C
Cat
Guest
Getting back to the OP’s question, I would answer that baptism is an act of faith. We must have faith that the Holy Spirit is at work in the life of the person, child or adult, who is baptized.
Also, IMO, baptism of an infant or child should result primarily in a change in the PARENT or other loving relative or friend who brought that child to be baptized. The parent, godparents, and others who bring the child are pledging to raise the child to love Jesus and His Church, to study the Bible, to partake of the Sacraments at the proper time, to be educated in the Christian school if possible, and most important of all, to demonstrate through their own godly lives the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
It sounds to me like you are asking why babies and toddlers and little children still act badly even though they have been baptized. Is that what you are asking? I’m going to respond as if you were asking this.
A baby is not capable of behaving in a certain way. In other words, a baby who cries constantly, or refuses to sleep, or is easily upset, is not doing anything “wrong.” He/she is just being a baby!
I do believe that we should train our children from their youngest age to behave properly, but I think we also need to be realistic and accept the developmental abilities and limitations of a child at any given age, and understand that childish behavior is not “sinful” even if it is terribly frustrating to adults!
E.g., a baby is not going to be able to understand and “obey” us when we tell him to stop crying and go to sleep. A five-year-old IS capable of understanding and obeying the same command, however, we also need to recognize that the five-year-old may have reasons why he/she cannot obey that command (e.g., fear of dark, nightmares, upset stomach, etc.), and we need to seek to learn why he/she is not able to stop crying and go to sleep.
We also have to realize that until the child reaches an age of accountability (around age 7), they really aren’t capable of “sinning.” They are able to demonstrate a “tendency towards sin”; we see this when the 3-year-old looks up at us, grins, and says, “No, Mommy, I won’t do what you tell me.” But that’s just typical 3-year-old behavior, not sin, and we need to guide that 3-year-old into proper behavior. If we do NOT guide the 3-year-old, but just allow him/her to disobey us, we will be training our child to sin, and when he is old enough, he/she WILL sin with impunity, because we haven’t taught him that certain behaviors are wrong.
I hope this is responding to what you are asking.
I was raised Evangelical Protestant, BTW, and we believed that baptism was an outward sign of an inward change. In other words, the baptism did nothing to change us. It was just another act of obedience to one of Jesus’ commands. So I’m not sure I understand what Isaih520 is trying to say.
Even in Evangelical Protestant churches and fellowships, baptism is just another way to demonstrate obedience to Jesus, and it’s actually a rather easy thing to do compared to giving money to missions, becoming a missionary yourself, becoming a pastor or pastor’s wife, helping the poor, visiting the prisoners and the sick, etc. All those things and many others that Jesus commands Christians to do are a lot harder than getting dunked and going to the reception in the Fellowship Hall afterwards!