Expert: Elder Greg Madden - 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
Andrew,

Thank you for your questions. First let me be very clear that I am not a Baptist, but have volunteered on this site because of my background as a fundamental, independent Baptist. That being said, it is very true that most Baptist denominations believe the Biblical doctrine of Believers baptism.

You wrote that you know of no place where infant baptism is forbidden, but the Bible is clear as to who can, and cannot receive baptism and how baptism is to be performed (total immersion). This is the only place in Scriptures where a direct question for the requirements for baptism are asked, and given...

Acts 8
8:26
And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.  
8:27
And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,  
8:28
Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet.  
8:29
Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.  
8:30
And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?  
8:31
And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.  
8:32
The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:  
8:33
In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.  
8:34
And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?  
8:35
Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.  
8:36
And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?  
8:37
And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.  
8:38
And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.  
8:39
And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.  

As to whole households being baptized, that does not mean that any in the house where too young to understand the requirements for baptism. You assume there was, but where the Scriptures are silent we have no room to speak. In the house of Cornoiulus, and the house of the jailer, we are not told how many were in the house, nor their age. with all due respect Andrew, in this you are setting up a strawman, and a weak one at that.

Now as to the "underground Baptists", I cannot say. You may ask another Baptist saint that is listed as an expert here.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any further questions.

Elder Greg Madden