Is Infant Baptism Valid?

 

As a Baptist I have never witnessed a child be baptized. I always believed that in order to be baptized, you must come to Fatih first and be at the age of reason. For me, this was a tough subject to wrestle with since I have always had the Baptist view of baptism. The more I looked into other denominations, I realized that infant baptism is also practiced by other protestants. When I found this out I was astonished because I always imagined that only Catholic and Orthodox baptized babies. In reality, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Anglicans, and Methodists practice infant baptism. So what are my views now?

Sign of the New Covenant:

I now believe that Baptism is the sign of the New Covenant the same way that circumcision was for the Old Covenant. This is what makes infant baptism valid. Baptism is not based on the individual's belief since it is God who administers the baptism. It is by the grace of God that the individual is baptized by water and by the Holy Spirit. Concerning rebaptism, I do not believe that one should be rebaptized if they were already baptized as a baby since they were already under the sign of the New Covenant. I believe that both infant baptism and believers baptism are valid.

Quotes on Infant Baptism:

John Calvin: "Reason would tell us that baptism is rightly administered to babies. The Lord did not give circumcision long ago without making them (infants) partakers of everything represented by circumcision. He would have been deceiving his people with a sham, if he had reassured them with false signs. The idea is very shocking. He distinctly states that the circumcision of the infant is the seal of covenant promise. If the covenant remains firm and unmoved, this is just as relevant to the children of Christians today as it was to the children of the Jews under the Old Testament…The truth of baptism applies to infants, so why do we deny them the sign? The Lord himself formally admitted infants to his covenant, so what more do we need?” (JOHN CALVIN, INSTITUTES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, 4:16:5 (BEVERIDGE EDITION)

Augustine of Hippo: "And this is the firm tradition of the universal Church, in respect of the baptism of infants, who certainly are as yet unable “with the heart to believe unto righteousness, and with the mouth to make confession unto salvation,” as the thief could do; nay, who even, by crying and moaning when the mystery is performed upon them, raise their voices in opposition to the mysterious words, and yet no Christian will say that they are baptized to no purpose." AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO, On Baptism, Against the Donatists, 4.23.31–24.32 in St. Augustin: The Writings Against the Manichaeans and Against the Donatists, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. J. R. King, vol. 4, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (Buffalo: Christian Literature Company, 1887), 461.

Origen: “The Church received from the apostles the tradition of giving baptism even to infants. The apostles, to whom were committed the secrets of the divine sacraments, knew there are in everyone innate strains of [original] sin, which must be washed away through water and the Spirit” (Commentaries on Romans 5:9 [A.D. 248]).

John Chrysostom: “You see how many are the benefits of baptism, and some think its heavenly grace consists only in the remission of sins, but we have enumerated ten honors [it bestows]! For this reason we baptize even infants, though they are not defiled by [personal] sins, so that there may be given to them holiness, righteousness, adoption, inheritance, brotherhood with Christ, and that they may be his [Christ’s] members” (Baptismal Catecheses in Augustine, Against Julian 1:6:21 [A.D. 388]).

Irenaeus: “He [Jesus] came to save all through himself; all, I say, who through him are reborn in God: infants, and children, and youths, and old men. Therefore he passed through every age, becoming an infant for infants, sanctifying infants; a child for children, sanctifying those who are of that age . . . [so that] he might be the perfect teacher in all things, perfect not only in respect to the setting forth of truth, perfect also in respect to relative age” (Against Heresies 2:22:4 [A.D. 189]).