Kenneth Liu

This past Sunday, we had the privilege of witnessing a few baptisms. It was a joyous occasion to see God’s work in their lives. A few questions were raised regarding child baptism so I thought I’d pass along a brief article I wrote concerning infant/child baptism. It’s a “beta” version, so if you have any questions or have any suggestions to make it clearer, I’d greatly appreciate it. 

Here’s the introduction:

This article is written for those who (1) didn’t grow up in the Presbyterian church and thus are unfamiliar with infant baptism and wondering why we practice it, and (2) those who grew up in the Presbyterian church, and was infant baptized, but have no idea why.

For those of you who are relatively new to the Presbyterian church, somewhere along the line you discovered that Presbyterians practice what seems initially peculiar, the practice of infant baptism. If you grew up in a more independent baptistic background, such an option never existed. Your parents probably had you dedicated as an infant or child, but not baptized.

Some of you grew up in the Presbyterian church and was baptized as a child, but later as you meet other Christians of other denominations, you’ll find folks who oppose your baptism as illegitimate. After all, how can babies or young children profess faith? Many baptistic church require you to be rebaptized. Perhaps you’ve wondered its legitimacy. You can be assured that this practice is not some arbitrary practice. In fact, if you look at the first few centuries of church history, infant baptism was the norm. However, we do not seek the legitimacy of infant baptism by precedence in church history alone. We must turn to scripture to see what it says about infant baptism rather than rely on traditions of the church.

Download the rest of the article here.