Infant Baptism....please help me be prepared to explain

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As I posted over in the family forum, my SIL (Baptized Catholic as an infant), is being “re-baptized” at DH’s family’s Baptist church on Sunday.

I fear I’m going to be asked to go by DH and am going to have to be prepared to explain why I won’t go. Apologist I am not…:o

So, any suggestions on how I can word this?

DH has asked me before what is the point of baptizing a baby. I really failed that test when I tried to explain it to him.
 
The basics are:

1-the necessity for baptism (original sin)
2-God instituted the ordinance of circumcision for entrance into the old covenant (at 8 days of age)
3-Christ told us to “bring the children to him”
4-in MT, the greek word for children is not for any specific age
5-In Luke, the greek word for infants is used to show adults bringing infants to Christ
6-In the sacrament of baptism, Christ comes to us with his grace and life
7-The bible tells us that baptism in the new covenant replaces circumcision in the old covenant
8-many examples in the bible show us grace bestowed on persons because of the faith of another.
9-several passages show us entire households were baptized

lol–btw—before each step, say the words “the bible tells us…” before you make the point. no joke–it works wonders.
 
Add this line of questioning for support:
  1. did God make a flawed world?
  2. If God did not make a flawed world, does that mean that the perfect state of the human soul desires God or evil?
  3. If the soul naturally seeks God, what makes a human deviate from this towards sin (you may have to prompt DH with this one to get that people fall away from desiring God because of Corruption)?
  4. If Corruption is what leads us away from seeking God, then does it stand to reason that the child/infants soul is MOST pure (such as when Jesus tells us that we must have faith LIKE A CHILD)?
  5. If the human soul is purest as a child/infant, then doesnt it stand to reason at this point in life the human soul MOST desires communion with God?
  6. which matters more? The human soul, or the body?
  7. If the soul of the child is the perfect faith, naturally desires God more than even adults, and is more important than the human body, why would you deny that soul, which hungers for God, the right to baptism? It’s not about the faith of others, it’s about the inborn faith of the child.
 
In addition to the resources above, you can get a free audio talk on infant baptism by Catholic apologist John Martignoni:

biblechristiansociety.com/download

It is downloadable to Mp3, and elsewhere on the site you can get the study guide that goes with it. This should give you plenty of ammo! 👍
 
masondoggy said:
DH has asked me before what is the point of baptizing a baby.
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Because everyone, including little babies, is called to be in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “Let the children come unto me and let no one hinder them, for of such is the kingdom of God.” (See Mark 10:13-16)

Baptism is how we get into a relationship with Jesus Christ. (See Matthew 28:16-20)
 
masondoggy said:
As I posted over in the family forum, my SIL (Baptized Catholic as an infant), is being “re-baptized” at DH’s family’s Baptist church on Sunday.

I fear I’m going to be asked to go by DH and am going to have to be prepared to explain why I won’t go. Apologist I am not…:o

So, any suggestions on how I can word this?

DH has asked me before what is the point of baptizing a baby. I really failed that test when I tried to explain it to him.
Click to expand...
Here the explanation regarding why we must baptized babies which I received from a Lutheran Pastor no less (Lutherans, methodists, episcopelians, anglicans and some presbyterians are some of the Protestants that do baptize babies).
  1. No where in Scripture it says that infants are NOT to be baptized. Most of what is talked about in Scripture is addressed to adults and their conversion, and it says nothing about their children except, that if the ADULT believes all its house (including infants) will be saved (Acts 16:31).
  2. Baptism is the sign of the New Covenant, which replaced circumsicion (Col 2:11-12), which was the sign of the Old covenant.
  3. The Old Covenant was imperfect and therefore it was EXCLUSIVE, only JEWISH MEN older than 8 days of age (when they were circumcised) were allowed. Women and gentiles were NOT allowed. Now, the New Covenant, because it has Jesus Christ as the High Priest and Mediator, is PERFECT and is 100% inclusive; therefore, all are allowed to be part of this Covenant, women, men, gentiles and Jews of ANY age.
  4. Those Christians that do not allow infants to be baptized are making the new covenant a covenant more EXCLUSIVE than the Old Covenant, in the sense that the Old Covenant did allow for infants older than 8 days of age to be baptized.
  5. Infant baptism goes back to the original roots of God intented will, when there was NO LAW, and Abraham circumcised Isaac based on FAITH not on Law, and thus ISAAC became part of the People of God. By the same token, when an Infant is baptized in the Church, the faith that is seen there is the faith of the parents (just like in the case of Isaac), godparents and the Church’s, and thus the infant becomes a Child of God.
Many blessings,

E.C.
 
INTERESTING FACT.

When Abraham circumcised Isaac by faith, not only Isaac was circumcised but all the men in his house, this meaning even the slaves. This can be read in Genesis. Slaves were circumcised, even though they were adults, based of the faith of the master.

There is evidence that in early Christianity, slaves, even though they were adults, were also baptized based on the faith of the master mimicking circumsicion.

To know this completely convinced me that INFANTS were always baptized, from the very beginning.

Many blessings,

E.C.
 
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