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Systematic Theology II
Dr. Edwin Woodruff Tait
November 10, 2008
I was baptized as an infant. Born and raised within the United Methodist Church,
which practices infant baptism, it is what has always been familiar to me. But as I grew in
my own faith and was influenced by Christian friends around me who really seemed to
“get it” when it came to their faith, I came to the common conclusion that infant baptism,
also known as paedobaptism, didn’t really count—that it was only on confession of faith
that believers should be baptized at an age where they were conscious of the confession
they were making. With this newfound state of mind, I didn’t really get why infant
baptism would be a viable option. It’s not biblical. It doesn’t promote a personal
relationship with Jesus. My church just didn’t get it. They didn’t understand how to
promote true faith, as my friends and I did. I even expressed thoughts about getting
So upon choosing the topic of baptism for this paper, one of my subconscious
motives was to conclusively prove infant baptism wrong. I knew true faith, and I knew
that infant baptism was just an empty ritual. But my research, coupled with what God has
been teaching me through classes and life about the Church and the communal nature of
faith, led me down a different path. I’ve been learning recently how the individualism of
our American culture has impacted our faith. I’ve seen that a lot of the reasoning behind
the different views of baptism is dependent on one’s view of the meaning of the
sacraments, the Church, covenant theology, individualism, and the activity of God’s grace
in our lives.
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Let’s start with what it means for baptism to be a sacrament. In Latin, the word
sacramentum originally meant an oath of allegiance. First Peter 3:21 states that “this
water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the
body but the pledge of a good conscious before God” (NIV). The Greek word eperoteina,
translated here as “pledge,” can also mean “answer” or “response.” So when taken in this
sense of a pledge or response to God, the sacrament of water baptism is more of our
response to God. The Greek word musterion, which can be translated “secret” or
“mystery,” is where we get the idea of sacraments. It comes through the idea of the
silence imposed by initiation into religious rites, and it is where our English word
“mystery” is derived from. The writers of the New Testament often speak of the
“mystery” of Christ which we have been invited to be a part of. Baptism is our initiation
into this mystery, the knowledge of God through Christ. Baptism, as a sacrament, is both
But does the act of baptism play a role in our salvation? “A person’s theology of
113). For this, we must differentiate between water baptism and Spirit baptism. Acts
11:16 presents a clear distinction: “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized
with the Holy Spirit” (NIV). Using the book of Acts as a primary source for a biblical
basis of baptism, it is shown that “Spirit baptism was almost always prior or subsequent
to water baptism, usually in very close sequence in Acts. That the two baptisms were
never synonymous is clear” (Witherington 118). Rather, water baptism is a sign of Spirit
baptism. It is not a saving act in itself, but is not completely symbolic either. This
distinction can be further shown by Acts 8:16-17, which says, “…the Holy Spirit had not
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yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord
Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit”
(NIV). These new believers had been initiated into the covenant of God’s grace through
Jesus Christ, but had not yet received the Holy Spirit. They were two separate
occurrences. Bridge and Phypers’s approach states that “Baptism does not bring salvation
sacrament which brings grace through faith. It is part of the obedience of faith. The act of
baptism demonstrates that faith is active for salvation” (181). Baptism is both a sign,
which can be seen as the activity on our end (our response and pledge), and an initiation,
which can be seen as the activity on God’s end, welcoming us into the covenant of God’s
grace.
God’s activity of initiation in baptism, I want to focus on the latter. To understand this
throughout the entire Bible. In the Old Testament, the Israelites were in a covenant
government, private and social lives—revolved around this covenant. The covenant was a
promise, or a contract between God and His people. The people were to serve YHWH as
the only true God and obey His law, and He would bless them and make them a fruitful
nation. The initiation into this covenant community was circumcision. Male children born
into Israelite families were to be circumcised eight days after birth to signify their
entrance into this community. Also, if any Gentile were to convert to Judaism, to become
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a proselyte, he would also have to be circumcised in order to signify his entrance into the
covenant promise.
