This is not about coffee or donuts and making kids happy with the latest warm, sugar-covered pastry. It is about me thinking through the paedo- vs credo- baptism debate. Paedobaptism I remember by thinking “pediatric”, as in children. It’s the term for baptizing infants and young children. Credobaptism I remember by thinking “creeds” and means it’s the term for only baptizing professed believers who are mature enough to know and understand the basic doctrines or creeds of orthodox Christianity.
I know that baptism, regardless of age, doesn’t convey anything to the one baptized and Scripture doesn’t imply that it does. There’s nothing magical, you don’t get more of The Holy Spirit, there’s not some “infusion” of anything in the act of getting baptized. Just ask any of those who have been baptized and then later walk away from the faith. Many have been baptized after some emotional service and then a month later are nowhere to be found. The baptism conveyed or infused them with nothing. Or ask the many who later in life as adults are baptized again with a testimony of “I wanted to get my baptism on the right side of my salvation.”
What then is it? Obedience. We are baptized because we are obedient to the command of Jesus Christ to do so, to publicly announce our faith in an open identification with Him. It is a symbolic act, an outward, public profession of an inner change. That’s why I am a credobaptist. It is symbolic of a preceding real spiritual change in that going under the water symbolizes our death to ourselves and our old life (that’s why I believe in baptism by full immersion) and then our new life in Christ symbolized by coming up out of the water. Sprinkles of water on a forehead just do not symbolize what I believe baptism was given to us to symbolize.
If baptism is an outward, public symbol of an inner change in the heart, then baptism must follow that change. Baptizing an infant, or a young child that may just be meeting their parent’s expectations, where that child is not at a stage in life where they realize what sin is, how steeped they are in it, the impending judgment of God, and have thrown themselves onto His mercy and grace as their only hope…then they just got wet but they haven’t experienced the spiritual change of salvation through repentance and faith that should precede the outward symbol. They don’t need a degree in theology to be baptized, but they need to know sin, repentance, and faith and to the point that their faith is in Christ alone. The “dying to self” symbolized in baptism doesn’t mean you become less selfish, though that is a result, but it is dying to all your efforts, any hint of self-righteousness, any hope of earning God’s favor through works, dying to thoughts of trying to impress God. Christ alone is your hope. It is a hope built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and His righteousness.
So whatever age you are when you understand these things and know what you’re doing, well that’s the age for a proper baptism.
I also want to keep in mind that in biblical times, long before our 1900’s invention of a stage of life called “adolescence”, when you hit sexual maturity in your early teens you went from child to adult. Life was binary – you were either child or adult and adult started at puberty. Israel had kings (and some good, godly ones) ranging from 7-8 yrs old up to the “old” ones like Solomon who was 20 when he began his reign. Mary was the mother of Jesus at 14-16. So, I’m not saying you need to be 18 or 21 or any of our other societal “milestone” ages of our day. You just need to know what you’re doing and why and that you are ready to identify with new life in Christ.
Another thing to consider if we get out of our zip code, meaning outside of our modern American mindset, is those in biblical times and many around the world even today must consider the COST of baptism. There are several places around the world to this day where there is a large cost of publicly identifying with Christ in situations where it may just cost you your life. They are credobaptist because you literally have to count the cost of possibly your life if you publicly identify with Christ. I’m not thinking in those situations, like Nigeria, that parents are having these debates over the right age to publicly mark little Johnny as a Christian in places where if you identify publicly with Christ, you become marked for severe persecution and possible death. That debate is a luxury for us still living in a nation that is just starting to leave behind our Christianity-based culture.
So the bottom line is what is the right age for baptism? When you are old enough to know what it means, if you are old enough to “count the cost”, if you are mature enough to know your sin, to repent, and to place your faith in Christ’s completed work – ALONE.