Infant Baptism
Objection: “‘He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.’
Therefore, only people who have faith can be baptized. So why baptize
infants? It is also unfair as infants have no say in the matter.”
Those who believe that we should baptize only adults usually quote St.
Mark 16:16 for support: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.”
They also point out that Jesus Christ Himself was not baptized until the age
of thirty. Therefore, only those who are capable of consciously accepting
Christ as their “personal Lord and Savior” and have undergone a “born
again” experience should be baptized.
Catholics and Fundamentalists differ radically as to the meaning and effect
of Baptism. Fundamentalists hold that baptism is only an ordinance
whereby
the
“born-again”
adult
makes
a
public manifestation of his
conversion. It is not necessary for salvation as the person has already been
saved by accepting Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior. Baptism does not
infuse any grace to re-generate the soul; rather, the candidate’s sins are
“covered up” with the acceptance of Christ. Infants without reason who die
unbaptized go straight to heaven as they only need to accept Christ as
Savior after they have committed sin. Therefore, baptism of infants is
pointless.
Catholics on the other hand assert that Baptism is an obligatory sacrament
instituted by Christ which in itself makes us born-again: “Amen, amen I
say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he
cannot enter into the Kingdom of God” (St. John 3:5). Furthermore,
baptism imprints the character, which is the seal of the Christian, and
bestows the grace it signifies into the soul of the recipient. This includes
sanctifying grace, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the infused theological
virtues of faith, hope, and charity, the infused moral virtues of prudence,
justice, fortitude and temperance, as well as the uncreated grace of the
indwelling of the Blessed Trinity:
“If a man loves me, he will keep my
word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our
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