Saturday, November 14, 1998

Bible does not support infant baptism

By ROYCE WILLIAMSON

We are informed by some that infants should be baptized because they are born in sin, while being assured that the Bible clearly teaches such. The Bible does not support this view.

Psalm 51:5 does not teach that at conception a person is sinful. Only a few of the more modern versions are so poorly translated as to read, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me."

This verse, accurately rendered, says, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me." (NKJV)

The KJV and ASV are similarly translated. The context does not support the "born in sin" view. Notice verses 1-5. David asks for God's mercy, and to "Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done this evil." (emphases mine).

David clearly understood that sin was an action on his part. Verse 5 describes the sinful conditions into which he was brought into the world, and if the iniquity and sin of this verse is to be placed on anyone in particular, it should be on his mother.

The Bible is clear, sin is not passed down from generation to generation. The apostle Paul tells us that "...we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." (2 Corinthians 5:10).

The accounts of conversions of households in the book of Acts do not prove that infants should be baptized. That is assuming what should be proven. After my two children were teen-agers, but still in my home, was it still not a household? Now that they are married, and have formed new families of their own, yet without infants, are they not households? Many households do not have infants or even small children.

To argue for infant faith based on John in his mother's womb is to apply to all mankind a miraculous manifestation that was designed only to prove the deity of Jesus. Who among us, while in the womb, was introduced to Jesus in the womb?

Faith is produced by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17). Faith is not imparted by the Holy Spirit. If it were, even little children who have never heard about Jesus would believe in him. If not, God would be partial and unfair. He is not (ct 10:34-35; 1 Peter 1:17)!

If faith is given to us in the womb, that is God's faith of us, not ours in Him. An infant cannot possess saving faith! Infants and little children are pure, made in the image and likeness of God.

No one would argue that a child does not believe on some level, but not the active, obedient, working faith of which the Bible speaks (James 2:14-26). We must believe in Jesus, repent of our sins, and confess Jesus as the Christ before being baptized. (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; Romans 10:10.

(Royce Williamson is minister of Fifth and Grape Street Church of Christ.)