Jesus inaugurated a new covenant in the portion of our Bible which is rightly
called the New Testament. This new covenant is much more glorious and superior to the
old (cf. 2 Corinthians 3; Hebrews 8), but it still falls under God’s overall covenant of
grace—fulfilling its original purpose (cf. Matt. 5:17). The initiation into this new
covenant community is shown through baptism. As it was with circumcision in the old
covenant, it is right that both infants and adults should be initiated into this covenant
(Bridge 47-48). Part of the superiority of the new covenant is its inclusive outreach. The
old covenant applied to Jews alone; the new is for Jews and Gentiles. Circumcision into
the old covenant was for males only; baptism is sexually inclusive. For in Christ, “there is
neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ
Jesus” (Gal. 3:28 NIV). None are denied the grace offered by Jesus Christ—including
infants who are born into the community. “Just as the Jewish child was born already into
grace into a community that promises responsively to care and nurture and teach the heart
differences in culture today and what we witness through the Scriptures. Today, American
culture is very individualistic. Each person has rights and we see ourselves as masters of
our own domains. Therefore baptism is often seen as our individual response and pledge
of faith. But throughout most of history, and during the period that the Scriptures were
written in, the people lived in collectivist cultures. They did not define themselves
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individually, but rather by the groups that they associated with. Among these, family was
most often the primary group. People were defined by their family or clan. In Israel, what
tribe and town you were from meant a great deal. Family was literally considered one
unit. So we find instances like Acts 16, where Paul and Silas are miraculously freed from
prison, only to stay and witness to the jailer. They say to the jailer, “Believe in the Lord
Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household” (v. 31 NIV), and we are told a
few verses later that “he and all his family were baptized” (v.33 NIV). We can’t assume
irrefutably that this family baptism included any children or infants in order to prove
infant baptism in the New Testament, but this shows the collectivist mindset of the family
in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, it was through the family that the covenant
love of God was passed down from generation to generation. The children were
circumcised by their parents, initiating them into the covenant, and then raised in the
knowledge and love of the covenant grace. It should be the same with the initiation of
baptism into the covenant of Christ. This is why, at infant baptisms, the parents are
questioned of their faith and promise to raise the child in the love of God (Vander Zee
124-125).
Even with these inferences of family baptisms in the New Testament, it is still
airtight evidence to show that children and infants were baptized in the early church that
we read of in the New Testament. But we can glean evidence from some of the early
church fathers. Origen (185-284 AD) said that the Church had received a tradition from
the Apostles to give baptism even to little children. Evidence from Polycarp (69-155 AD)
and Justin Martyr (100-165) say that many disciples had served God since childhood
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(Bridge 37). Some say that testimonies for the practice of infant baptism didn’t begin
until the 4th century from fathers such as Gregory of Nazianzus, even though Gregory
himself was not baptized as an infant (Aland 46). Some scholars say that “we have clear
evidence that the church as early as A.D. 150 thought that infant baptism was an
acceptable practice” (Witherington 123). It is doubtful that we will ever know for certain
when it emerged, but this quote from Aland, who himself is against infant baptism, gives
What role does God’s grace play in the baptism of an infant? Is this infant
“saved”? Bridge and Phyphers suggest that “baptized children must be regarded as
Christians until they give clear evidence by their lives to the contrary. Just because
children have been baptized does not mean that they will always be Christians” (50). But
that is not to say that infant baptism is useless. When infants are baptized, God’s grace is
given to them as they are a part of the community of the Church. In this case,
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than a subjective response by us (Bridge 40). The baptized infant is a member of the
The straight Baptist approach, which denies the legitimacy of infant baptism,
focuses more on the response of the baptized as a sign of faith and God’s grace bestowed
on the fully aware person. The Paedobaptist approach, on the other hand, focuses more on
the Church as a covenant community, and baptism as a rite of initiation into God’s grace
as it works through His Church. Our popular faith culture, influenced by the American
individualistic ethos and concerned more with a personal approach to faith, has often
clashed with the institutionalized Church and thus tends to reject the paedobaptist
approach. If we view the Church as many individual believers in Christ coming together
to worship and forming the Church, paedobaptism doesn’t make any sense. But it is my
(changed) opinion that God intended for His Church to be a community, and for us to be
in relationship with Him through that community. If we accept the universal Church as
the Bride and Body of Christ and as God’s means of grace, then indeed, paedobaptism
But whatever your beliefs about the legitimacy of infant baptism, it should not be
something that separates us as Christians. For as Ephesians 4:4-6 says, “Make every
effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one
Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith,
one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (NIV).
There is one covenant community that our baptism is a sign and a seal of our initiation
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Works Cited
Aland, Kurt. Did the Early Church Baptize Infants? Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock
Publishers, 1961.
Bridge, Donald and David Phypers. The Water that Divides: The Baptism Debate.
Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1977.
Cuttaz, Francoise. Baptism: Divine Birth. New York: Alba House, 1962.
Dale, James W. An Inquiry into the Usage of Baptism and the Nature of Christic and
Patristic Baptism as Exhibited in the Holy Scriptures and Patristic Writings.
Philadelphia: WM. Rutter & Co, 1874.
Jungmann Sr., Josef A. The Early Liturgy: To the Time of Gregory the Great. Notre
Dame, IN: Notre Dame Press, 1959.
Martin, Ralph P. Worship In the Early Church. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 1998.
Oden, Thomas C. Pastoral Theology: Essentials of Ministry. San Francisco: Harper &
Row Publishers, 1983.
Vander Zee, Leonard J. Christ, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper: Recovering the
Sacraments for Evangelical Worship. Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press,
2004.
Witherington III, Ben. Troubled Waters: Rethinking the Theology of Baptism. Waco,
Texas: Baylor University Press, 2007.
SDG