Featured Baptists against Belivers Baptism

Whoever wishes to be baptized will be, no matter their age. We had an 8 y.o. and an 11 y.o. (among others) baptized last month.

God is good.

 

Rejecting believers baptism and holding to age requirements before allowing believers baptism are two entirely different things.

 

We have the age requirement in place, believe that it is 12 years old....

 

Seems like a backlash against the church's that baptize a kid in kindergarten, baptize them again at the youth retreat, baptize them again after they leave home and go astray for a bit, baptize them again years later when they want to rededicate their lives, and etc....

 

Children are very easily manipulated into making professions of faith and being baptized because parents, family, friends want them to do it. It is, essentially, infant baptism imho. Just because a child can memorize a prayer doesn't mean they can conceive concepts like sin, repentance, grace etc...

Please don't accuse me of saying children can't have genuine conversions, I'm not.

How many times do you hear someone explain they were baptized as a kid, but fell away from God in their teens? Then in their 20's or 30's they say they want to recommit themselves to to God. When were they ever committed?

I have had, on several occasions, adults tell me the only reason they got baptized as a child was because their parents wanted them to. In one case, a man told me he knew now he wasn't saved when he was baptized as a child but felt that if he was "re-baptized" it would be disrespectful to his father (his father had baptized him as a child)

 

We do not hold trhta there is any saving grace involved in the baptism, so not exactly adding as Rome does!

 

Jewish age of accountibility...

 

We do not have an age requirement, and would receive every candidate on a case-by-case basis. Nevertheless, we would be cautious of confessions of younger children (10-13), and would not accept very young children (probably 9 and below). (I just making up these numbers myself, since, as I said, we don't have an age requirement in place. Those churches setting actual age requirements may or may not be adopting a good practice, but they are not rejecting believers' baptism -- just being cautious of accepting professions of faith for those below that age. This is a tricky issue, imo. You don't see any young children being baptized in the Bible, but on the other hand we should baptize those who we believe have a credible profession. Imo, Baptists who are baptizing say 2-5 year-olds who can be trained to give the "right answers" are closer to rejecting believers' baptism than those who adopt an age requirement.

 

My experience has been the kids are not the ones getting upset, its the parents who insistmy Son is n ow saved, must be baptized etc!

 

In years gone by (but not so much recently) I often heard people give 12 years old as the age of accountability, but didn't really know the source.

Interestingly, the age of accountability for the Israelites with Moses in the wilderness was twenty. See Number 14:29 and Numbers 32:11

 

What I think we are seeing that in this modern age, churches see it as easier to say to parents "due to caution, we don't baptize anyone under age X" than to say to parents "we don't think your sweet William actually has a credible profession of faith." (Not wanting to say the latter probably also accounts for the young age baptisms in some cases.)

 

Agree with this. Case by case basis including a Q&A session with church elders.

It could be argued that there were children in the Phillipian jailer's household, Acts 16:31-34, but not a certainty.

 

A ruling on this by the Elders of Capitol Hill Baptist Church (Mark Dever, headquarters of the '9Marks' Calvinist outfit):

"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:

19th Century non-American Charles Spurgeon, "The Children and Their Hosannas":

"What would you think if I introduced six children to you whom I saw, one after another, last week, and who all came forward with eagerness to say 'We have been washed in the blood of Jesus, and we want to join His church'? I said, 'Come along, my children; I am glad to see you.' When I talked with them, and heard what God had done for them, I had great confidence in proposing them to the church. I have not found young converts turn back. I usually find that these young ones who are introduced early to the church hold on, and become our best members. Do not refuse to receive them, lest it should ever happen to you as it did to one who was cruelly prudent. A child had loved the Savior for some two or three years, and she desired to make a confession of her faith. She begged her mother that she might be baptized. The mother said that she thought she was too young. The child went to bed broken-hearted, and in the morning a great tear stood in her eye. She had joined the church triumphant above! Do not let your child ever have to complain of you, that you will not believe in its truthful love to Jesus. Do you expect perfection in a child before it joins the church? Then I hope you are perfect yourself, and if you are, pray go to heaven, because I am sure you will fall to quarrelling with everybody here on earth. Few of the perfect people are agreeable neighbors; I suppose they are so good that they have no patience with us who are not up to their standard. No, dear friend, a converted child will give you evidences of true religion, not of perfect religion, for that you ought not to expect. Let the child avow its faith in Christ, and if you have not confessed Him yourself, stand rebuked that a child is ready to obey its Lord while you are not."