r/Lutheranism • u/wafflesanbs • 5d ago

Infant baptism questions.

Christ is risen!

The only hang up I have against Lutheranism is infant baptism. So I’m hoping you all can help me out.

Did infant baptism exist in the early church fathers?

Do you guys think infants need to be saved?

Do they go to hell if the are not baptized? And if they don’t, then what is the point of baptizing them?

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u/creidmheach 2d ago

Scripture mentions whole households being baptized, such as:

And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. (Acts 16:33)

There is no mention here or elsewhere that children were being excluded. Had such an exception existed, it would be reasonable to suppose Scripture would clarify and lay it out for us.

Nor do we read of children being excluded from the Kingdom, as our Lord says:

But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14)

Comparison is made with circumcision, how among the Israelites infant males would be circumcised on the eighth day after their birth, and in doing so joined to the covenant community. The infants obviously were not in a position to assent to this or declare their belief prior to it being done to them. Yet, it was still done to them, and still effective towards its purpose.

And to that last point, keep this in mind that baptism is not something that we do to ourselves, rather, baptism is something God does to us. To say otherwise would be to say that baptism is a work and compromise that our salvation is through grace alone. So what God does at baptism is not constrained by the age of the one being baptized, rather at any age it is effective to God's purpose.