Featured Baptists against Belivers Baptism

Pilgrims of Paradox: Calvinism and Experience among the Primitive Baptists of the Blue Ridge

"baptism often occurs very late in the life of the Primitive Baptist — perhaps in middle age or even very old age. Accordingly, one may be married before being baptized. Some persons have been baptized, ordained as deacons, and then buried in close succession, owing to the late age of baptism."

 

This idea was also implemented by the registered Baptist churches of the Soviet Union:

"in 1960 the AUCECB [All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists] forbade...baptism under the age of thirty, [and] all invitations at the end of the service"

books.google.com/books?id=EcfYAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA571&dq=under-the-age-of-thirty

 

Thanks for the info, @Jerome .

 

I belive Constatine waited Himself until death bed...

 

WOW!... Not to mention, you would be pretty water logged after all that... Brother Glen

 

The scriptures give instructions to do all things in an orderly manner. Certainly assessing the qualifications of those wishing to join the fellowship of believers falls under this guidance.

Much of this is part of a modern view of salvation. When my daughter was 4, her vacation bible teacher (about 15 yrs old, herself) joyfully told us that my daughter had prayed to receive Jesus into her heart, was therefore saved, and baptism should follow. I thanked her, but did not seek to have her baptized.

 

I know Briders re-baptize regardless of scriptural baptism in order to join their church. Another heresy............

 

Some churches are so set to get one baptized that as soon as the kid says... Wa... Wa... In he goes!... Brother Glen

 

At my home church before we baptize a child our pastor wants talks with the child and the parents. I remember one time a few back a young boy wanted to be baptized. Our pastor was preaching that day a sister church, at the time I was the assistant pastor. The child's grandmother who is raising him was not sure if he should be baptized or not she wanted me to talk with him to see if I thought he was ready to be baptized or not. I still very fondly remember part of that conversation. One of the questions I asked him was who Jesus was. His answer which I loved was "He is the king of Everything"

 

Amen!

"If there were two enquirers before me now—a child and a man—and I received from each the same testimony, I should have no more right to distrust the child than to suspect the man! In fact, if suspicions must come in anywhere, it ought rather to be exercised towards the adult than in reference to the child who is far less likely to be guilty of hypocrisy than the man and far less likely to have borrowed his words and phrases!" —Charles Spurgeon

"to convert children as children, and to regard them as being as much believers as their seniors, is regarded as absurd. To this supposed absurdity I cling with all my heart." —Charles Spurgeon

"Some people expect almost infinite wisdom in a child before they can believe him to be the subject of divine grace....I never could see anything in Scripture to support this theory, but then Scripture was not so much cared for as the judgment of the deep-experienced people, and the general opinion that it was well to summer and winter all converts before admitting them into the sacred enclosures of the church. Now, if any of you still have an idea in your head hostile to the conversion of children, try and get rid of it, for it is as wrong as wrong can be." —Charles Spurgeon

"I will say broadly that I have more confidence in the spiritual life of the children that I have received into this church than I have in the spiritual condition of the adults thus received." —Charles Spurgeon

"It is said by some that children cannot understand the great mysteries of religion....Away with such priestcraft!....He who receives things simply, as a child, will often have ideas which the man who is prone to make a syllogism of everything will never attain unto." —Charles Spurgeon

 

I think Spurgeon has a very good point about the hypocrisy. Men often join churches for feigned reasons, while a child is less likely to do so. The "borrowed words and phrases" was probably quite pertinent in Spurgeon's day, but perhaps not so much today. Adults in our modern American churches often give children the words to say or answers to give. It would be interesting to know what age of children Spurgeon was thinking/talking about. Does he ever say? I notice in the biography of Spurgeon's son Thomas by W. Y. Fullerton, that Thomas and his twin brother Charles were baptized at age 18.

 

The household baptisms are often used by paedobaptists to support infant baptism -- though that fits neither the context nor the overall biblical doctrine of baptism.

There are 3 clear statements of household baptisms (and 2 where it may be implied, Acts 10:47-48; Acts 18:8):

• And when [Lydia] was baptized, and her household... Acts 16:15; As far as is stated in the Bible, Lydia's household consisted of brethren who could be comforted (Acts 16:40). Lydia was a business woman in a city not of her nativity. She may not have even had husband or children. Those who became brethren in her household were likely servants/employees.
• ...was baptized, [the Philippian jailer] and all his... Acts 16:33-34; The household of the jailer heard the word, believed it, and rejoiced (Acts 16:32-34). Hardly seems an apt description of infants!
• And I baptized also the household of Stephanas... 1 Corinthians 1:16; The household of Stephanas were called the firstfruits of Achaia who addicted themselves to the ministry (1 Corinthians 16:15). Again, this hardly seems an apt description of infants.

