How often we make assumptions about God and us that are…well…simply not in the Bible! Sometimes, we misinterpret. At other times, we add…or even subtract. In these ways, we can twist God’s Word out of shape until we make it mean what it doesn’t mean. We can build whole doctrines on additions that are not in the Word. God says, “ Don’t do this!”
What God has written is for us to believe. What He has not written is not for us to speculate.
“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”
Deuteronomy 29:29 NIV
Why do some people change the Word, and others believe the change as though it were the truth? I think that the answer is simple. The truth is inconvenient or outright dangerous…so they change it to make it less problematic.
I could give you many examples but…let me use just one to illustrate my point. This example is, I guess, a hot potato! The issue is infant baptism and its partner…confirmation.
The practice of infant baptism has a long history, beginning as early as 200AD, from the writings of Tertullian, Origen, and Cyprian.
“c. AD 200 (Tertullian): The North African theologian Tertullian is the first writer to explicitly mention infant baptism, though he actually argued againstrushing innocent children into the rite. His opposition proves the practice was already being discussed or performed by his time.
c. AD 248 (Origen): The scholar Origen wrote that the Church received the tradition of baptizing infants directly from the apostles, noting it washed away innate stains of sin.
c. AD 250 (Cyprian of Carthage): Cyprian formally defended infant baptism, arguing that God’s grace and baptism should not be withheld from newborn children.”
According to Google AI, there are two possible reasons for this unbiblical practice…
“Emergency Measures: Some modern historians suggest that childhood baptism originally spread as an emergency precaution when infants faced deadly epidemics, such as the Antonine Plague in the late second century, to ensure their salvation before death.
“The Doctrine of Original Sin: In the fourth and fifth centuries, Augustine of Hippo tied baptism directly to the concept that all humans inherit the guilt of Adam and Eve. This turned infant baptism from a precaution into a theological necessity for cleansing original sin.” (Google AI)
Have you noticed that those ancient theologians didn’t turn to the Biblical writings for a solution to their problem but to their own reason and logic. Although the truth of Scripture is that all people are born with a sin nature, the answer to that dilemma is not infant baptism to “save” babies before they can believe in Jesus.
Then why “baptise” babies?
How much easier it is to sprinkle a few drops of water on a child’s head and then to believe that the child is “saved” than to trust in the power of the gospel and the grace of God. Only He can do the deep, inward transformation of the heart through faith in Jesus. We confirm this transaction by being “buried with Jesus” through baptism, and by rising out of the water to a new life.
The first question we must answer is…how can an action imposed on a baby change a child’s heart? The Bible clearly states that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
“Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”
Romans 10:17 NIV
It’s by faith that we are saved, not by sprinkling water on the head. God works in the heart, not through the body.
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.”
Romans 5:1-2 NIV
How can a baby or a small child make such a decision without understanding?
Secondly, salvation is a two-way action between God and the respondent…
“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”
Romans 10:9-10 NIV
No infant can ever experience this radical transformation simply by having water sprinkled on its head.
Thirdly, the reality of salvation is that it is a death and resurrection.
“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
Romans 6:3-4 NIV
…death to the old life…to the power of the old nature…buried in water just as Jesus was buried in a tomb…a real and powerful demonstration of the truth…
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,”
Ephesians 2:4-6 NIV
This is God the Holy Spirit doing in the heart what no water can do on the skin!
Fourthly, this transaction can only happen through repentance and faith…not by the decision of human parents…and not by an imposition of one person on another.
“When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 2:37-38 NIV
The pattern is crystal clear!
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—”
Ephesians 2:8 NIV
Fifth, the meaning of the Greek word Biblical writers used for this action cannot mean what is does not mean. “Baptizo” means to immerse or submerge, derived from “bapto” meaning “to whelm”, i.e., “to cover wholly with a fluid”.
How can “baptise” be twisted to mean “sprinkle”?
Now, one last comment? One can search the Scriptures from cover to cover and not find, either in the Old or the New Covenant, the instruction or justification for sprinkling water on a baby’s head to impose salvation or transformation on its heart. Like every other instruction or prescription humans add, what the Scriptures never command, humans have no authorisation to demand.
“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20 NIV
So, as Jesus said…
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”
Luke 6:46 NIV