Dedicated to All Paedo-Baptists Everywhere

Don’t get bent out of shape, all you paedo’s out there, but don’t you just wish there was a little more NT Scriptural meat to support your view of baptism? Sometimes I picture the position of paedo-baptism similar to the hamburger in the following clip – a great big fluffy bun with hardly any meat inside.

This goes out to all my paedo-baptist friends who have a good sense of humor…

The Sign is Only for Those the Lord Calls to Himself

With all the theological powerhouses already having weighed in on the issue of baptism over the last few weeks, there quite simply is probably nothing at all I can add to the discussion. I am an amateur reformational theologian with no letters after my name, and no descriptors in front of it either (like ‘pastor’ or ‘reverend’). This issue, however, is hitting very close to home right now (no details needed), and so I thought I would provide just a brief thought concerning one of the passages used to support paedo-baptism by someone I deeply respect, Ligon Duncan.

In a recent post, Ligon made the following statement:

God, in both the Old and New Testaments, explicitly attaches specific signs, respectively, circumcision [Genesis 17:10] and baptism [Acts 2:38, cf. Colossians 2:11-12], to this promise that he gives to believers and their children.

He then cites a verse in Acts and a passage in Colossians to support his position of infant baptism. The Colossians passages mentions nothing with respect to unbelieving children being baptized, and in fact references faith. It is what is said in Acts that I would like to address here. Ligon cites Acts 2:38, but the mention of children is actually in verse 39, so I will quote both verses here for context.

And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.

I believe that a very simple examination of this statement by Peter will clearly show that the baptism of unbelieving children is no where in view here. Let’s look at it briefly. Peter says,

• the promise is for ‘you’
• the promise is for ‘your children’
• the promise is for ‘all who are far off’

Now Ligon, in his interpretation of this passage, appears to automatically place the promise (and therefore the sign of baptism) onto the children of those who repent even if they (the children) do not have faith. However, Peter no where in this passage instructs anyone who has not repented to be baptized. The other thing Ligon seems to do is to ignore the other statement by Peter that the promise is also for ‘all who are far off’. Surely he doesn’t think that everyone far off is also to be baptized apart from faith? I know he doesn’t, because he is probably applying the very last part of verse 39 (as many as the Lord our God calls to himself) only to those who are far off.

It appears that what he and others are doing with this passage is saying that the qualifier for the promise for children is their believing parents who have repented and been baptized, and the qualifier for the promise for those who are far off is whether or not the Lord has called them to Himself. I don’t know if they have said as much (they may have), but that is the only way to read the verses in question and remain consistent with the paedo-baptist position.

Reading this passage in its proper context, however (without coming to it with any preconceived notions about paedo or credo baptism), should bring us to a much different interpretation of the text. Peter says, “the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, as many as [everyone whom] the Lord our God will call to himself”.

A proper, consistent, reading of this text clearly shows that the qualifier of this ‘promise’ – as many as the Lord will call – applies to ‘you’, ‘your children’, AND ‘those who are far off’. In other words, it remains consistent with what Peter says regarding baptism in verse 38, ‘Repent and be baptized’.

Baptism follows repentance which follows being called by God:

• for you – who repent who have been called
• for your children – who repent who have been called
• for those who are far off – who repent who have been called

Quite simply, the promise – and the resulting outward sign of baptism – is only for those who repent…whom the Lord our God calls to Himself.