Should infants, too, be baptized?

#HC74

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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 adults. Therefore, by baptism, as sign of the covenant, they must be grafted into the Christian church and distinguished from the children of unbelievers. This was done in the old covenant by circumcision, in place of which baptism was instituted in the new covenant.

Proofs

  • Yes. Infants as well as adults belong to God’s covenant and congregation. (Genesis 17:7; Matthew 19:14)
  • Through Christ’s blood the redemption from sin and the Holy Spirit, who works faith, are promised to them no less than to adults. (Psalm 22:11; Isaiah 44:1–3; Acts 2:38–39; Acts 16:31)
  • Therefore, by baptism, as sign of the covenant, they must be grafted into the Christian church and distinguished from the children of unbelievers. (Acts 10:47; 1 Corinthians 7:14)
  • This was done in the old covenant by circumcision, (Genesis 17:9–14)
  • in place of which baptism was instituted in the new covenant. (Colossians 2:11–13)
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