Are no Infants to be baptized?
None by no means; for we have neither Precept nor Example for that Practice in all the Book of God.
Related questions
- #HC74 Should infants, too, be baptized? (Heidelberg Catechism) Yes. Infants as well as adults belong to God’s covenant and congregation. Through Christ’s blood the redemption from sin and the Holy Spirit, who works faith, are promised to them no less than to adul...
- #BC99 Are the infants of such as are professing believers to be baptized? (Baptist Catechism) The infants of such as are professing believers are not to be baptized, because there is neither command or example in the holy scriptures, or certain consequence from them to baptize such.
- #GC333 If this is required, how is it that we baptize infants? (Genevan Catechism) It is not said that faith and repentance should always precede the reception of the sacrament, but they are only required from those who are capable of them. It is sufficient, then, if infants produce...
- #GC337 Do you reckon that if we denied baptism to little infants, the grace of God would then be diminished by the coming of Christ? (Genevan Catechism) Yes; for the sign of the bounty and mercy of God toward our children, which they had in ancient times, would be wanting in our case, the very sign which ministers so greatly to our consolation, and to...
- #GC338 You mean then that since God in ancient times declared Himself to be the Saviour of little infants, and wanted to have this promise sealed on their bodies by an external sacrament, it is right that confirmation of it should not be less after the advent of Christ, since the same promise remains and indeed is more clearly attested by the Word and ratified in action? (Genevan Catechism) Yes. And besides, since it is quite evident that the power and the substance of baptism pertain to little children, to deny them the sign, which is inferior to the substance, would be to do them injur...
- #GC335 But can you show that they are now admitted to baptism for the same reason as in the case of circumcision? (Genevan Catechism) Yes, for the promises which God anciently gave to His people of Israel are now extended to the whole world.
- #GC334 Can you show that there is nothing inconsistent in this? (Genevan Catechism) Circumcision was also a sacrament of repentance, as Moses and the prophets declare (Deu 10:16; 30:6; Jer 4:4); and was a sacrament of faith, as St. Paul says (Rom 4:11, 12). And yet God has not exclud...
- #GC336 But does it follow from this that we are to use the sign also? (Genevan Catechism) That becomes evident when everything is considered. Jesus Christ has not made us partakers of His grace, which formerly had been bestowed on the people of Israel, in order to diminish it in us, or mak...
- #GC339 On what conditions should we baptize little children? (Genevan Catechism) As a sign and testimony that they are heirs of God's blessing promised to the seed of the faithful, that when they come of age they are to acknowledge the truth of their baptism, in order to derive be...
- #BC98 To whom is baptism to be administered? (Baptist Catechism) Baptism is to be administered to all those who actually profess repentance towards God, faith in and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ, and to none other.