On the other hand, children in the household of sufficient age to hear, understand, and believe do not contradict the context, or the biblical doctrine of baptism.

 

Charles Spurgeon, "High Doctrine and Broad Doctrine"

"When I was just about fifteen years of age I was helped by God’s Spirit to cast myself upon Christ; and did I ever regret that I came to Jesus so soon? No; I wish that I could have come fifteen years before, and that I had known Christ as soon as I ever learned to know my mother. Some of you have heard about Jesus from your infancy; his name was part of the music with which your mother sang you to sleep. Oh, that you may know Jesus by faith as well as by hearing! Do not think that you have to wait until you are grown up before you may come to Jesus. We have baptized quite a number of boys and girls of ten, eleven, and twelve. I spoke the other day with a little boy nine years of age; and I tell you that he knew more about Christ than ever so many grey-headed men do; and he loved Jesus most heartily. As the sweet child talked to me about what Christ had done for him, he brought tears into my eyes, to see how happily and brightly he could speak of what he had felt in his own soul of the Saviour’s power to bless."

Charles Spurgeon, "Children Brought to Christ, Not to the Font"

"there have been children brought to Christ at an extremely early period. You who are acquainted with Janeway's 'Tokens for Children,' have noticed very many beautiful instances of early conversion. Our dear friend, Mrs. Rogers, in that book of hers, 'The Folded Lamb,' gave a very sweet picture of a little son of hers, soon folded in the Saviour's bosom above, who, as early as two or three years of age, rejoiced and knew the Saviour. I do not doubt at all, I cannot doubt it, because one has seen such cases, that children of two or three years of age may have precocity of knowledge, and of grace; a forwardness which in almost every case has betokened early death, but which has been perfectly marvellous to those who have talked with them. The fact is that we do not all at the same age arrive at that degree of mental stature which is necessary for understanding the things of God. Children have been reported as reading Latin, Greek, and other languages, at five or six years of age."

 

Yes, they were PKs.

 

Ruling by the Elders of Capitol Hill Baptist Church (Mark Dever, headquarters of the 9Marks Center for Church Reform):

"As they assume adult responsibilities (sometime in late high school with driving, employment, non-Christian friends, voting, legality of marriage), then part of this, we would think, would be to declare publicly their allegiance to Christ by baptism....the practice of baptizing pre-teenage children is of recent development (largely early 20th century) and of limited geography (largely limited to the United States, and places where American evangelicals have exercised great influence)."



Oops, testimony from another nineteenth-century British Baptist :

spurgeongems.org/vols7-9/chs381.pdf

"We do not contend for the baptism of adults; we contend for the baptism of believers. Show us a child however young, who believes in Christ, and we gladly accept him" —Hugh Stowell Brown, preaching at the Metropolitan Tabernacle

 

1600s! :

Benjamin Keach (1694) A Counter-Antidote...Wherein the Baptism of Believers Is Evinced to Be God's Ordinance

"those little Children who do believe in Christ, have an indubitable right to Baptism and to the Lords Supper also, as soon as they are Baptised: But not Infants."

 

Case-by-case seems the wisest way, employing discernment rather than fixed rules. My strong preference, though not as an ironclad requirement, is that the candidate have at least a rudimentary understanding of the scriptural basis for believer's baptism. My daughter professed Christ as Savior shortly before her 4th birthday, and her subsequent walk (she's now 40) solidly supports that as the time of her salvation. She was baptized about 5 years later - the written date is somewhere amidst our stuff - at a time when her knowledge of the Bible included that understanding.

Our church has no age limit for believer's baptism, but our pastor has a discussion with candidates to ensure they know why this step of obedience should be taken. The only age-related items we observe are that one cannot apply for membership until one is 18, and that regular attendees 18 or older must be members in order to have a platform ministry - e.g. choir. We've had guest groups that included people younger than 18 (Christian HS, for example) provide music ministry, and as long as the organization and the presentation are honoring God, that's fine.

 

I see there that Keach also meant little children, as Spurgeon:

In theory I agree with Mr. Brown. But in fact I am extremely skeptical of baptizing two or three year olds, and can say that I have never personally seen any cases in which I would have been confident to baptize someone that young despite the sincere views of my more imminent brethren Keach and Spurgeon.