What does the Bible say about Infant Baptism/other baptisms?

(The Gospel)

You might have been baptized before this moment in your life by being baptized as a baby or might have been baptized later in life when you were older but had not really understood the gospel and did it to just obey the Bible, go along with your friends, or to please your parents/church.

If one of these baptisms happens to be your baptism the real question you should be asking yourself now is:

“Does God approve of my former baptism?”

The reason you need to ask yourself this question is because you are in the process of being saved Biblically (straight from the Bible) and if you have been baptized before you need to know if God will approve of your former baptism:

This is an issue of salvation, and you want to do everything in your power to be saved (make it right with God) and this includes making sure that God approves or do not approve of your former baptism!

Like you will learn (and will be stated all over this web ministry) you need to always go to the Bible FIRST and see if something is Biblical and is pleasing to God. So, in order to find out if your first baptism is acceptable now to God, we need to look at Biblical examples of baptism to see if they match your baptism.

The first major type of baptism:

Infant Baptism

Infant baptism is a type of baptism usually involving babies ranging from newborns to 9-10 months old and usually involves water in some way, it is a baptism dedicating the baby into God’s family and dedicating his/her life to God.[1][2]

There are two major infant baptisms practiced by the two major Christian denominations:

One is the Catholic/Anglican baptism (also known as christening)

Christening is a type of infant baptism that usually involves a baby of 1-9 months who is baptized by filling a special bowl with water and pouring on the baby’s head three times. And the baby is usually given a Biblical name to signify they are a child of God, have been saved, and are a part of the Church through the baptism.

It is done mainly in Catholic, Anglican, and Methodists Churches where christening and Baptism are considered the same thing. [1]

So, if this was your baptism the question is, can this type of baptism be found in the Bible and thus be approved by God?

Recap of what Baptism means:

Well for one if you honestly look at what the very word “baptism” means, there is a contradiction already:

The word baptism means to “be submerged” as opposed to it meaning pouring water, being submerged means to go under a body of water and be completely surrounded by water, not to just being exposed to some water. This can be confirmed by the examining the descriptions of Baptisms in the Bible as well:

Acts 8:38

“…Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.”

Philip didn’t pour the Eunuch’s head with water; they both got into a body of water to baptize him.

Matthew 3:13-16

“Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John…As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water.”

So, AFTER his baptism Jesus came up out of the water so therefore, he was under the water!

So, from these descriptive baptisms, it describes baptism as going into a body of water and then coming up out of the water: therefore, implying that the person being baptized is completely submerged in the body of water, just as the very word baptism suggest!

More descriptions of baptism:

Being baptized is compared to washing (Which was another way the Greek word for baptized was used):

Acts 22:16

“Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away,…”

Now when you go to wash to get filth off do you honestly just pour some water on one part of your body (your head) and are clean? NO (and if you said yes you’re either are not being honest or you really don’t know how to wash!) you COMPLETELY COVER your ENTIER BODY in WATER! Wherever that be in taking a shower or lying in a body of water (a bath) your whole body has to be exposed to the water and usually it’s a lot more than just a couple of pours!

It also says those who are baptized are symbolically BURIED IN WATER as Jesus was BURIED in the earth (rock: in a tomb).

Colossians 2:12

“Having been buried with him in baptism,…”

This is opposed to being poured with a little dirt (a little water) over your forehead. When anyone wants to bury a dead person, they don’t just sprinkle a little dirt on their forehead they completely bury them in the ground! This is how baptism is described in water: a person is completely submerged into a body of water!

So, the Biblical evidence is clear here:

Baptism is being completely submerged in water so therefore there is no example of pouring water onto someone’s head as being sufficient for baptism and thus is not approved by God. So if you were baptized this way you were not Biblically baptized and God does not approve of your baptism, so you need to be baptized THE RIGHT WAY in order to complete salvation!

