To whom baptism is given

This week's questions

To whom is Baptism to be administered? Baptism is not to be administered to any that are out of the visible church, till they profess their faith in Christ, and obedience to him; but the infants of such as are members of the visible church are to be baptized.

Question 95

Question 94 said what baptism signifies and seals (last week); Question 95 asks to whom it is given. This is a place where the Reformed themselves differ. Presbyterian and continental Reformed churches teach this answer; the Reformed Baptists, who confess the same faith, answer this question differently. This week sets out both as Reformed.

The answer's two halves

On the first half, both agree. Those who come from outside the church are baptised when they profess faith and obedience. At Pentecost, "Those who embraced his message were baptized" (Acts 2:41); in Samaria, when people believed Philip's preaching, "they were baptized, both men and women" (Acts 8:12). The Ethiopian official saw water by the road and asked to be baptised (Acts 8:36-38). Verse 37, his confession of faith, stands in the King James Version but not in the BSB, since most manuscripts lack it; the story shows a believer baptised without it.

The second half concerns the children of members. The Westminster Confession gives baptism not only to those who profess faith but to "the infants of one or both believing parents" WCF 28.4. The ground the Westminster and continental confessions give is one covenant of grace through both Testaments (Question 20, week 11; One covenant of grace in many ages). God gave Abraham and his descendants circumcision as the covenant's sign (Genesis 17:10), and at Pentecost Peter said:

This promise belongs to you and your children and to all who are far off — to all whom the Lord our God will call to Himself.

Acts 2:39

Paul sets the circumcision of Christ beside baptism:

In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of your sinful nature, with the circumcision performed by Christ and not by human hands. And having been buried with Him in baptism, you were raised with Him through your faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.

Colossians 2:11-12

The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) of the continental Reformed churches answers that infants are received into the church by baptism, as Israel's children once were by circumcision, "in place of which in the New Testament Baptism is appointed" Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 74. Paul calls believers' children holy (1 Corinthians 7:14); Lydia and the jailer were baptised with their households (Acts 16:15, 16:33); and Jesus took the little children in his arms and blessed them (Mark 10:13-16). Such infants, says the Larger Catechism, "are in that respect within the covenant, and to be baptized" Larger Catechism, Q. 166. The baptised child is called to own that covenant by faith, improving his baptism all his life Q. 167; churches give a way to profess that faith publicly, in Presbyterian churches before the elders.

The Reformed Baptist confession

The Reformed Baptists' Second London Confession of 1689 answers otherwise: those who actually profess repentance toward God, and faith in and obedience to the Lord Jesus, are baptism's only proper subjects 29.2, and it is given by immersion 29.4. The Baptist Catechism of 1693, usually called Keach's, follows the Shorter Catechism's words closely until this question, and here answers that the infants of believers are not to be baptised, Scripture giving neither command nor example The Baptist Catechism.

Their grounds are Scripture too, and they read the same texts another way. In the new covenant God writes his law on his people's hearts, and all of them know him (Jeremiah 31:33-34; Hebrews 8:10-11): its members are those born again, and its sign is theirs. Peter's promise reaches all whom the Lord will call, and his words begin with a call to repent (Acts 2:38-39). The circumcision made without hands is that of the heart, and the jailer's household heard the word and believed (Acts 16:32-34). In every New Testament account, they add, repentance and faith come before baptism. Both read the same texts and confess the same gospel of grace; in most chapters the 1689 Confession keeps Westminster's very words.

Other churches divide the same way. The Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and Methodist churches baptise infants, each with its own understanding. The Anabaptists' Schleitheim Confession (1527) keeps baptism for those who repent and believe Schleitheim Confession, art. 1, as Baptists and many Pentecostal and free churches do. Churches that baptise believers often dedicate infants, presenting them to God with prayer. To believing parents who have lost a little child, the Reformed Canons of Dort (1619) speak comfort from the covenant: they need not doubt the election and salvation of the child God has called out of this life Canons of Dort 1.17. Anyone carrying that grief should not carry it alone, but lean on their pastor and trusted friends. The two views are set out in the library's introduction, The sign of the covenant and Baptism; the Anabaptists' story is told in The Anabaptists and the Radical Reformation (see infant baptism and believers' baptism).

To ponder this week

If you were baptised as a child, how will you own that covenant this week; if you were baptised as a believer, how will you live that confession; and how can you honour Christians who baptise differently? This week, confess in prayer the promise your baptism points to. If a Christian friend was baptised in another way, ask how they understand it, and listen: you belong to the same Lord, and there is something to learn.

Practice