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Help me find Bible verses?

azdancer8azdancer8 member
1000 Comments
in Christian Weddings
Short backstory - My parents baptized me as an infant, but I have decided that I want to have my current pastor take me through believer baptism. The way I see it, my parents dedicated me as a child, and now I'm choosing to profess my own faith publicly. I want to honor the fact that my parents intended to raise me in a Christian manner, but I'm not sure they'll accept "God told me to" as a reason for doing believer baptism now.

So my question is this... Do you ladies know of good Bible verses/passages that tell why believer baptism is important? Or for that matter, ones that refer to infant baptism? I'd like to have my "ducks in a row" so to speak, before I approach my parents about this.

Thanks in advance! :)
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Re: Help me find Bible verses?

  • kalizoombakalizoomba
    500 Comments
    edited December 2011
    besides the fact that Jesus got baptized and you want to follow in his footsteps? 
    John 3:5-7
    Matt 28:18-20
    Rom 6:3-4
    2 Cor 5:17
    Acts 2:38-39

    Baptism symbolizes that you are declaring before everyone that you are a new person- born again, washed clean of your sins by the Son of God. I believe an infant baptism is simply the parents dedicating their child to God. The child still has to make his/her own choices once they're grown. 

    In Acts 16:30-32 it says that everyone who was baptized also believed before they were baptized, since you were baptized as a child, you had no choice in the matter - you didn't believe before you were baptized so, esentially, it shouldn't count. 
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  • fpaemp2011fpaemp2011 member
    1000 Comments Fourth Anniversary 25 Love Its First Answer
    edited December 2011
    The verses Tiffany gave are great.  There are no verses to support infant baptism, or the baptism of anyone, regardless of age, who has not made a profession of faith.
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  • monkeysipmonkeysip member
    2500 Comments Fifth Anniversary 500 Love Its First Answer
    edited December 2011
    Just to give another perspective:
    "Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God’" (Luke 18:15–16). 

    Even infants are brought to Christ here to be touched by him.  

    In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead" (Col 2:11-12)

    Baptism is the circumcision of the New Covenant. Infants were circumcized--so they can be baptized too.

    Furthermore, the NT states that Lydia was converted by Paul’s preaching and that "She was baptized, with her household" (Acts 16:15). The Philippian jailer whom Paul and Silas had converted to the faith was baptized that night along with his household. We are told that "the same hour of the night . . . he was baptized, with all his family" (Acts 16:33). And in his greetings to the Corinthians, Paul recalled that, "I did baptize also the household of Stephanas" (1 Cor. 1:16). 

    These households had to have included children.  Even if they weren't young children, the Scriptures still show entire households being baptized after one person makes an act of faith.

    If nothing else, I'm trying to show that Scripture isn't always (or ever) black and white on these things.  It's not so easy to just look at Scripture and understand Christian doctrine.  The issue of baptism comes down to a disagreement over what it DOES.  Is it a symbol of one's profession of faith?  Or does it actually, not symbolically, cleanse you of your sins?  If the former, then no, infants and young children could not be baptized.  If the latter, then yes, anyone of any age could be baptized.

    Traditional Christian practice also includes confirmation, which could be comparable to a "believer's baptism."  It's not baptism, but it usually happens at a later age to seal the person in the faith and bring to completion all the fruits of the Holy Spirit (like on Pentecost in the book of Acts).

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