Still pondering the issue of baptism. Previous I asked, Should infants be baptised? I thought not. But there’s another question, which is also important: Can infants be baptised?

To explain…

There are plenty of things that should not be done but can be done. I don’t think a Christian should marry a non-Christian. But a Christian can marry a non-Christian, in that if they go through a marriage ceremony, at the end of the ceremony they are actually married. There is nothing intrinsic to the definition of marriage that means that a Christian and a non-Christian cannot be married to each other, even if (in the view of many) they should not get married to each other.

But there are also plenty of things that should not be done and also cannot be done. I should not marry my laptop. It would be inappropriate for many reasons. But it is not only inappropriate: even if I went through a marriage ceremony, and voluntarily exchanged vows with my laptop before witnesses, I cannot marry my laptop. Why not? Because it is intrinsic to the nature of marriage itself that (at least) it is between two human beings. (There are further qualifications that could be added, but I’m using marriage as an illustration and want to steer clear of unnecessary controversy!)

So what of infant baptism? Is it something that should not be done, but can be done, or is it intrinsic to the nature of baptism itself that an infant, by definition, cannot be baptised?

But there is a further question may have entered your mind, if you are still reading: Who cares? Fair question.

First, all Christians agree that baptism can take place only once. Suppose someone comes to you and says they want you to baptise them, but they have been “baptised” already in infancy. What do you do? If you believe that infants should not be baptised, and cannot (by definition) be baptised, then the person has not been baptised, and it’s safe to proceed. But if you believe that infants should not be baptised, but can be baptised, then the person has, in fact, already been baptised (however much you might wish it had been otherwise), and hence it would not be appropriate to “baptise” them again.

Second, your baptism (along with your faith) is supposed to be a sign to me that you are a Christian. Unless I treat baptism as having no real importance, I must form an opinion about whether you have actually been baptised, and it must, at least in some circumstances, make some difference to how I relate to you. Maybe I wouldn’t want to belong to a church which was led by an unbaptised pastor? Or to be given communion—or to be baptised!—by someone who hasn’t been baptised? Maybe I wouldn’t want to share membership of a church with someone who hasn’t been baptised? If I believe that infants should not be baptised, but that they can be baptised, then that makes things easier: I can happily share fellowship with people who were baptised as infants. But if not—if I think that infants, by definition, cannot be baptised—then it would (or it should) be difficult to share full Christian fellowship with many professing believers.

So I think it’s an important question. And one that has significant implications. “Should-not-but-can” credo-baptists should refuse to “baptise” believers who have already been baptised as infants. And “should-not-and-cannot” credo-baptists should be prepared to set at least some limits to how much fellowship they are prepared to share with “unbaptised” believers. In practice I think most credo-baptists attempt to do neither. I’ve never heard of a credo-baptist church refusing baptism to someone because they have already been baptised as an infant, and most credo-baptist Christians are very uncomfortable with making someone’s infant “baptism” a relevant consideration under any circumstances.

So what is the answer: can infants be baptised?

The Baptist Union of Great Britain would say, No:

Christian Baptism is the immersion in water into the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, of those who have professed repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ who ‘died for our sins according to the Scriptures; was buried, and rose again the third day’.

In their definition of (Christian) baptism, not only is the mode prescribed (so that those who were “baptised” as adults but not by immersion have not actually been baptised), but it is also explicitly stated that a prior profession of faith is intrinsic to baptism itself. You may be immersed in water, and the right words may be pronounced, but that immersion of water is not baptism unless you have already professed faith. Infants cannot be baptised.

I’m not so sure. I think that confuses the sign itself with the conditions required for the sign to be meaningful at the time the sign is administered. The sign is the washing of the body with water, in the Triune Name. The thing signified is the inward washing of the Holy Spirit. Without the inward reality, the sign is an empty sign. But it is still a sign. A signpost may point to a town that doesn’t exist. But that doesn’t stop it from being a signpost. Similarly, a person’s baptism may be an empty sign, if it is not accompanied by the inner reality. But it is still, it seems to me, genuinely the sign of baptism that the person has received.

(Similarly, baptism following a false profession of faith is also an empty sign, and there doesn’t seem to be any material difference between a false profession and no profession at all.)

That empty sign may in later years become a meaningful sign, when the inner work of the Spirit becomes a reality in the person’s life. If the non-existent town is later built, the previously misleading signpost will become a perfectly good signpost. It doesn’t need to be replaced on the grounds that the town didn’t exist at the time that the signpost was erected. So with baptism: that person who comes to faith after receiving the sign of baptism will find that the sign of baptism becomes a meaningful sign and not an empty sign. He or she will then be able to do what all baptised believers can do: look back to the sign of baptism, and look at the faith he or she has now, and take assurance from the sign of baptism that he or she has been washed by the Spirit and the new life has begun. It is the past baptism and the present faith that are important. Whether, at the moment of baptism itself, faith was already a present reality, seems largely irrelevant.

Comments will be very much appreciated!