Defending Infant Baptism

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PerfectTiming

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Recently I’ve been having a discussion with some friends (all Christian but from other denominations) about infant baptism. They are all against it. I gave them the links to the CA tracts about it but they are still claiming it’s wrong and that the CA articles I showed them are taking Scripture out of context. I even showed them the article about how this was practiced in the early church, with the quotes from church fathers from as far back as just a century after Christ. But they’re still arguing against it and one girl even accused me of spreading falsity.

Can anyone help me give them a rock-solid argument in support of infant baptism?
I’m the only Catholic in this group and sometimes I just feel totally overwhelmed trying to defend against the attacks I sometimes get.
 
There are certainly scriptures which support infant baptism, but I don’t think you’ll find a ‘rock-hard’ support.

That’s because as Catholics, we don’t rely on Scripture to provide all the details of our faith. Protestants don’t either, but many think they do.

Thing is, there is no ‘rock-hard’ scriptural support against infant bapism either. That’s why the authority of the Church is so important. It settles arguments such as these.

I suspect your friends don’t believe that works will get them into heaven. Is not Baptism a “work” particularly if it’s a personal decision? Baptism given to an infant had done nothing to “deserve” baptism, so it cannot be said that it is a ‘work’ for him.

If salvation is a ‘free gift’ which many of them will say that it is, why do we need to make a mature decision for it. If the gift is truly free, why can’t an infant receive it?

Do Jewish babies make a mature decision before they are circumcised? No, they don’t. It was not considered necessary. Baptism is our ‘circumcision’ only Christ shed the blood for us.

You probably have covered this already so I’ll stop. Good luck.
 
If they are your friends, they should just respect your faith and that’s that the way you have decided for your child.

I find it very awkward, when “friends” start telling me, my faith is wrong. Makes me personally question their friendship, since I don’t do that to people of other faith. But it seems to be very popular today telling Catholics, they are wrong. And I really get angry,when issues like priests and paedophilia and celibacy are brought up, since this has nothing to do with the practise of faith itself.

My argument against it is for the most part: The Catholic church has been around for a while, so I suppose, they know what they are doing.

Another good argument is, that an important Christian duty is obedience and since the Church tells us to baptize our infants, we do so.

Maybe you just tell them that they are hurting your feelings by disrespecting your faith.
 
Fortunately this hasn’t happened to me in years, but in my little scrapbooking group, I’m the only Catholic. There are several Lutherans and one Baptist, two who go to nondenomiational churches. On occassion, someone has criticized things like praying to the Blessed Virgin or infant Baptism. One of the Lutherans really went to bat over praying to Saints, but when it comes to Baptism I usually say that I’m grateful my parents loved me enough to give me the gift of faith from the start of my life. That may seem a little blunt, but it’s the way I feel, and criticizing someone else’s faith seems very rude to me.
 
You may find this document from 1980 helpful for explaining the tradition and reasoning behind the practice of infant baptism: Pastoralis Actio (from the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith).
 
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