Baptism
Please check out the interesting article on the miracle of holy baptism at Confessing Evangelical’s blog.
Before joining our confessional lutheran church, I had struggled with the purpose of baptism for 20 years! Since my own weak christian training didn’t teach me that we are powerless to choose faith apart from the holy spirit and that Jesus commanded baptism of all people without mention of age, I hesitated to baptize my own children. I rationalized that even though I was baptised, my own faith didn’t mature until I was 20 years old. My wish for mature faith for my children led me to the wrong conclusion that I should have my children wait for baptism until they made their own profession of faith. Thankfully, I did not neglect teaching them God’s word and soon I realized that they were Christians through the power of God’s Word. Then it became a game of “Well, when are they old enough to be baptized?”. Obviously, that method never gives an answer because children are still children and their faith will never seem mature for years to come. At what point can any of us say about ourselves or our children that faith is now mature and the person is ready for baptism?
In those twenty years (before and after having children) of church searching, NO pastor (ELCA, independent, Baptist, Evan. Free, Assemblies of God, Methodist, Covenant, CMA, LCMS) ever told me what the bible truly says about baptism. In fact, pastors in each of these denominations told me to continue to wait until my children were ready, that baptism was merely symbolic. I could go into more detail, but I don’t wish to insult anyone. During our bible information class with the pastor of our new church, I was overwhelmed with my enormous sense of guilt at keeping my children from holy baptism. I even disregarded my husband’s and parents’ plea to baptize them. I did repent of my sin and asked my husband’s forgiveness, but I still can’t believe how misguided I was. My kids are baptized and I don’t dwell on it at all. I ‘m just thank that my whole family is now getting a thorough christian education, as well as a complete worship experience and solid biblical teaching each Sunday. Yet another reason I love my church!!!
It’s a sad and shameful case when supposedly Lutheran pastors, in whatever synod, aren’t clear with the Word of God. I’m thankful that you finally found one that is.
Theresa,
Thanks for the link to my post. I’m delighted that the Lord has brought you to an understanding of what your baptism means, and that your children have now been baptised.
One of the wonderful things about the Lutheran understanding of Baptism is that it takes that pressure off parents and children to get the children to “commit their lives to the Lord” as soon as possible, which I’m sure can lead to a merely psychological assent from biddable, eager-to-please children; and entrenced refusal from more, um, independent-minded children. Instead, parents are freed to raise their children in the faith, with the children hopefully never knowing a time when they did not believe what they were taught about Christ and the Gospel. May that be the case for your own children!