Brief Thoughts on the Historical Catholicity of Infant Baptism

Regarding infant baptism, one of the key things that bears witness to the rightness of the practice is its historical catholicity. For example... 

From as far East as one could go to as far West, and as far North and as far South, Christians could be found baptizing their infants. It would be an amazing conspiracy if all of the whole Church in disparate places somehow concurrently came to universally practice infant baptism if it was not apostolic. 

To assert such a conspiracy has quite the burden of proof, especially since there were no controversies over the practice of infant baptism, nor a centralized authority urging such a practice on protesting churches.

But someone may point out that not every single Christian practiced infant baptism, and some even suggested delaying it until later, for example, Tertullian. 

This objection to infant baptism struggles, however, because it does not prove as much as it perhaps hopes to. It is important to note that those promoting the delaying of infant baptism did not deny the efficacy of infant baptism. This is a hugely important point, and two aspects of this point are key to understanding it. 

The first aspect is that it was their belief in the efficacy of baptism that caused them to hesitate to baptize infants, and this was due to the second aspect, which was they thought that post-baptismal sins could not be forgiven, except maybe perhaps once (e.g. The Shepherd of Hermas). Though misguided, the first might be considered laudable, but the second, the denial of the possibility of repentance, is false theology. 

In this way the early Church does not provide supporting evidence for the Credobaptist position. It is therefore clear that the varieties of post-Reformation Credobaptist sacramental theology (including the Reformed Baptist), despite their laudable intentions, have no solid basis in the history of the universal church's doctrine or practice.  

Hermeneutically, the fact that there were no controversies surrounding the practice of infant baptism in the Apostolic and Patristic eras is thus shown to be a very strong indication of just how the New Testament doctrine of Baptism was understood by the Church, i.e. it was for both confessing adults and their infant children. 

-Rev. Joshua Schooping 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Built-in Obsolescence: The Philosophy of Contemporary Worship

Image
An ongoing debate within Confessional Lutheran churches is the question of Contemporary Worship vs. historically rooted Liturgical Worship. This brief treatment intends to expose the heart of that which drives Contemporary Worship. Through this exposure, the implicit excellence of historically rooted Liturgical Worship, which is already the position advocated in our Lutheran Confessions, will be made all the more plain. To begin, the Contemporary Worship movement, frequently abbreviated as CoWo, is the actualization of a philosophy of conformance and capitulation to culture. It is culture-reactive and derivative, which is why it inspires neither respect nor reverence. It is more than just a preference about style, because style itself is philosophy in action. That's precisely how marketing and branding function to sell things. To say CoWo is merely about stylistic preference is thus to misunderstand the depth of the ideological motivation energizing CoWo, which is essentially pop m...
Read more

Boldness on the Last Day: On the Role of Christian Faith at the Final Judgment

Image
Mankind as a mass will stand on the Last Day before the Judgment Seat of Christ and there be judged, a judgment which Matthew 25 describes as resulting in being separated into two classes, one of sheep and another of goats. A few passages from Scripture will establish the terms of reference: Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. (Matthew 25:32 ESV) The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead." (Acts 17:30-31 ESV) So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous (Matthew 13:49 ESV) The criterion of judgment appears to be works, especially works of mercy: And he will place the sheep on his right, but the g...
Read more

Confessional Lutheranism and the Western Catholic Practice of Ceaseless Prayer

Image
How can we, as Confessional Lutherans, understand the acceptability of the practice of ceaseless prayer as famously taught in the Eastern churches?  As long as it is not confused with the false construct of late Byzantine EO Palamite soteriology, but is understood properly in the light of the Gospel, then such prayer is fine, and can even be helpful, whether as "ceaseless prayer" (1 Thessalonians 5:17, cf. Luke 18:1, 18:7, 21:36; Romans 12:12; Ephesians 6:18; Colossians 4:2) or as a continual meditation on (cf. Psalms 1:2; 119:15, 97, 98, 99) and recollection of God, or both. Interestingly enough, St. John Cassian wrote of this practice of ceaseless prayer/meditation in the early 5th Century, in his book, The Conferences , having been taught it even earlier while younger and travelling to Egypt in the late 4th, where he was instructed by an old desert father, Abba Isaac, who had himself known Anthony the Great. Abba Isaac, already old at the time of the conversation with John...
Read more