Many churches that do not practice baptizing physical infants are earnestly baptizing spiritual infants.
I attend a nice church where baptisms are done in the presence of the whole congregation. On the wall behind the preacher’s platform, there is an open section revealing the baptism area. People walk into this section from behind the wall to be baptized. We can see the whole process. The person is asked if e has accepted Christ as es Savior, and on es affirmation the pastor dips the person in the water in the tub and quickly lifts em up, and the whole congregation applauds to celebrate yet one more member in the Body of Christ. Often it is children who are baptized, including kids as young as ten years old.
Godly parents are joyous and thrilled when their child tells them he or she wants to be baptized. The young son or daughter has learned a lot about being a Christian from es parents and es church, and now he or she feels in es heart e is mentally and spiritually ready to surrender es life to God and accept Jesus as es Savior. And thus hundreds of thousands of kids from pre-teen to teen, and young adults from late teen to early twenties, are baptized every year all over the world in the various churches that don’t practice infant baptism.
But there is a most serious requirement for being born into the Body of Christ that is missing in all those baptisms of the young Christians. Let me show what that requirement is by giving you the story of my own baptism.
I was passionate for Christ from my childhood. I was ‘baptized’ in my infancy when a priest of the episcopalian church my parents attended sprinkled some water upon me and declared I was a Christian thereafter. Of course, I was a few weeks or months old, and naturally didn’t know what was going on. Then, when I was around 26 years old, I realized that baptism symbolized the surrender and burial of the old self, and this was represented by a full immersion of the body in the water. So I took a proper baptism in an evangelical church that believed in adult baptism. I was extremely passionate for Christ, and strove to live a righteous life as best as I could,
My surrendered life continued for twenty years. The sins I committed from my baptism in my mid-twenties to my mid-forties were seven times worse and seventy times more numerous than the sins I committed from birth till my baptism. No, not once did my passion for Christ diminish, not once did I believe that I was not wholly sincere when I surrendered my life to God in my young age. I was a hundred percent sincere in wanting to follow Christ. My repentance at that time was from the depths of my heart. I had earnestly met all the requirements for my baptism then.
But there was one fundamental factor missing in my baptism: The shocking awareness and sordid experience of my utter wretchedness as a human being, of my absolute helplessness apart from Christ, of being willing to give up my life, if necessary to be faithful to God, being willing to give up my family, my friends, my success, my security, and my reputation, and just have God alone as my everything.
When I was 47 years old – after living two decades of the most profligate life after my adult baptism in my mid-twenties, even going to the extent of denouncing Christianity – God brought me to the absolutely needed pre-condition for baptism: repentance of my wretched, incorrigible human nature and dying to the self. The spiritual death of the self was more painful than a physical death would have been. But I took the plunge, and died, and was raised from death as a born-again child of God. And that baptism was accepted by God, evidenced by the miraculous transformation of my thoughts and acts from then on.
This awareness and experience don’t come to a teen or a young adult. Being willing to surrender one’s life to God before life has shown em its harsh reality, and actually surrendering one’s life are two different dimensions of experiences.
The acts of the Godly people in the Bible, especially the acts of Jesus, are given as examples for our edification and inspiration.
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. 2 Tm 3:16-17
Jesus was ready for baptism from birth, but he waited until he was grown past his teenage and twenties before he took the dip in the Jordan. He was thirty when he came to John to be baptized.
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’
Jesus replied, ‘Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.’ Mt 3:13-15 NIV
Jesus was baptized solely to ‘fulfill all righteousness’. His baptism as a mature adult was an act of righteousness he performed as an example for his followers to emulate.
A man or a woman needs to reach the stage in es life where he or she realizes how wretched e really is in es natural human state, and that all es good intentions, all es righteous acts, are like a menstruous cloth in the sight of God. Only when es own nature is replaced by the nature of Christ can a person become truly righteous.
And we are all become as one unclean, and all our justices as the rag of a menstruous woman: and we have all fallen as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. Is 64:6 Douay-Rheims Edition
Such depths of understanding come to a person only after a long struggle with es human nature. A teenager cannot know this, even a man in his twenties cannot know this. It is around the age of 30 that a person really begins to mature spiritually. And that’s why Jesus was baptized at that age, not when he was ten or twenty.
Therefore, I urge all my fellow Christian parents and pastors, do not be in a hurry to baptize anyone below the age that Christ himself was baptized – 30 years – and thereby set an example for all his followers.
But is it wrong for a teen or young adult to be baptized? Of course not. But is it wise, does the Bible encourage it? No. Why is it not wise? Because the parent is exposing es young son or daughter to emotional and spiritual risks when he or she becomes an adult, which risks the child would not encounter if e is not baptized.
The greatest risk is that, as the teen grows older, he or she encounters the sinful pulls of the flesh that e never knew existed when e repented and was baptized as a teen. The young adult realizes that for all es sincerity and desire to follow God, for all es surrendered life, es cannot overcome the pulls of es flesh. He or she commits many sins in es weakness, and feelings of guilt rack es conscience. E knows e had repented of all es sins and yet here e is now, a frequent and even a habitual sinner. The awareness of es sinfulness only increases as he or she grows older. The danger is that the earnest young man or woman – believing e had truly repented of the deeds of the flesh and crucified it with Christ and was born again after baptism – after repeatedly trying hard to please God, and failing again and again, would become so utterly discouraged in trying to live the Christian life that e gives up trying altogether.
Thinking they had already reached Christian maturity when they declared their desire to follow Christ as a teenager, they fail to reach the true maturity that is required for their spiritual walk with God. And part of that true maturity is sinning again and again, falling again and again, and knowing that one can never be a Christian just because he or she has a deep passion for following Christ. The baptized teen doesn’t know that true repentance comes after deep struggles with es sinful nature. He or she doesn’t know that even after true repentance, a Christian cries out to God often about es struggles with sin, as Paul did:
The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate…And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway…I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Rm 7:14-24 NLT
Parents and pastors mistake children’s passion for Christ as repentance from their sinful nature.
There is one other risk when a kid or a teen or a young adult is baptized. The devil knows that this group of children are a special category. They have a greater zeal for God than ordinary Christian children. And he hates them and tries to discourage them more than he does the other children. It wouldn’t be surprising, then, that a baptized teenager or a young adult finds emself in more tempting situations than es ordinary Christian peers. He or she needs to be more alert to the devil’s snares, he or she needs to pray more, needs to know the Word of God more than the ordinary Christian children. Of course, parental guidance and prayer can keep such children safe from the extra attention the devil gives them. But this is a possible risk that baptized children face, and parents need to be aware of it.
Recently my eldest granddaughter, sixteen, declared her intention to give her life to Christ. She said she was ready for baptism. I rejoiced that my granddaughter was passionate about Christ. I rejoiced that she wanted to dedicate her life to her Savior. I pray that God will guide her and her parents to the decision as to when it is the best time for her to take baptism.
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. Acts 3:38
Joseph Cberian
Prepare The Way Of The Lord! 