Baptism - believer vs infant

Two of my Gap Year students discuss whether or not credo (beleiver's) baptism or paedo (Infant) baptism is biblically correct. Quinn and Daniel decided they wanted to learn more about baptism, so they took it upon themselves to make it the topic of their optional day of public speaking training.

[@ricksonora6656]

My foster parents had me baptized (dabbed, actually) when I was five. Although I grew into an atheistic science nerd and was more lost than a sock in a dryer, nobody could convince me that I wasn’t a Christian. Pedobaptism was a false gospel for me for a long time.
Baptism can be viewed as a symbolic ordinance or tradition, or as a sacrament. A sacrament both symbolizes and confers grace. Galatians, when you zoom out and extract the principles, soundly refutes sacramentalism. See also Romans 4: Abraham received circumcision as a “sign” of what had already transpired years after God had justified him on the basis of faith alone (Genesis 15:6).
Note that the passage In Colossians analogizes baptism to new life and dying to the works of the flesh. Can an infant do that?
Pedobaptism is a sacrament: baggage that the Reformers took with them out of Catholicism. Rome says it symbolizes and affects the pouring of the Holy Spirit into the baptizee. Some churches such as Pentecostals go as far as to say that you aren’t fully saved until you are baptized.
But that does not align with Colossians. And it contradicts Romans 6, which associates baptism with the death and resurrection of Christ. Immersion preaches the gospel.
Pouring came about to accommodate fears:
- there might not be enough water for dunking
- sick and disabled people couldn’t get to the water
- infants would die and go to hell without it
- mass conversions of conquered populations were too much work
After a few centuries, the exceptions for infants and the unhealthy became standard practice. Then the change had to be rationalized with new purpose and symbolism.
People in pedobaptist churches can hear the gospel and be saved, but the sacrament, like other forms of legalism, could be a fatal stumbling block for many of them. Their trust is in works, not God’s free gift.

[@WhatsBugginYou]

Thank you for the well thought out comment! And thanks for watching.

[@ricksonora6656]

@@WhatsBugginYou You’re welcome. Love the interviews. And fascinated by the gimbal and the scenery.