Do its advocates and supporters hold the same view now? Do parents and ministers still believe that the baptism of unconscious infants secures, or makes more sure, their salvation? If not, why do they practice it?
Professor Lange’s words are weighty, and should be carefully pondered by Protestant defenders of this Papal emanation. He says: “Would the Protestant Church fulfill and attain to its final destiny, the baptism of new-born children must of necessity be abolished. It has sunk down to a mere formality, without any meaning for the child.” History of Protestantism, p. 34.
Many good people, familiar with infant baptism and surrounded by its influences, have naturally learned to reverence it as of Divine appointment, and some of them really believe it is taught or sanctioned by the New Testament. But Baptists are right in rejecting it as something utterly without foundation in the Word of God.
household baptisms
Much stress is laid by some of the advocates of infant baptism on that fact that in the Acts of the Apostles several cases of household baptism are mentioned. And it is asked with an air of assurance: “If entire households were baptized, must there not have been children among them? And were they not baptized also?” To this it is sufficient to reply, that nothing is said of children, and we have no right to put into the Scriptures what we do not find in them. All inference that such households contained infants, and that such infants were baptized, is the purest fiction in the world. If Christian institutions could be built on so slight a foundation as that, we could bring in all the mummeries of the Greek or the Roman Church, and all the ceremonies of the Mosaic ritual.
One thing is certain: If in those households any children were baptized, they were old enough to receive the Gospel and to believe on Christ, and were thus suitable subjects for the ordinance, and for church fellowship. For it is said, “They believed, and gladly received the Word.” There are thousands of Baptist churches into whose fellowship whole households have been baptized—parents and children and perhaps others connected with them. But all were old enough to believe and to make profession of their faith. So evidently it was in these households.
The more prominent of these households are that of Lydia, mentioned in Acts 16; that of the Philippian jailer, mentioned also in Acts 16; and that of Stephanas, mentioned in 1 Corinthians 1. Now note what a few distinguished Pedobaptist scholars say on these cases.
Doctor Neander says: “We cannot prove that the Apostles ordained infant baptism; from those places where the baptism of a whole family is mentioned, we can draw no such conclusion.” Planting and Training, p. 162, N. Y. Ed., 1865.
Professor Jacobi says: “In none of these instances has it been proved that there were little children among them.” Kitto’s Bib. Cyc., Art. Bap.
Doctor Meyer says: “That the baptism of children was not in use at that time appears evident from 1 Cor. 7:14.” Comment. on Acts 16:15.