This is a review of Why Do We Baptize Infants? by Bryan Chapell: part of the Basics of the Reformed Faith Series. I have previously posted on pædobaptism, so in this post I'll be reviewing his book and not going as in depth about the doctrine.
Bryan Chapell states in the first paragraph that we baptize infants because we believe the Bible teaches us to do so. He then outlines the case for infant baptism starting with the covenant of faith in both the Old and New Testaments. He discusses circumcision as the sign of the covenant in the Old Testament and shows how the covenant continues in the New Testament but the sign changes. With this background established, Chappell looks at household baptisms and the absence of a command not to baptize children.
The booklet is also pastoral by concluding with the blessings and promises of baptism, encouraging parents to devote their children to the Lord. The section relates the blessings of a children nurtured in a Christian home ordinarily grow and mature in faith because of the covenant faithfulness of the Lord. ‘This means that it is no more likely that children nurtured in consistently Christian home can specifically mark when they understood that Jesus was their Savior than they can mark when they knew that blue was blue.’
Chapell closes with a word to pastors by offering an example of explanation to be given by a pastor prior to baptism. (In many Presbyterian and Reformed Churches the pastor will explain why he is baptizing a child as the doctrine is not well understood in current evangelicalism.) The explanation ends with these words:
Yes, it is sweet to savor God’s goodness to families, but sentiment is not was leads a church or parents to this holy ordinance. We baptize children in obedience to biblical teaching, in keeping with the precedent of centuries of faithful families, and in expectation of God’s presence and blessing. God now uses this sacrament to pledge to us his faithfulness as we, in faith, devote this child of the covenant to him.