The other major infant baptism is orthodox infant baptism

This baptism is usually done in orthodox churches and involves babies ranging in ages from newborn to 10 months old. the baby is either poured on the head with water ( instead of the body being out of the water like Christening however the baby is usually in the body of water) or their dunked under water to signify they are a child of God and there a part of the church.[2]

While the baby is dunked under water sometimes this dunking seems to take many forms depending on the priest doing it or the sect. Some Baptisms are done by dunking the head first then the bottom then repeated three times, Others are full immersion but are done headfirst in a diving position three times. [3]

So you can see there are many different variations of orthodox baptisms usually involving three repetitions (This is also the case in catholic baptisms [Christening]).

First off, does the Bible support a three time dunking under water?

There is no evidence of baptism consisting of three immersions under the water in the Bible. In fact from Jesus baptism alone we see it was only ONE dunk under the water:

Matthew 3:13-16

“Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John…As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water.”

He went to be baptized, and as soon as the baptism was finished, he came up out of the water! Now it does not say that Jesus was baptized three times and it was finished, it seems to say that Jesus was dunked under water [Baptism] only ONE TIME then came up and it was done.

This makes sense considering other ways baptism was described:

You don’t take 3 different baths 3 times in a row to be clean, you usually take one. You don’t bury a dead body three times in the ground, it usually one! In the same way you don’t get dunked 3 times in a row it only once.

This is strongly suggested in Ephesians where Paul says as there is only one God there is only ONE Baptism:

Ephesians 4:5-6

“…one Lord, one faith, one baptism (as opposed to three); one God…”

So being dunked three times is not Biblical (however it is not necessarily wrong but it would be more out of religious tradition than what the Bible says concerning Baptism, but someone does NOT have to be dunked three times to be a proper baptism!)

As far as duking the babies it is done many different ways such as dunking the head then feet or diving the baby’s head first into the water. This does not seem to be Biblical way of performing baptism either, baptism in the Bible seems to be the person being baptized standing in the water themselves:

The Eunuch that was being baptized seemed to go into the water and stand in the water himself to be baptized:

Acts 8:38

“…Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.”

Paul was told to get up and be baptized:

Acts 22:16

“Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away,…”

Paul was to get up and stand in the water and be baptized by being dunked

It seems those who are baptized were standing on their own in the body of water and by their body being dunked downward were baptized (as the word baptism [Submerging] suggests) not necessarily head first then legs next or diving headfirst. So, if you were baptized like this it seems this is not a Biblical way to be baptized either and thus is not acceptable to God, therefore you need to be baptized the right way!

You might say

“But that’s not fair! babies can’t stand up in water own their own how are they to do a proper baptism?”

This is a fair concern how are babies supposed to be baptized?

Well before this is answered we need to question if even baptizing infants is Biblical (Acceptable to God).

Because we are considering everything the Bible says about a proper baptism we need to find if the Bible says anything about Baptizing babies and what is required in Baptism that God approves of:

When looking through Baptisms in the Bible there is no single example of infant Baptism no one individual example can be found of a baby being baptized. all known examples of baptism are ones who do it out of their own personal choice and seem to be old enough to understand why they are doing it:

Matthew 3:1-6

“In those days John the Baptist came,…People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.”

In this passage people were walking from their homes to go to John and they were confessing their sin to him, and this led to being baptized. By logic Babies could not get up and walk and confess their sins the requirement here to be baptized. So it looks like none of these people who were baptized were babies.

Matthew 3:13-16

“Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John…”

Jesus was at least 29 years old here and personally decided he wanted to be baptized.

Acts 8:36-38

“As they (Philip and the Eunuch) traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, 'Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?' Philip said, 'If you believe with all your heart, you may.' The eunuch answered, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’ And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.”

We see here the Eunuch who was baptized earlier after hearing Philip preach the Gospel to him the Eunuch saw water and actually choose to stop their and wanted to be baptized, but after asking if there was anything stopping him from being Baptized Phillip responded if he believed in Jesus's identity then there was nothing.

If believing Jesus is the Messiah and son of God is the qualification to being baptized, then how can a baby be baptized if they can't understand the gospel in the first place?

Paul was told to get up be baptized:

Acts 22:16

“’…Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’ ”

This does not mean he was to be baptized by himself, but he chose to be baptized and it was his decision, and he was also to call Jesus's name in being Baptized!

Can a baby choose to be baptized out of their own free will? Can a baby call on Jesus's name?

Acts 16:31-33

They replied, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.' Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night… immediately he and all his household were baptized.”

