Staff Writer – Carol Cato
My mother is Catholic, so I went through the ritual of being baptised as a baby, having a first communion and then confirmation. I remember as a child going into the confession box to tell the priest about the bad things I had done.
If I couldn’t think of anything I would make something up; the priest would then tell me to go and say ten Hail Marys. As soon as I was old enough to make my own decision about going to church, I chose to not to go.
Little did I know many years later, I would return to God and become a devoted Christian.
However, I didn’t return to the Catholic Church, but instead sought out a Pentecostal church. What surprised me first about the Pentecostal church was that they didn’t Christian their children, but instead had ‘Baby Dedication’.
This is a ceremony in which believing parents, and sometimes the whole family, make a commitment before the Lord to submit the child to God’s will and raise the child according to God’s Word and God’s ways. The parents make a promise to do everything within their power to raise the child in a godly way, prayerfully until he or she can make their own decision to follow God.
Parents who make this vow of commitment have certain responsibilities including teaching and training the child in God’s Word, demonstrating examples of godliness, disciplining according to God’s ways, and praying earnestly for the child.
In the Bible Hannah dedicated her child to God. 1 Samuel 1:11 Hannah made a vow, saying, “O LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”
Infant baptism is not a Biblical practice. An infant cannot place his or her faith in the Lord or make a conscious decision to obey Christ. An
Photo courtesyeva ngelicaloutreach.org
infant cannot understand the symbolism of a water baptism. The Bible does not record any infant baptisms.
The act of Infant baptism in many churches doesn’t involve immersion under water, but sprinkling and pouring holy water on the baby’s head.
But this method of infant baptism fails to agree with the Bible – pouring or sprinkling does not represent the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
There are four things which the Bible says every person must personally do before being baptised. Acts 2:38 Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” The Bible also says Mark 16:15-16–‘All who are baptised must first have the gospel preached to them’. They must also believe and understand the gospel they have been taught.
The command is the same for everyone, before being baptised, they must hear and understand the gospel, believe it, repent of sins, and confess to Christ. Babies cannot do any of these things. Therefore, the command to be baptised is not addressed to infants. To baptize them is doing something different from what God says must be done and not acting on God’s authority.
Churches that baptize babies often also have a practice called ‘confirmation’. After being baptised as babies, later when they are old enough to understand and make their own choice about serving God, children are taught and asked to publicly ‘confirm’ their faith and their desire to live for God. The very existence and practice of confirmation is an admission that the child did not understand, believe, and repent before they were baptised. What are your thoughts on this…
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