say we don’t know what they actually did? So to rule out some sort of discipleship or qualification prior to baptism is to do something the Bible doesn’t say.
Ben Wright has a http://paleoevangelical.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-many-unconverted-child… good post here , and I quote from him:
I think it comes down to a question of what you believe the church is doing when you baptize. You might think that you are merely telling the church that the person has professed faith in Christ. So anyone who says he’s a Christian and wants to be baptized, you baptize: the upper-middle-class tidy-life couple, the town drunk, or a 4-year-old kid.
On the other hand, if you think baptism is a declaration of allegiance to Christ, affirmed by the church, and linked to church membership with all its privileges and obligations, then you’re going to think it’s pretty important for there to be some sort of examination of the credibility of the person’s profession.
[dcbii][Greg Long]
Our church does not have an official policy on this issue, but I developed a Bible study designed for a father or substitute mentor to take an older child or teen through who desires baptism. It has lessons on the Gospel, evidences of regeneration (basically a brief study of 1 John), baptism, and church membership. It is based on a program at Piper’s church but I reworked it quite a bit so it was more of a Bible study.
Greg, in some ways I completely agree with what you are saying, but to what extent does it reflect human wisdom? I know we naturally have a desire to identify and root out the tares, but given what scripture says, I’m not sure that is something we should spend much time doing.
All these studies designed to see if someone understands sound like a really good idea from our perspective, but to what extent do they reflect the scriptural pattern?
I completely agree that a pastor or deacon is required to baptize no one, but what criteria for saying no would you give someone like say, the Ethiopian eunuch, who understood and agreed with your witness, accepted Christ on the spot, and then said, “see, here is water — what hinders me from being baptized?” knowing that Philip did it immediately upon his testimony, and apparently without “evidence” beyond the Eunuch’s testimony that the his life had turned around?
And given that you likely believe that when the jailer’s “household” was baptized means believer’s baptism and not covenant baptism, again, how would you make the determination of each family member’s sincerity if you were the apostle in question doing the baptizing? I just don’t read of them doing a detailed scriptural study of I John or any other NT passage.
Dave, if you want to play the scriptural example card, the fact is that there is no clear example in Scripture of the baptism of a young child. We have no idea who was in the jailor’s “household.” It might refer to his wife and/or children and/or servants, but we just don’t know.
In NT times, everyone clearly understood what it meant to make a profession of faith in Christ. It meant you were risking the possible loss of income, imprisonment, and even death. The choice was clear. Today the Gospel message has been so distorted and misunderstood that many make a profession of faith without true repentance or desire to follow Christ completely no matter what the cost.
Children especially can raise a hand or pray a prayer to please a teacher or parent. Please understand that I am NOT suggesting that children cannot be saved. If anyone would doubt me on this point I would simply say that I have no doubt that I was saved at the age of five. But anyone who works in Christian ministry long enough hears story after story after story of people who make a profession of faith at a very young age and then doubted that profession when entering the teen years. Then they either “got saved for real” or “made sure of my salvation”. We have to ask and answer the question, Why is this? Is it because the Gospel was miscommunicated or misunderstood or both?
Just think of this…in so many other areas of life we recognize that a child may or may not understand a “decision” he makes. When a child says, “I want to be an astronaut when I grow up!”, do we immediately send in an application to NASA? When your young daughter says, “I’m going to marry Bobby when I grow up!”, do we call Bobby’s parents and make wedding plans? No, we understand that children make rash “decisions” for a variety of reasons. We wait and give it time to see if the child will continue with this decision.
The difference here, of course, is the work of the Holy Spirit that would enable a child to understand and believe. Again, it is not a question of whether or not a child CAN truly believe, but rather whether or not we can discern the genuineness of the child’s profession.
I am not dogmatic on this issue and respect those who disagree. But if you look at Baptist history and at contemporary Baptists around the world, we should understand that recent American Christianity is unique in baptizing children. Just remember… If we are biblical Baptists, we must be careful not to forbid baptism to those who are genuinely converted. We must also be careful not to baptize those who are not genuinely converted.
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Greg Long, Ed.D. (SBTS)
Pastor of Adult Ministries
Grace Church, Des Moines, IA
Adjunct Instructor
School of Divinity
Liberty University
As a Presbyterian, I’m entering this conversation as a sympathetic outsider: an outsider, since I think earlier is always better, but sympathetic, since I think Baptists are better Christians by thinking through their theology. I also recognize that my Calvinism does play some role in this, and I imagine that it does for Baptists as well, even if it leads them to different conclusions.
Greg, you bring up one of the great quandaries of Baptist experience: that of teen conversions/reconversions/dedications/crisis-experiences/whatever. Seemingly epidemic in Baptist churches are these youth, who hit a certain age and suddenly call their Christian life into question, resolving it only through some kind of act of personal assertion of faith. I think that Baptist theology itself, especially if blended with a revivalist strain, leads to this experience.
Baptists see baptism as a personal act of commitment, a voluntary embrace of the way of life of the church rather than the way of the world. You also brought up the other psychological reality: kids say things when they are completely ignorant of the implications and consequences. Your position as expressed so far tells me that you think it is important that a person undergoing baptism have some sense of the gravity and implications of the act.
