"added these pithy words"

I just noticed that. Funny. ;)

By the way, I hope those questions were not for me. I do not know the answers. :)

I just read an article last night called "The Sociology of Infant Baptism" that was thought-provoking for me. As you know, I was raised in a baptistic tradition, and attend a church in that tradition. However, a concern for me is that within the tradition, especially when it comes to children raised within the Church, baptism has become very delayed, something that folks do when they reach a later point of maturity.

Though I tend to lean toward Covenant Theology when it comes to how I view and raise my children, for the sake of argument, my two oldest children confess Christ. But neither are baptized. And what I rhave egularly see in baptistic churches (including my own) are teens saying "I never knew a time when I did not love the Lord" or "I accepted Christ when I was three" but they are not being baptized until they are older. This is my own story, actually. I do not remember not having Christ as my Lord, but was not baptized until I was a teen. So, sociologically, what we have with the second generation in baptistic churches is not Believer's Baptism but rather Mature Believer's Baptism. Baptism loses its power as an entry point into the faith (not that I am saying that it saves, mind you) when we are dealing with children raised in Christian churches. So, at the very least, I would say that if we are going to maintain Believer's Baptism, we have to figure out how to baptize children when or in close proximity to the time when they confess. Otherwise, we are denying the ordinances of the faith to believers.

Or, as is the case with my own oldest child, they are partaking in communion without being baptized, which seems completely out of order to me...

Interesting conversation!

Defining baptism would be pivotal to the point of consistency, I agree. Is it a sign or a seal? Efficacious for salvation/redemption or merely a confirmation within the community?

Then there is the issue of the message (command) of repentance before baptism.

Thanks so much for swinging by, engaging and dropping a comment. Refreshing.

"There truly has never been a formidable, Scripturally consistent reason to baptize infants."

I'm not sure I agree with you there, friend. It depends on how one defines baptism. For instance, there is no Scriptural case for allowing women to take communion, but we do because of who women are in Christ and what we believe communion is. So, depending on how baptism is defined, it could completely consistent.

Those who believe in infant baptism see baptism as, among many other things, a replacement of circumcision. So when a family converts, everyone is baptized, and when new children are born, they are baptized also. The baptism takes place whenever someone enters the church community.

Anyhow...just another perspective. :)