Expert: Pastor Don Carpenter - 5/1/2008

Question
Dear Reverend,

    I know that Baptists do not believe in infant baptism, but I don't know of any place in the Bible where infant baptism is forbidden. In the Bible it is recorded that entire households were baptized, which would include infants and Jesus said to suffer the little children to come unto him.

    In the Old Testament infants were circumcized and entered into the congregation and covenant of Israel, so why can't infants be baptized and enter into the Church?

    The first Church which practiced only a believers baptism was the Anabaptist Church which came into being in the Protestant Reformation. The first Baptist Church was established in 1612. Does that mean that between the first century and the Protestant Reformation there were no real Christians? That's 1500 years.

    I have heard that some Baptists believe that before the Reformation there were Baptist groups which existed underground, in defiance to the Roman Catholic Church. I have a Wiccan friend who told me the same thing about Wiccan groups which existed before 1920. I have read about a group of Evangelical Christians called the Waldensians who were started about 400 years before the Reformation, but they also practiced infant baptism. Modern day Waldensians have united with Presbyterian and Methodist Churches which also practice infant baptism, but they have not united with Baptist groups. So where were these underground Baptists? Is there any real historical documentation of their existence? Are there records of which countries they lived in, or who their leaders were? If they existed, then why when the first Anabaptist Church was created these people didn't come out and say that they have been practicing this form of worship all along for centuries? Do you have one shred of real historical evidence, or is it just a myth which was created to make Baptists feel good about themselves? I challenge you to find one shred of real historical evidence that these underground Baptist groups existed from the time ancient Christianity, let's say from the reign of the Emperor Constantine, until the Protestant Reformation.

Thank You!
~ Andrew

Answer
Hi Andrew.  Thank you once again for your great questions.  I could try to answer you, but there is a classic work entitled Trail of Blood that will answer most of these questions.  You may read the entire work for free at this site:

http://www.trailofblood.com/The%20Trail%20Of%20Blood.htm

Please check it out.  You may find it to be enlightening.

In Christ
Pastor Don