By Gary Ray Branscome
When an adult comes to us for baptism,
we do not baptize them simply because they want baptism. Wanting baptism is not
enough. The words, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved,” tell us that all who come must come believing
that there is forgiveness in Christ (Mark
Furthermore, the Bible calls baptism a
“baptism of repentance,” because
those who believe that there is forgiveness in Christ must want forgiveness.
Any man who wants to be baptized, but is not sorry for his sins, and does not
want to give up his sinful lifestyle, does not want God to forgive his sin.
Instead he wants God to accept his sin. However, that is something that God
will never do! And, any church that does accept his sin is condemned by the
words, “He who justifies the wicked, and he
that condemns the innocent, are both an abomination to the LORD.
(Proverbs 17:15).
The words, “Repent, and be baptized… in the name of
Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,” // “Be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord,” tell us that Christian baptism is a, “Baptism of repentance for the
remission of sins” (Acts
“Scripture expressly
points out that only such adults are to be baptized as
have previously come to faith in Christ. Of those baptized on the First
Pentecost we read: “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized”
(Acts
Infant Baptism
“Luther freely admitted that infant baptism is neither explicitly commanded or explicitly mentioned in
Scripture. There are no ‘specific passages’ referring to infant baptism. The
direct witness of Scripture is by itself not strong enough to provide an
adequate basis for beginning infant baptism were it not already practiced.” (“THE THEOLOGY OF MARTIN LUTHER”, by Paul Althaus, page 361).
Why then did Martin Luther vigorously defend infant baptism? That is a question
that I will try to answer.
In order to understand the thinking behind Luther’s
defense of infant baptism, we need to begin by comparing the words, “Be baptized… and you will receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost,” with the words, God
“has sealed us, and sent the Spirit into our hearts as a pledge”
(Acts
That being understood, the words, “You shall circumcise
the flesh of your foreskin; and it will be a token of the covenant between me
and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every
man child in your generations,” tell us that even though circumcision was a
“seal of the righteousness of the faith,” that Abraham had as an adult,
God wanted the infant male offspring of Abraham to receive it (Genesis
17:11-12). In fact, Exodus 4:24-26 tells us that God was angry at Moses because
he had not circumcised his son. All of that, coupled with the fact that infant
baptism can be traced back to the earliest days of the Christian church, convinced
Martin Luther that God wanted the infant offspring of believers baptized.
Another fact that we need to consider is that Luther lived
in a nation in which Christianity was the established religion. If the male
offspring of Abraham had been allowed to wait until adulthood to decide if they
wanted to be circumcised, in every generation there would have been some men
who refused to be circumcised. And, if they refused, in most cases their sons
would refuse. And, because more would join their ranks in every generation,
there would come a time when much of the nation was uncircumcised. In saying
that, I realize that the nation of
What I have just said, explains why Martin Luther saw the
words, “Teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” as requiring infant baptism
(Matthew 28:19). Living in a country that was officially Christian, he believed
that God wanted everyone in the nation baptized, just as God wanted everyone in
God’s Gift of Faith
The words, “You are saved by grace through faith; and
that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God,” tell us that faith is a
“gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). And, the words, “The LORD your God will
circumcise your heart, and the heart of your descendants,” tell us that God is fully able to give His gift of
faith to infants (Deuteronomy 30:6). In fact, the words, “He [John the
Baptist] will be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb,”
tell us that John the Baptist had faith in Christ before he was born (Luke
1:15). And, because he had faith, he “leaped in” the “womb for joy,” upon
hearing the voice of the mother of his Savior (Luke 1:44).
.
The words, “Behold, I was formed in iniquity; and sinful
when my mother conceived me,” tell us that infants are sinners from
conception (Psalm 51:5). And, the words, “Sin entered the world by one man,
and death by sin; so death passed upon all men, because all have sinned,”
tell us that if infants were not sinners they would never die of natural causes
(Romans 5:12). At the same time, the words, “The wicked are estranged from
the womb,” tell us that the children of unbelievers are “estranged [from
God] from the womb” (Psalm 58:3). As do the words, “We… were by nature the
children of wrath,” (Ephesians 2:3).
However,
the fact that Jesus encouraged believing parents to bring their babies to
Him, saying, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them:
for of such is the
When the children of believers die before baptism, we must
commend them to God’s mercy, knowing that He is fully able to give them faith,
just as He gave it to John the Baptist. However, I encourage parents to begin
praying for their children while they are yet in the womb. Ask God to give them
faith, and commit them to His care, knowing that “He is able to keep that
which” you “have committed to Him” (2Timothy
If someone who is baptized does not have faith, and later comes
to faith, he does not need to be rebaptized, because
faith completes his baptism and makes it valid.
Christians should never do anything underhanded like
baptizing children without the knowledge or consent of their parents.
The cultic idea that someone can be baptized in the place
of someone else is as unscriptural as the idea that one person can believe for
someone else. The words, “What shall they do which are baptized for the dead, KJV” are not talking about being baptized in place of
someone else, but being baptized [i.e. becoming a Christian] in order to be
reunited with a believing loved one who has passed on (1Corinthians 15:29).
That verse could be paraphrased as saying “What will those who are baptized
in the hope of being reunited with the dead do, if the dead do not actually
rise? why are they baptized on account of them?” (1Cor.