Romans 4:23-24: "But the words "it was counted to him" were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord."
We are commanded to be baptized - it is our confession of faith. This is valid, this is appropriate. This is exactly what happened in the beginning of the Church. People believed and they were baptized. Why there really is no mention of infants and children being baptized is simply because Paul and the other apostle's time was spent teaching and establishing churches, in their faith according to the Gospel of Christ, while dispelling the lies produced by false teachers teaching things counter to true doctrine (Acts 6:2 & 4). For us the pattern is the Old Testament primarily. The practice of infant baptism was the normative practice simply because the early believers understood the connection between circumcision and baptism. Therefore they followed the Old Testament prescription described about circumcision. Neither Paul nor any of the apostles and teachers contradicted this practice because the law still was God's rule of conduct. Old does not mean insolvent or invalid in contrast the the new. The sacrificial system became that but the law stands forever. Salvation is for those who believe as this scripture says; infants and little children are not able to "make a decision for Christ" nor are they able to make a decision against Him. So baptismal regeneration is a fallacy; salvation is secured only by those who believe. This is the only way. Jesus is our Lord and we can say that because we have come to understand the way of salvation is through Him. I am not arguing that baptism is equivalent to salvation regarding infants and little children. I am talking about the receiving of covenantal benefits designed for those who believe. Infants and little children do not receive these benefits if their parents or primary caregivers are unbelievers. The wrath of God resting on these spills over onto them as well. Deuteronomy 5:9 says, "You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me" (emphasis mine). But about the righteous he says, "But showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments." Deuteronomy 7:9 uses the word covenant when he speaks of a thousand generations enjoying His everlasting covenantal promises, "Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations." These scripture references should give us, who believe, great confidence that the Lord God has our infants and children in mind when we receive His covenantal promises intended for us who believe through faith; for these promises are bound to make a deep and lasting impression on their lives for the glory of Christ who is forever praised. As Jesus says in Matthew 21:16: "From the lips of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise" is a powerful declaration of the providence of God predestining infants and children to receive His blessings. Whether infants can praise God is beside the point. It is what they will become; rather, it is what we have become that calls attention to God's faithfulness and intent towards us. Shouldn't we also express our belief in God's faithfulness by baptizing our infants and children too? God's express purpose to cause children of believing parents to serve Him in faithfulness, as a pleasing aroma to Him, is best expressed in Malachi 2:15 where he states this principle forth, "Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring." The portion of the Spirit of God in the marital union between a man and a woman guarantees, in one sense, that the fruit of their union be blessed by the Spirit as well. We express and acknowledge this result by the baptism of our infant children. It is an exercise of our faith that we believe God's intention is exactly what Malachi says: To produce Godly offspring; and that one day they too will praise God as an expression of their thankfulness that they were placed, sovereignly and by God's predestining purposes, in a Christian household thereby nurturing them until God's Word about them becomes realized.
In conclusion we read in Psalms 34:7 that the Lord encamps around those who fear him and he delivers them. God has blessed the family. Ps. 127 talks about many children as a blessing - a heritage of the Lord they are! He has ordained the family as God's way of filling the earth with people who fear him. God's blessing was specifically addressing His will for them to multiply and this comes both in his address to Adam and Eve and then to Noah and his family after the earth was destroyed. God gives instructions to the meaning of his will for man to multiply and that is in the context of marriage between one man and one woman. If God takes these kinds of pains about how he blesses families why then would he encamp around only individuals who believe and not the infants who cannot "choose" Christ? Does God's wrath rest on all members in the household under the "age of accountability" (which I read about no where in scripture. It is not a reformed position but, am convinced, an invention of the Arminian and Baptist positions since they both reject covenant theology) but leaves the Christian parents alone? What about God's heritage if he destroys them? No! God's encampment is around him and his whole family to protect them under His wings! So then even the infants receive God's blessings; His covenantal promises protect them and secure for them a place in God's kingdom when they are called by God in faith. Samuel was called in the course of time. He was under God's protection being in God's house. Even though Eli did not restrain his own sons from doing what was evil, under his tutelage he taught Samuel the law and God caused His Word to germinate in his heart. We are imperfect teachers of the God whom we serve, yet God also multiplies His Word in the hearts of believing families despite sin. We stand in God's house. Our bodies are living sacrifices; a pleasing aroma to God. Our children are in that house, as Samuel was. God dwelt in a temple made by human hands in Samuel's day; but now He lives within us and envelopes us and our children - for who can contain His Spirit within any bounds? As Samuel benefited from being in God's temple and received God's call, so our children stand in proximity to God's holy temple, in and through us, and also will receive God's calling to be temples that emit the Spirit of God desirous in making them instruments for holy, useful service in His kingdom.
-Joe
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