6. The object of baptism.
The object of baptism is both adults and children. But both classes are described in more detail in the Scriptures. Only those adults are to be baptized who have previously come to faith in Christ. Of those baptized on the first Pentecost it is said: "Those who gladly accepted his word were baptized.1099) And when the eunuch, after having received instruction from Philip, desired baptism, it was done for him according to his desire, after he had confessed his faith in Christ.1100) As for the children, we dare not snatch the underage children from their parents for the purpose of baptism or baptize them secretly.1101) But we baptize the children who are brought to us by those who have parental power over them.1102) The scriptural nature of infant baptism comes from the combination of scriptural passages such as Mark. 10:13-16 and Col. 2:11-12. From the former passage a double point emerges: 1. that even little children — Luke calls them τα βρέφη1103) — are to be brought to Christ; 2. that even little children are capable of spiritual blessing and are indeed members in the kingdom of God. Their ability consists not in a future but in a present faith, that is, in a faith which the children have in infancy,1104) and their membership in
1099) Acts 2:41.<w:t>1100) Acts 8:36-38.
1101) This is known to be Roman practice. Cf. Baumgarten, Theol. Streitigkeiten III, 311.
1102) Cf. the detailed treatment of the question of who has parental power over the children in Walther's Pastorale, pp. 125 ff.
1103) Luke 18:15.<w:t>1104) Matt. 18:6; 1 John 2:13.
326 > Baptism. [English ed. ~ 277-278]
the church does not consist in an "expectation of the kingdom of God", but in the present possession of it.1105) Col. 2:11-12 states that baptism took the place of the Old Testament circumcision and is therefore the means of grace for the children.1106) The opposition against infant baptism is mostly based on the strange1107) opinion that the elderly can believe, but not the children. The fact that children can have their own faith has already been explained in the doctrine of faith under the section "The Faith of Children"1108) and is to be taken up again under the section "Baptismal Customs", namely in the point whether in infant baptism the question of faith is to be addressed to the godparents or to the child. It has been objected to infant baptism that it is nowhere expressly mentioned in Scripture. From this it has been concluded that infant baptism was not in use in the apostolic church. The opposite conclusion is in any case equally justified: Infant baptism is not yet expressly mentioned in Scripture because it is to be taken for granted, especially since Scripture records that whole families were baptized,1109) which are hard to think of without children, that Christ purifies "His congregation," of which, according to His own explanation, children form a part,1110) by the water-bath in the Word,1111) and Paul declares baptism to be the antitype of circumcision.1112) Church history stands that infant baptism was in general use in the second century. "Tertullian testifies to the existence of infant baptism by disapproving of it.1113) Origen testifies to it as an apostolic tradition.1114) — In the doctrine of baptism is
1105) Mark. 10:14.
1106) Calov on this passage: Sacramentum baptismi Christus surrogatum voluit circumcisioni.
1107) Matt. 18:3: Mark. 10:14-15.<w:t xml:space="preserve"> 1108) II, 537 f.
1109) 1 Cor. 1:16; Acts 11:14; 16:15, 33.
1110) Matt. 18:6; Mark. 10:13-16.
1111) Eph. 5:26.<w:t>1112) Col. 2:11-12.
1113) Hase, Ev. Dogmatik, p. 432.
1114) In Epist. ad Rom, V: Ecclesia ab apostolis traditionem accepit etiam parmulis baptismum dare. Bretschneider, in his criticism of "the church doctrine of infant baptism", finds "several things that let us expect that infant baptism is according to Jesus' will and the spirit of his religion. The command Matt. 28:19 is quite general. … Also, the apostles could extend the command of Jesus all the more to the children, since also in
327 > Baptism. [English ed. ~ 278]
also the question that has been raised as to how the salvation of Christian children who die unbaptized stands. We have reason to believe that God has a way, not revealed to us, of working faith in the Christian children who die without baptism, as was certainly the case with the children of the female generation in the Old Testament.1115) With respect to the children of the heathen, we dare not say this. We are entering here the territory of the inscrutable judgments of God."1116)
The baptism of bells and other res inanimatae is, of course, a mockery of Christian baptism.1117) Baptism of the dead seems to have been in use among some heretics.1118)
the ancient economy, the act of initiation, circumcision, was performed on children. If according to Acts 16:15. 33; 18:8; 1 Cor. 1:16 whole families, and indeed all who belonged to them (Acts 16:33), were baptized, it is likely that the apostles did not exclude children if some were in these families. … Jesus Himself blesses according to Mark. 10:14 f.; Matt. 19:15 f.; Luke 18:15 f. he blesses the children by laying hands on them and declared them fit to become members of the kingdom of God. Therefore, we will always fulfill Jesus' will more surely if we receive the children into the fellowship of the Christian church through baptism than if we do not. Even the oldest church, as we already see from Tertullian, used to baptize the children, which would not have happened if the apostles had refused baptism to the children." (Dogmatik der ev.-luth. K. II, 649 ff.)
1115) Mark. 10:13-16.<w:t>1116) Rom. 11:33.
1117) Quenstedt II, 1092. Luther (VII, 704): "Dear, where and who is the founder who called such? Do you also have a Word or command of God, which says: You shall consecrate salt or water and speak such words about it? Where there is no such word, there is and is not anything that is needed for signs and words, so that even baptism without this would not be a sacrament, although both water and word spoken over it would be there. How the papacy deceives with such false lying baptism, that they consecrate and baptize the dead bells, since both, water and word, are also used, as in the right baptism. What is lacking in this? Nothing else but this matter, that there is no God's foundation and command, who has ordered and ordained such things, but men have instituted such things of their own discretion. Just as the whole papacy is vain human doctrine and their own trumpery. Therefore, such baptisms are not a sacrament, but a loud perversion, even a mockery and blasphemy of baptism."
1118) Cf. Gerhard, L. de bapt., § 165, and Cremer on βαπτίζειν. On 1 Cor. 15:29: "baptism over (υπέρ) the dead," see L. u. W. 1884, pp. 413 f.; also Gerhard loc. cit. and Cremer on βαπτίζειν. On the local meaning of νπέρ see Winer, Grammatik des neutest. Sprachidiom 6, p. 342.
328 > Baptism. [English ed. ~ 279-280.]