The “baptist” Lie

The “baptist” Lie, I don’t want anyone to be confused by this, you can be a baptist without being a Baptist. A Baptist is just one who is honest about holding to this lie, many many others in nondenominational movements and so on don’t like to be called Baptists, yet they still are baptists. That is, they hold to The “baptist” Lie. The “baptist” lie is also known as Baptist Theology, or more specifically the Baptist Doctrine of Baptism.
This lie is unscriptural in its premises, and satanic in its denial of grace, especially where the “little ones” Jesus was so fond of are concerned. I hate Baptist theology because Jesus loves babies, and so do I. baptist theology is based on the opinions of men, and not of Christ, and ultimately undermines the doctrine of Salvation by grace through faith as a gift of God, the Gospel that Paul explicates in Ephesians 2:8-9, and the one gospel he admonishes the Galatians to hold firm to, warning them to let anyone be accursed who teaches any other Gospel in the first chapter of his letter to them. Yet finally in the end it is an illogical, untenable, and unintelligible position. To hold to this doctrine one needs to throw logic to the wind, and ignore scripture.
baptists would have you believe that they believe in justification by faith alone, perhaps even justification by grace through faith alone. Yet they deny this in the case of infants, because they believe infants can’t believe. (Do I need a citation for that?) So infants are saved on account of something else altogether, what that is varies from baptist to baptist, but usually it is something along the lines of their own innocence or righteousness. Evidently babies don’t need Christ, they are in and of themselves righteous in baptist theology, and therefore they don’t need to believe in the one true God. Of course, if they don’t believe in God or trust in Jesus then they are guilty of breaking the first commandment, and therefore are not doing so well in that bit on being righteous in and of themselves. But we tend to forget that first commandment, it requires faith. Normally, though whether they believe the babies are sinners or not, they hold out for an “age of accountability” nowhere found in scripture, at which point the child is “able” to believe, and even repent of their sins, at which point they must be baptized. We will take these three topics in sequence: whether infants can believe, “the age of accountability”, and the need for repentance, analyzing these propositions according to scripture.
The Faith of Infants:
Over and over again it is posited that infants cannot believe. We have dealt a bit with the logic of this statement already, it would seem to bar heaven from infants, or make faith alone a joke. But there are a couple other problems with this statement. It ignores the clear words of Christ and the testimony of scripture. It also ignores the fact that faith is a gift of God impossible for anyone to attain without the work of the Holy Spirit. In fact, scripture seems to hint that it is easier for children to believe than adults.
The Clear Words of Christ:
“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” Matthew 18:6 (ESV)
"Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. “ (Mark 9:42 (ESV)
To spell it out, twice Jesus referring to infants “little ones” being held in his arms and the arms of mothers, states that they believe in him, “THES LITTLE ONES WHO BELIEVE IN ME.”
And again in the 21st chapter of Matthew Jesus quotes scripture indicating that infants and even nursing babes believe in Him. “But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant, [16] and they said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read," 'Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise'?" (Matthew 21:15-16 (ESV)
The infants and nursing babies are praising Jesus, that is they are confessing faith, one does not praise God if one does not also believe in Him.
And again : “ And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. [14] But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. [15] Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." [16] And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.” (Mark 10:13-16 (ESV)
Here Jesus says these Children have the kingdom of God, and it is we adults who are supposed to receive this kingdom like little children. In short to have the kingdom of God is to have that internal reign of Jesus in your heart, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, also known as faith. It isn’t children, here so young Jesus takes them up in his arms, that have trouble believing but adults that have trouble believing.
Other verses to consider when thinking about infants and their capacity to believe and be baptized would be Matthew 28:18-19, Acts 2:38-39 (especially that “for your children bit”) and 2 timothy 3:15, the Greek word “Brephous” is most accurately translated infancy.
Conclusion regarding the faith of Infants
In short scripture testifies that children can indeed believe. This necessarily makes us consider what it means to believe or have faith. Faith and belief have to be gifts of God that should not be confused with our ability to think, understand or give intellectual assent, even if faith at times makes use of those abilities. Faith is perhaps the deepest mystery of scripture, intertwined with the mystery of the Gospel itself. It cannot be so narrowly defined as to exclude anyone from the possibility of receiving it whether child, or adult, genius or mentally handicapped.
The Age of Accountability
There just simply is no age of accountability in scripture given for after which a child must be baptize but before which baptism is unnecessary. This is made up nonsense. Perhaps though, if one wanted to push the relationship of Circumcision and Baptism as explained in the second chapter of Colossians, you could make a case for baptizing when the child is 8 days old, that is if you wanted to be legalistic about the grace of God.
“In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, [12] having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. [13] And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, [14] by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” (Col. 2:11-14 (ESV)
In any case Baptists would shudder to think a child should be baptized at that tender age, whatever the age of accountability is, it is not that! It’s hard to argue, the bible doesn’t talk about an age of accountability. God’s law does though hold us accountable for sin, and scripture holds out death as the ultimate judgment of that sin for which we are accountable.
Testimony of scripture concerning death as judgment for sin, and the means by which men are held accountable for sin:
Death was the judgment for the sin of eating from the tree of Good and Evil:
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. [16] And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, [17] but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." (Genesis 2:15-17 (ESV)
Whoever ate of that tree would be held accountable for their sin by dying. Death would be the judgment for sin.
