Holy Baptism

Question:

There are other Scriptures pertaining to baptism . . . Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38 and others. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. How can infants or small children hear to understand the word of God? Little children are in essence very very gullible. If you tell them that the sky is orange they think the color of the sky is orange. The next minute if you tell them the sky is purple, they believe that also. There is a matter of "age of accountability." There aren't any scriptures to support any one in the New Testament baptizing infants or small children. Granted, children learn and excel at different rates, but how can an infant learn anything as important as they are sinful? How can an infant or small child sin to the point of needing remission of those sins? Things relating to God and the church are so extremely important and should not be altered (Revelation 22:18-19).

Answer:

Allow me to agree wholeheartedly with your very last point. All that God has related to us in the Scriptures is so precious to us that we dare not either add or subtract to it! It is his saving Word, inspired precisely as we have it from him, so that our souls are brought to Christ and nourished with Christ until we are reunited with Christ in glory forever. Why would we want to add or subtract from that?

But may I humbly suggest for your consideration that it may not be we who are adding to Scripture, but you are who are subtracting from it?

I don't know all the inner workings of the mind and understanding of infants. Even those who have devoted their lives to such study cannot give us conclusive answers to the mystery of the human mind and understanding. Do you fully understand that so well that you can tell me what God can or cannot do in the heart of an infant?

Repentance and faith are accomplished by the work of the Spirit through God's law and gospel. Faith, as it is clearly portrayed in Scripture, is 100% a gift of God so that the fact that we are "in Christ" is completely his choosing, not ours (John 15:16; Ephesians 2:8,9; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31). Why, then, cannot the Spirit work such gifts of repentance and faith in infant hearts through the message of Christ even though I cannot explain the exact "how" of it? Might the words of the Lord himself to Abraham fit here, "Is anything too hard for the LORD?" (Genesis 18:14)?

Or consider this, how can you fault us for baptizing people of all ages when our Lord Jesus, in giving us the gift of baptism, told us to "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them . . ." (Matthew 28:19)? Is it we who take his words at face value that have some explaining to do? Those who have some explaining to do are those who would limit his words when he does not. Where in Scripture is there a clear command not to baptize infants when in instituting baptism Jesus speaks very broadly? Surely the burden of proof does not rest on those who do baptize infants -- but those who do not.

What is more, I can't find a single reference to an "age of accountability" in all of Scripture. I understand that there is such a thing in Scripture as an "age of discretion" when people come to fully understand their actions. But long before anyone reaches the "age of discretion" they are already accountable for the sinful state into which they were born. King David admits that he was a sinner accountable to God already when he was conceived, let alone from the time he was born (Psalm 51:5). The apostle Paul mentions in Ephesians 2:3 that "we were by nature objects of wrath." We don't become sinners suddenly when we gain discernment about our rebellion from God. We are born rebels who sin against our God long before we are aware that we are doing so. Sin remains sin whether I am conscious and aware of it or not. Why else would King David pray that God would forgive his "hidden faults" of which he was not even discerning (Psalm 19:12)? All of us were born as sinners and rebels against God (Romans 8:7) and are therefore "by nature objects of wrath." Tiny children have every bit as much a need for the forgiveness of Christ as any of us. Thank God his grace in Jesus is rich and free and is offered to all through the gospel in Word and sacraments!

Also, your comments about the gullibility of small children is certainly true, but that is merely a rational argument -- not a scriptural one. That argument does not prove that they are somehow therefore unfit to be brought to faith in their Lord Jesus Christ.

Allow me to finish with a summary. We believe that all people by nature are born sinful and are accountable for that before God from the first moment they exist. We believe a new birth through repentance and faith -- necessary for salvation -- is worked by the Holy Spirit through God's message of law and gospel. We believe that repentance and faith are not works which man accomplishes, but that which God works in our hearts by his power. God alone gets 100% of the credit lest sinful man find even the smallest reason to boast (or to fear that we have not done our little part correctly!). We believe that faith is worked through hearing the gospel of Christ, whether that is heard in the preached Word or in the "visible Word" of earthly element joined to the Word of God. We also believe that Jesus' command to baptize -- one way he reaches out with the saving grace of his gospel -- is so wide and broad that we recognize that anyone from all nations can receive baptism.

I will let God sort through the "how" of the exact way he accomplishes all this in the human heart -- young or old. He doesn't ask me to be able to "explain" or "understand" how all this can be. Since nothing is impossible with him, I can just rest secure in the power of his grace and mercy in the gospel. Unless a clear prohibition from Scripture can be produced, we will continue to take Jesus at his Word. May I be so bold as to urge you to do the same?

From the WELS Q & A site: Holy Baptism