When did baby baptism vs. adult baptism start?

During the Black Plague in the Middle Centuries, the Catholic Church, who believe that baptism is required for entrance to Heaven, began baptizing infants.

 

Infant baptism was discussed by the early church fathers. By the time of Cyprian, the issue was not whether to have infant baptism but how many days old the infant should be.

 

So someone was baptizing infant boys? Were they blue eyes only? What of the girls? Do they get a cision as well?

These are Baptistic Holy Fathers? I don't think so. Some one was preaching another gospel. It is still being preached today.

Not by acts of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy He has saved us...

One can get baptized by every church in the world, from birth to deathbed--and still be on the road to hell.

The pedo-baptists go way back. So do those who refuse to baptize their infants.

Selah,

Bro. James

 

The paedobaptist position would be that the first infant baptism took place in Acts 16.

The convenantal paedobaptist would take the position that baptism is in a sence a replacement covenant sign for circumcision, which was done with infants.

So in a sense the position is founded on arguements that have some support in very early times (at least with respect to the church.).

What is so interesting to me is that if you read one of the earliest documents regarding church tradition, the Didache, the preferred mode and style of baptism was clearly understood.

 

Actually, baptisms/cleansing/washing the hands, etc. began in Judaism.

A walk back into the history and defintion of "baptize" reveals this info.

My opinion? The first total immersion and cleansing by water baptism happened with the earth being brought forth from the waters in Genesis. But by no means was this salvation or is water baptism salvation either.

Holy Ghost baptism/ cleansing by the Blood of Christ, is Salvation! (Not to be confused with the ideal introduced by the charismatic movement.)

Study Hebrews 6:2 on the "Doctrine of Baptisms".

I did it in a men's Sunday School clas when I was teaching on Bible Doctrines.

 

Is this something that I can read on the internet? Can you recommend a book?[/quote]Read your Bible. Especially
where Jesus gave the best meaning of Baptism.

 

Acts 16
1Then came he to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek:
2Which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium.
3Him would Paul have to go forth with him; and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters: for they knew all that his father was a Greek.

That just doesn't hold water. Timothy was already a young man.

 

Here is a link to the Didache. It was probably written between 50 and 120 A.D., although we don't know who wrote it. http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/didache-roberts.html

 

Extraneous source documents

Anonymous writings from antiquity belong on a shelf by themselves--near "Paradise Lost" and "Canterbury Tales".

We have 66 books--direct revelations from God--He breathed them to the authors and insured that we got copies. We have no need for any quasi-canonical writings of depraved man to determine doctrine.

The Didache, the teacher, is probably a forerunner of what is known as a Catechism. This is an interesting study in the perversion of Truth. The Book of Mormon is another good example. There are millions of people who believe the BOM is inspired of God. They call themselves Christian.

Want secular history corroboration? Millions have died, refusing to baptize their infants. Check that one out. See: History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piedmont, by Samuel Morland. Sam was an objective historian, if there is such a person.

Choose wisely,

Selah,

Bro. James

 

He's probably referring to this verse:

Act 16:15 And when she was baptized, she and her household, she begged us, saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay. And she constrained us.

 

.......................

 

Sorry to seem convoluted. My secular reference was prefaced by: Do you want secular corroboration? This does not mean that secular verification is necessary. We are throughly furnished in all good works by the Holy Writ. What man writes is thoroughly skewed by his paradigms of how things ought to be based on the depravity of his Adamic nature. i.e. of himself he would not know what to do with good even if he knew how to recognize it.

The biblical answer: baptism is a work, infant, or believer. We are saved by grace through faith, not of works. See Eph. 2: 8-10.

Selah,

Bro. James

 

Sorry folks,

I was a bit obtuse. One of the major scriptural defenses of paedobaptism is Acts 16:31, with the baptism of all who were in the house of the jailer after Paul and Barnabbas were released from prison. There is also a reference earlier to the baptism of all who were in Lydia's household

Timothy's baptism is clearly a believer's baptism.

 

Those who hold to infant Baptism, at least the ones I'm familiar with, do not believe it is for salvation.

 

That is the interesting thing. Some do, Catholics, Lutherans definitely believe that it is essential.

And yet we who go by the name, Baptist believe it is just a sign or demonstration of the change that has already taken place.

 

I know we say that all the time, but do you have a passage that specifically states that baptism is a work?