Now, given those premises, it seems perfectly reasonable to me that an adolescent of 13-18 years old would look back at his conversion experience and baptism at the age of 4-10 and ask, “What was I actually doing? Did I mean that? If I can’t really remember what I was thinking or feeling at the time, how do I know it was genuine?” You have set a criterion for baptism that few children really have the ability to meet, and this is going to cause lack of assurance throughout adolescence. It’s simply natural for a adolescent or young adult to feel psychologically disconnected from any decision made as a child, just as I do not now view binding (or even relevant) the promise I made in 3rd grade to a girl that I would marry her when we turned 30.
So, it strikes me that there are 2 really consistent ways to solve this. The first is to take the Amish approach, in which a person is not confirmed as a full member of the community until he or she has reached young adulthood and had a legitimate opportunity to explore life outside the constraints of parental and church authority. That way, the church could be sure that a real decision has been made. (By the way, Dutch Reformed churches have a confirmation ritual around age 18 that admits people to full membership and communion; it’s based on a similar principle.)
The second way is to take a more graded approach to faith, in which even the seemingly childish expressions of spirituality are viewed as real and meaningful, and that seed is acknowledged and nurtured. The “weeding out” process is done, not at the front end through withholding baptism, but on the back end through the processes of church discipline (discipleship).
I much prefer the second way. I think one of the reasons Baptist teens have so much existential angst and questioning is that they’ve absorbed it from their environment. They’ve subtly imbibed the idea that their childhood expressions of faith are not as real and legitimate as the faith of the adults. They have been trained to discount their own spiritual experience as just parroting their parents. I think the overall result of Baptist theology is actually to squelch and trample vulnerable childlike faith, rather than fence and nurture it.
Greg, you bring up one of the great quandaries of Baptist experience: that of teen conversions/reconversions/dedications/crisis-experiences/whatever. Seemingly epidemic in Baptist churches are these youth, who hit a certain age and suddenly call their Christian life into question, resolving it only through some kind of act of personal assertion of faith. I think that Baptist theology itself, especially if blended with a revivalist strain, leads to this experience.
Baptists see baptism as a personal act of commitment, a voluntary embrace of the way of life of the church rather than the way of the world. You also brought up the other psychological reality: kids say things when they are completely ignorant of the implications and consequences. Your position as expressed so far tells me that you think it is important that a person undergoing baptism have some sense of the gravity and implications of the act.
Now, given those premises, it seems perfectly reasonable to me that an adolescent of 13-18 years old would look back at his conversion experience and baptism at the age of 4-10 and ask, “What was I actually doing? Did I mean that? If I can’t really remember what I was thinking or feeling at the time, how do I know it was genuine?” You have set a criterion for baptism that few children really have the ability to meet, and this is going to cause lack of assurance throughout adolescence. It’s simply natural for a adolescent or young adult to feel psychologically disconnected from any decision made as a child, just as I do not now view binding (or even relevant) the promise I made in 3rd grade to a girl that I would marry her when we turned 30.
So, it strikes me that there are 2 really consistent ways to solve this. The first is to take the Amish approach, in which a person is not confirmed as a full member of the community until he or she has reached young adulthood and had a legitimate opportunity to explore life outside the constraints of parental and church authority. That way, the church could be sure that a real decision has been made. (By the way, Dutch Reformed churches have a confirmation ritual around age 18 that admits people to full membership and communion; it’s based on a similar principle.)
The second way is to take a more graded approach to faith, in which even the seemingly childish expressions of spirituality are viewed as real and meaningful, and that seed is acknowledged and nurtured. The “weeding out” process is done, not at the front end through withholding baptism, but on the back end through the processes of church discipline (discipleship).
I much prefer the second way. I think one of the reasons Baptist teens have so much existential angst and questioning is that they’ve absorbed it from their environment. They’ve subtly imbibed the idea that their childhood expressions of faith are not as real and legitimate as the faith of the adults. They have been trained to discount their own spiritual experience as just parroting their parents. I think the overall result of Baptist theology is actually to squelch and trample vulnerable childlike faith, rather than fence and nurture it.
My Blog: http://dearreaderblog.com
Cor meum tibi offero Domine prompte et sincere. ~ John Calvin
[Charlie] The second way is to take a more graded approach to faith, in which even the seemingly childish expressions of spirituality are viewed as real and meaningful, and that seed is acknowledged and nurtured. The “weeding out” process is done, not at the front end through withholding baptism, but on the back end through the processes of church discipline (discipleship).Charlie,
Thanks for your comments. Baptists will benefit from your Presbyterian wisdom!
[Charlie] I much prefer the second way. I think one of the reasons Baptist teens have so much existential angst and questioning is that they’ve absorbed it from their environment. They’ve subtly imbibed the idea that their childhood expressions of faith are not as real and legitimate as the faith of the adults. They have been trained to discount their own spiritual experience as just parroting their parents. I think the overall result of Baptist theology is actually to squelch and trample vulnerable childlike faith, rather than fence and nurture it.Great consideration.
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