This is reiterated throughout scripture:
“ Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11 (ESV)
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—“ (Romans 5:12 (ESV)
“Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.” (Romans 5:14 (ESV)
“ Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? “(Romans 6:16 (ESV)
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23 (ESV)
Romans 7:13 (ESV)
Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
Conclusion concerning the “Age of Accountability”
Perhaps that is enough on the Scriptural connection between sin and death. When a person dies they are being held accountable for sin. It is actually quite that simple. It would seem then that one might believe the “age of accountability” is any age after which it is reasonable to believe a person is susceptible to dying. Nurses go through great trouble making sure children don’t die in the hospital right after birth.
The Requirement of Repentance,
Now here is a Biblical requirement for salvation to be sure. But the baptist meaning of repentance is not quite the same as that of the Bible. The baptist would again have you believe that the repentance that is required here is within your own ability to do. They would have you believe that it is something akin to feeling sorry for your sin, and particular ones at that, and a turning away from them. The Biblical witness of repentance is nothing but the flipside of faith, it is impossible to have true repentance without believing the gospel. Why? Because our first sin corresponds to the First Commandment, not believing in God, not having faith in Jesus, to repent is to believe, to believe is to repent. So it is that repentance too is a gift from God. He grants it.
Scriptural Testimony
“And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38 (ESV)

If one is to follow the gist of this verse, it would be impossible for someone on that day to have repented without being baptized. Denying baptism is denying repentance. So it is with faith, faith gets baptized, faith wants to be baptized, and those who stand in the way of those who believe and do not allow them to be baptized, deny the grace of God, and the gift of repentance to that person.
“When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, "Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life." (Acts 11:18 (ESV)
Notice God is granting, that is giving repentance that leads to life. This is different than feeling sorry for stealing a cookie or a car. This is a turning away from one’s own efforts to rely solely upon the grace of God for their salvation. In other words this is a repentance that only comes with the mystery of faith.
“Correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,” (2 Tim. 2:25 (ESV)
Again, it is up to God to grant repentance, not to the person who needs salvation.
“and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." (Mark 1:15 (ESV)
Repent and believe the Gospel, the two go hand in hand. One cannot repent without believing the gospel, one cannot believe the gospel without also repenting. And what is this repenting, it is to believe in God to believe the good news that he has sent, the time is fulfilled the kingdom of God is at hand.
Conclusion on Repentance
Repentance gets a bit slippery because we normally use it in a way that is different and yet not quite inconsistent with scripture. There is in scripture testimony of people repenting for specific sins. This is often how we use the term. Specific sins meaning sins that we know we have committed and wish not to commit again, a turning away from sins such as stealing, adultery, false witness, the laundry list can go on. Most of us adults have a long laundry list of our own sins for which we are on some level repentant for.
However, if this was the definition for the kind of repentance required for salvation we would have a huge conundrum, it would mean that God actually requires us to sin before we can be saved. Now I have gotten that impression from listening to not a few “testimonies” growing up. At one time I thought it might actually be impossible for someone to be saved without first being a womanizer, a drunk, a drug addict, murderer, and thief. And thank God that he brings such people to repentance! But God hardly requires us to be guilty of actually committing these sins in the flesh before he grants us his grace and salvation. God would rather us not make such a blatant mess of our lives, even if he is willing to forgive it and clean it up. But if this is the kind of repentance he is looking for then it would indeed require us to sin in thought word and deed before we could be saved, otherwise we would have nothing to repent of.
The truth is all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God, that is all, babies and infants included. We don’t need to look for particular sins to be repentant of before we can be saved and baptized. We have plenty more than we will ever be aware of in all honesty.
The second problem with requiring such repentance for salvation is that it is easily confused with the repentance of unbelievers. Being sorry for doing bad things is not the monopoly of Christians. Today you have all sorts of Karma peddlers. Atheists are known to feel bad for certain transgressions. Show me someone who has never felt guilt, I’ll show you a sociopath. But feeling sorry for your sins hardly makes up for them. If the forgiveness of Christ were dependent upon this sort of guilt, or repentance, it would be dependent upon something we do and not the grace of God.
The danger here is one would always be wondering if their repentance was true enough, if they really meant it. It makes faith and repentance our works that merit the grace of God. This cannot stand. This robs God’s people, faithful parents, and children of the comfort God meant the Gospel to be. In the end it ultimately denies the grace of God to those whom He showed such love for during his earthly ministry.
God attaches such comfort and promise to baptism that it can rightly be said he conveys grace through it. As Lutherans say it is a means of grace. To be sure it is “a” means not the only means. God is so abundant with his grace that he showers it down on us in manifold ways through his word and sacraments. We receive grace by hearing his word, by being baptized, by eating and drinking his body and blood for the forgiveness of sins in with and under the bread and wine of the Lord’s supper. Yet though God can convey his grace through other means, to stand in the way of this means, baptism, is still to deny the grace of God to His beloved Children, not to mention to disobey his command.
On a very serious level it is to teach them to despise his grace which he wills to offer in baptism, and therefore to despise his words, despair of his grace, and trust in one’s own emotions and abilities. It is to teach them to sin, and it would be better that a millstone be tied around one’s neck and they be thrown into the sea than to teach one of these little ones who believe in him to sin, to despise his word, his grace, his gospel. Better to hold to the promise of God and realize that the forgiveness of sins he offers you, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, that is faith and salvation he extends to you in baptism, he also promises is not only for you but for your children also.
“And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. [39] For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself." (Acts 2:38-39 (ESV)