After Philip Preached to the Samarians the Gospel and they believed they were baptized:

Acts 8:12

“…they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.”

The original word for "Men" here was the Greek “ἄνδρες” (an-drey-as) and "Women" was the Greek “γυναῖκες” (Guy-nai-Keisuh) both typically meant grown adults compared to children or babies (which had another Greek word for them entirely).[4]

This strongly suggests that no little children and definitely no babies were baptized by Philip here.

Peter was teaching a family and after they understood told them to be baptized:

Acts 10:48

“So he ordered that they (the family he was talking to) be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ….”

So, it seems after they understood the gospel Jesus preached and accepted it they were baptized.

Now with all this we can come to a pretty obvious conclusion from these baptisms from the Bible:

All of them were baptized on their own decision it seems all of them were old/mature enough to understand the gospel and accept it and were old/mature enough to understand sin, confess it, and repent of it to be baptized.

You need to honestly ask yourself:

Can a Baby understand the gospel? Can a Baby choose to believe the Gospel? Can a baby realize sin and realize it’s wrong? Can a baby call on Jesus and confess sins? Then could a baby choose baptism? Really can a baby do all this? If these questions are honestly answered the answer seems to be a no! A baby can’t even seem to understand the gospel or really anything. Because this seems to be one of the requirements to be baptized (as you should have done) by logic, babies should not even be baptized!

Baptism seems to be for older/mature humans (men and women) who can understand the gospel and want to be saved (like you right now) So if you were baptized as a baby this type of baptism is not approve of in the Bible and thus God does not approve of your infant baptism, so you need to be baptized the right way!

Some might oppose this conclusion by saying:

“But what about the households that were baptized like in Acts 16:31-33 and in Acts 10:48? The entire house was baptized. That included the whole family that must have had babies and little children. Therefore, that must mean babies were baptized to.”

It is true that someone’s entire household meant all of their family in the original context, this most likely included small children or babies, however it says in these passages

Acts 16:31-32

“…They replied, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.'…Then they (Paul and Sillas) spoke the word of the Lord to him (Jailer) and to all the others in his house.”

The apostles spoke the Gospel to them all as well and all that were present believed.

Now the Acts 10 household

Notice in Acts 10 before Peter comes (and before the baptisms) Cornelius called relatives and close friends to hear Peter talk:

Acts 10:24

“…Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.”

This was an important meeting that Cornelius personally got relatives and friends together to hear:

this was the audience Peter was talking to; Though it is definitely possible; I highly doubt Cornelius would have babies or even small children in such an important meeting, the important part though: it does not say.

Acts 10:33

“…Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.”

Notice whatever age group or maturity was present, all the people that were baptized were all mature enough to listen to what Peter had to say and understand him!

Acts 10:44

“While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.”

On top of all this the Holy Spirit came one everyone who HEARD THE MESSAGE, if there were very little children/babies here they probably would not be able to hear it which is understanding it and would not have had the Holy Spirit fall on them.

These people who the Holy Spirit fell on were the ones who were baptized:

Acts 10:46-47

Then Peter said, 'Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water.' ”

Acts 10:48

“…So he ordered that they (the people who heard the message and had the Holy Spirit fall on them) be baptized…”

While household can include babies/little children it seems highly unlikely in these cases, therefore this does not prove indirectly that infant baptism is Biblical and approved of by God.

Some might say in infant baptisms defense:

“Baptism is a way to dedicate the baby to God, it’s really about dedicating the Baby to God, God would not be against that, would he?”

Yes, that’s exactly right, infant baptism is more like a baby dedication than baptism:

A Baby dedication is when the Christian parents of the child vow to dedicate the Child to God: by vowing from that day forward to do their part and teach the child the Bible; to show them what they should do to be saved and the right way to live. [5]

After the dedication The parent(s) will then train the child in the Biblical way of thinking so when THEY DO get old enough to understand they can know the truth beforehand and be given the choice early on to decide for themselves if they want to continue to believe in what their parents had desired for them or walk away in other beliefs.

This is what many parents/churches intentions are when having infant baptism; not because the baby themselves believes and desires to have baptism (the Biblical reason for all recorded Baptisms) but because the parent(s) want to dedicate the child and want the child to be saved like the parent(s) are.

