As I mentioned last week, the Church, which is made up of all baptized Christians, has also been referred to by Presbyterians as "the Covenant Community." At His last supper Jesus said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood." Through Jesus, God made a covenant with the Church. Since the very beginnings of the Church (see Acts 2) those who are a part of the Covenant Community are marked with the sign and seal of that covenant-- baptism. This Sunday, the portion of the Covenant Community that meets on the corner of Market and Hinde Streets in WCH, Ohio, has the opportunity to place the sign of this covenant upon Victoria (Tori) Ann Patton, daughter of Jeremy and Sandy Patton, granddaughter of John and Carol Halliday. Since we will celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism (sign and seal of the Covenant) this Sunday I thought it was a good time to remind us of why Presbyterians and the majority of Christians throughout the world (and throughout history) baptize the children of professing believers even before they can make a profession of faith themselves, bearing witness to the fact that God chooses us before we can choose God.
Firstly, we have to recognize that our beloved friends, neighbors, and brothers and sisters in Christ from churches that only baptize those who are old enough to make a profession of faith have some really good points and a strong argument in favor of their beliefs in regard to Baptism. Secondly, we need to recognize that it is almost impossible for, let's say a Presbyterian and someone from the Church of Christ to have a very fruitful conversation about baptism. Believe me, I've tried! That is because we think of baptism so differently that it is like we are talking different languages. As scholar James White says, "Pedobaptists (those who baptize infants) and those baptizing only believers can never agree because they begin with two entirely different concepts of Sacraments-- an act of God or a human act?" As Presbyterians we believe that baptism is the sign and seal of God's actions on our behalf, not the sign and seal of our response to those actions.
Although the "Directory for Worship" in our Book of Order has a great deal about Baptism, the best brief explanation of the Reformed (Presbyterian) understanding of Baptism I have found is the two-page entry in Essential Truths of the Christian Faith by R.C. Sproul. A lot of PC(USA) folks don't care for Sproul because he is a strict Calvinist and because he thinks the PC(USA) has gone to hell in a hand basket, but while I certainly don't agree with Dr. Sproul on everything, he is as Reformed as they come and does a great job of laying out the most basic tenets of traditional Reformed Christianity. Here are his major points, most of which I have paraphrased:
"The New Testament neither explicitly commands infants to be baptized nor explicitly prohibits them from being baptized."
In order for a child to be baptized that child must belong to Christian parents. At the beginning of the Church all Christians were brand new adult converts. Of course the NT doesn't record infant baptisms because you can't have infant baptisms until you have adult converts. The NT was concerned with that very first generation of adult converts. We must also remember that in his Pentecost sermon, Peter told all the very first adult converts that the promise of the gospel is "for you and for your children."
1/4 of the baptisms recorded in the New Testament were "household" baptisms. Back then the father of a family had complete say over everything in his household. So if he became a Christian then the whole family became Christians, even the servants and slaves. Nowhere does it say that only the adults in the household were baptized. Everybody was baptized. Of course, there is no guarantee that those households had young children, but there is a likelihood of children being present in a "household."
As circumcision was the visible sign of the Old Covenant, baptism is the visible sign of the new covenant. Jewish males were circumcised when they were 8 days old. Females were included in the covenant as well, but there was no physical sign of it. "In general, the New Covenant is more inclusive than the Old Covenant." Now, through Jesus Christ, the New Covenant includes not just Jewish people but Gentiles as well and now both males and females receive the physical sign of the covenant. Why would the New Covenant, which is more inclusive than the old, all of a sudden exclude all children, who had always received the physical sign of the old covenant?
"Church history bears witness to the universal, noncontroversial practice of infant baptism in the 2nd century AD."
Here's a few points I'd like to add:
When reformers like John Calvin and Martin Luther were trying to get rid of all the bad things in the church, they didn't seem to even consider getting rid of infant baptism. They thought of the "radical reformers" who had stopped baptizing infants as going way too far and being out of step with church history.
Although it isn't the case in many parts of the USA, throughout the world, infant baptism is still the majority belief and believer's baptism didn't really begin to flourish until it came to America where there was a greater sense of individualism and less of a sense of historical rooted community.
We also cannot forget that Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them." As Presbyterians we believe that the way to come to Jesus is to be a part of the covenant community of the church, entering through the visible sign and seal of that covenant, which is baptism. If we do not allow the children of believers to be baptized, therefore keeping them out of the covenant community, then aren't we hindering them from coming to Jesus?
I never really understood why we Presbyterians do the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper the way we do until I came to understand the Reformed/Presbyterian emphasis on Covenant. Covenant is the key word to understanding so much of what we do as Presbyterians. When we lose that emphasis on covenant then we lose our anchor and start floating around all over the place coming up with all sorts of ideas and ways of doing things that don't jibe with our Presbyterian heritage.
In conclusion, make sure that you plan, as a member of the Covenant Community (at least the portion of it that calls itself FPC-WCH), to come this Sunday morning to participate in celebrating with the Patton family as we place the sign and seal of God's covenant of grace, mercy, and love made possible through Jesus Christ on Tori Patton, one of the sweetest, prettiest little girls I've ever seen. We will celebrate the promises of God, Tori's parents will promise to raise her to follow Jesus, and we as the congregation will promise to do everything in our power to support her parents in raising her up to follow Jesus. See you this Sunday!
