Adult Only Baptism?

It has been claimed that “infant baptism” is extra-Scriptural addition and that Christians must rid themselves of this practice, and that we are to believe every word of Scripture. It is true that we need to believe all of Scripture. But is this true that infant baptism is extra-Scriptural?

No, it is not true. In fact, it is quite the opposite: it is "adult-only baptism" that is an extra-Scriptural teaching. And even the question is wrong. The question is not whether there is “infant baptism,” but rather whether in Scripture we find general baptism (not restricted to any age) or whether we find adult “age of accountability” baptism. In fact, it is the teaching that baptism is restricted to adults that is non-Scriptural. To withhold the little children from coming to Christ is non-Scriptural and a direct violation of Christ’s commands. Scripture neither speaks of “adult baptism” nor does it speak of any “age of accountability or reason,” which is ironic since those who uphold such a doctrine are adding to the word of God something that is not there and supposedly the very people who uphold this doctrine also claim to uphold that Scripture is not to be added to.

On that thread, it was stated that we must believe every word of Scripture. This is true, while we find nowhere that the graces of God are to be restricted to adults or someone past an invented “age of reason,” we do find expressly a command that children are NOT to be restricted from grace. We must believe every word of it, including Luke 18.15-16: "Then they also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called them to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God.'" To forbid them from coming to the Lord in Baptism is to add to the word of the Lord. We must believe "Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children" (Acts 2:38–39). It does not say the promise is to you and will be to your children in the future--that would be adding; it is the continuous present tense--every one of you here now be baptized (including the little 5 year olds standing around). The future tense does not take place until referring to those also henceforth will be called. But it does not stop there, but says in verse 39 that the promise is also "to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." To ALL who are afar off, it does not say to all adults--that is adding, but all--as many as the Lord will call. The early Church baptized entire "households" (Acts 16:33; 1 Cor. 1:16), a term encompassing children and servants (cf. Gen 18.9, Ex. 1.1, 12.27, Judges 18.25). We are expressly told not to stop children from coming to Christ, which although not restricted to baptism nevertheless includes it, for “as many as have been baptized have put on Christ” (Galatians 3.27).

"In him you were also circumcised with . . . the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and therein raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead" (Col. 2:11–12). Circumcision is an act done to both children and adults, and Paul states expressly that baptism is the circumcision of the new covenant. The Lord himself was circumcised on the 8th day after his birth (Luke 2.21), so if Baptism is “the circumcision of Christ”…

Also, the argument that a baby cannot baptize himself does not "hold water." as Colossians states, and other passages as well, being baptized indicates that someone else is doing the operation. One can neither bury nor raise himself. Regardless of child or adult, someone else is doing the baptism, the Lord, and the Apostles (John. 3.22), and John 4.1-3: “Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.” Acts 8.38: Philip baptized the Eunuch, the Eunuch did not baptize himself. Dead persons cannot bury nor resurrect themselves, and the faithful are buried and resurrected with Christ in Baptism. Crispus and Gaius did not baptize themselves, but were baptized by Paul (1 Cor. 1.14). Therefore, whether infant or adult, it is not the person himself who does the baptizing, but Christ through the hands of Christian leaders, as we read in John 4, it was Christ who baptized through the Apostles.

It is clear that the early Church, following the receive practice of the Lord and His Apostles as stated in the word of God, let the little children come unto Him in baptism. St. Polycarp (69-155), a disciple of the Apostle John, was baptized as an infant. This enabled him to say at his martyrdom. "Eighty and six years have I served the Lord Christ" (Martyrdom of Polycarp 9: 3). St. Justin the Martyr (100 - 166) states about the year 150, "Many, both men and women, who have been Christ’s disciples since childhood, remain pure at the age of sixty or seventy years" (Apology 1: 15). These baptisms happened while the Apostles were still alive, and in Polycarp's case, it may very well have been St. John the Apostle himself who baptized him as an infant. Likewise, Polycrates of Ephesus around the year 190AD when writing to Rome in the dispute over Pascha, states that he is “sixty-five years in the Lord” indicating his witness of the practice in Ephesus since childhood.

Scriptural faith is not the product of “reason” that is only given to teens and adults, but is trust in the Lord that happens even from infancy: "Yet Thou art He who didst bring me forth from the womb; Thou didst make me trust when upon my mother's breast." (Psalm 22:9). Indeed, a baby can not only believe, but can leap for joy: "For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy." (Luke 1:44). Yes, we must believe every word of it.

Indeed, we must believe every word of it: "For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ." (1 Corinthians 10:1-4). All—infants, children, women and men.