The Bible does encourage the father (parents) to teach their sons (children) Biblical knowledge and truth:

Proverbs 4:2

“Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction;

Pay attention and gain understanding.”

And there seems to be nothing wrong with a baby dedication ceremony, biblically speaking:

In fact, God commands his people to dedicate the first-born male to him:

Exodus 13:2

“ Consecrate (dedicate) to me every first born male.”

And the promise of salvation was for the adults who understood /accepted and also their children:

Acts 2:39

“…The promise (Of salvation) is for you and your children…”

The only way the promise of salvation could be for their children also is if they were taught the way of salvation like their parents were.

So, considering all this it seems God would approve of a baby being dedicated to being taught of him and his ways. And if this is what is meant by infant baptism then it should really be called a dedication ceremony instead of a baptism. Because while the parents desires are for the child to be saved (through the baptism) it is pretty clear though the Biblical examples that the individual being baptized has to at least know the Gospel and choose to believe it, by calling a dedication ceremony ‘baptism’ it’s confusing and even deceptive. It deceives the church, the parents, and even the child into thinking they are saved/right with God (when they’re really still not) and when the child gets old enough they will think they don’t need to do anything else to be right with God; especially to be re-baptized again.

If this was your baptism, I want you to know, your parents loved you and really wanted you to choose to believe and be saved, but they could not believe for you nor save you! only you can choose to believed and be saved!

However

This leads to the next major type of Baptisms:

Other Baptisms

This refers to all other baptisms where the person being baptized is old enough to want to be baptized out of their own free will. however, at the same time, do it for the wrong (non-Biblical) reasons (some common reason would be to please their family/church, because everyone else is doing it, to belong to a church or even convert to a different church, or maybe even understanding some of the Gospel and realizing being baptized is the right thing to do : even if they don't understand it all and have not personally decided to change their lives to live for Jesus/God)

If this happens to be your baptism, then we also need to ask is this type of baptism still acceptable to God?

As we know from former scriptures all cases of those who were baptized understood the gospel and were willing change in accordance to what Jesus commanded:

Acts 8:12

“…they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news(The Gospel)… (then) they were baptized…”

Acts 2:38

“Repent and [then] be baptized…”

They seemed to all had heard and understood the Gospel, believed in it, and had been willing to obey and change their life at that point before baptism.

Before being baptized did you hear, understand, and then truly believe the gospel? After that were you committed to obeying Christ and trying to change your life for God?

If you got baptized but had not heard the gospel or really maybe you even had heard the Gospel, understood it, really believed it, but were not serious about living for Jesus but rather your true intentions for baptism at that moment were:

To please you family/Church

Because someone else/others did it

To change to a different church/denomination

Because it was your churches tradition

Or any other reason besides the Biblical reason

Then that baptism was not a biblical baptism because it was not done for the right reasons. So, it can be concluded then your baptism is not approved of by God.

In conclusion, any baptism that is not done the Biblical way for Biblical reasons:

This is when a mature-reasoning person, who decides out of their own free will after hearing, understanding, and believing the gospel then dedicated to changing their life for Christ; decides to be baptized and is baptized by full water submersion.

Any baptism outside of that scenario is not Biblical and therefore is not approved of by God, no matter what your former baptism was if it was done apart from what a Biblical baptism is supposed to be then your baptism was not approved of by God and will not be accounted for: you need to be re-baptized the right way for the right reasons now that you believe and are dedicating your life to following Jesus!

(You can either close this extra window to go back to the original article or click here to go to the gospel main menu)

Sources:

[1]

[A] Christianity.com “What Is a Christening? Its Meaning and Significance in Christianity” Editorial Staff July 01, 2019

Website:

https://www.christianity.com/wiki/christian-life/what-is-a-christening-meaning-and-significance.html

[B] Merriam-Webster “Christening”

Website:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/christening

[C] The Church of England “IS A ‘BAPTISM’ DIFFERENT TO A ‘CHRISTENING’?”

Website:

https://churchofenglandchristenings.org/for-parents/is-a-baptism-different-to-a-christening/