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Some take the view that persons are baptised as a testimony to the world that they are saved. However,there is no scripture saying that persons should be baptised as a testimony to anyone. The only injunction of the Lord to anyone regarding doing something as a testimony is his word to the man he had cured of leprosy: "And he enjoined him to tell no one; but go, shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing as Moses ordained, for a testimony to them" (Luke 5:14). His action in showing himself to the priest was to be a testimony. Probably this was the only time that a leper had been cured and had been in a position to offer what Moses commanded. Naaman was cured, but he was a Syrian and not subject to the Mosaic law. Of course, any right thing that we do, if known of by those without, can be a good testimony. For example, if we pay our debts we pay them because we ought to and not for the testimony's sake, though that could be adversely affected if we did not. |
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The question arises as to whether only persons who make a satisfactory confession should be baptised, that is, the baptism of infants should be ruled out. That there is no scriptural basis for forcing unwilling adults to be baptised is clear. It is also clear that there is no case of an infant being baptised as such. There are three cases of households being baptised and these are discussed in Appendix 1. What the households consisted of is not stated in Scripture, but they could have included persons of all ages. The practice today generally is to baptise persons in a Church building. Those who practice infant baptism do this as do those who practice believers baptism. However, those who maintain household baptism (as distinct from infant baptism), usually baptise in the household setting. Apart from this, the main distinction between those who practice household, as distinct from infant, baptism is that they only baptise infants where the head of the household is a Christian. In the three cases in Scripture, two were men (the jailer and Stephanas) and one was a woman (Lydia). Maybe she was a widow or perhaps simply an unmarried woman, like Martha and Mary in the Gospels. Further, those who baptise infants usually only Christen them with a few drops of (so called) holy water, whereas household baptists normally baptise by immersion. |
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Those that practice, so-called, believers baptism and do not baptise their children sometimes go through a ceremony of dedication instead. This is effectively doing what those who baptise their children do when they baptise them. However, when persons baptise their children they are effectively acknowledging by immersing them that they can only be for God on the basis of the death of Christ. Those who dedicate their children to God without baptising them could be said to be dedicating unregenerate flesh to God. Those who baptise them (dedicate them in that way) are by so doing demonstrating that they acknowledge that death is upon their children and that they can only be for God as having died with Christ. Christian parents then seek to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and look to God to work in their hearts that they may come to know him. |
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There is another passage that has a bearing on what we are considering, and that is 1 Corinthians 7:13/14.This says that when only one of the parents is a Christian the children are regarded as holy. In Old Testament days they would have been regarded as unclean. In those times the maintenance of a pure line in the flesh was important (Ezra 10:10-12). That is not important under Christianity where Jew and Greek etc. have no significance (Galatians 3:27-29). Some take the passage in Corinthians as a basis for baptising young children, though it could be argued that on the basis of this scripture it is not necessary to baptise anyone born within the sphere of Christian profession. After all, all those who received Christian baptism in the New Testament were all persons coming out from Judaism or Heathendom. This applies whether we are talking about individuals or households. Not many, I think, would want to take this line, especially as conditions in Christendom are so mixed. Mr Darby thought that Christ intended to leave baptism in the shade, but at the same time he accepted that it had not been set aside and would have regarded anyone breaking bread who had not been baptised as acting irregularly. However, the significance of baptism is seen much more clearly when persons are leaving Judaism or Heathendom. Most persons in Christendom have been baptised even if only nominally Christians, unless they acknowledge some other faith such as Judaism or Mohammedanism. By being baptised they have taken up the profession of Christianity and so much the worse for them if they are not real. However, by being baptised they have put themselves under the Lord (being baptised to the name of the Lord Jesus) and they can expect to be |