A day or two ago I was talking to a mother who recently has come to accept infant baptism. Her tesimony was very moving. She has a number of children, ages 7 and below. She was often faced the question of exactly how to handle spirituality with her children. The children would want to pray, seek wisdom from the scriptures and the like, but her baptist friends would scold (her word) her for allowing them to do so. According to them, the children were not Christians yet, because they were too young to understand the gospel. According to her Baptist friends, the parent's focus of the child's spiritual formation should be as with any other heathen, simple evangelism. As the children were not Christians, they had no right to pray in Christ's name or the like. They were not Christians, or members of the covenant, but rather just unbelievers and should be treated as such.

I have seen this viewpoint in some baptist child-rearing materials, as well. The Ezzo's Growing Kids God's Way teaches this, for example. It says expressly not to let them pray in Jesus name or anything like that until they reach a certain age and are able to make a credible profession.

Anyway this dear lady had a troubled conscious, saying she felt like the children were asking for bread but that she was forced by her theological beliefs to give them stones, at least until they reached the right age and could make a credible profession of faith.

After she was taught about infant baptism, she wept, seeing the beauty of God's covenant and God's love for families. It was quite moving.

I know not all Baptists take the view of the Ezzos or of this lady's friends, but to the extent they do not, they are (thankfully) engaging in a blessed inconsistency. Children are either disciples (the covenant view) or heathen (the Baptist view). Those ideas have consequences, at least if one really lives by them. Logically one should treat a disciple differently than a heathen.

Anyway, it was quite wonderful.

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Scott Roberts
Ruling Elder, Lakeside Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Southlake, Texas