Q: How does faith play a role in infant Baptism? Is faith later taken care of when the child is
confirmed?
A: Lutherans believe that the Bible teaches that a person is saved by God's grace alone through faith
alone in Jesus Christ. Baptism, we believe, is one of the miraculous means of grace (together with God's
written and spoken Word) through which God creates the gift of faith in a person's heart. Although we
do not claim to understand how this happens or how it is possible, we believe (because of what the
Bible says about Baptism) that when an infant is baptized God creates faith in the heart of that infant.
This faith cannot yet, of course, be expressed or articulated, yet it is real and present all the same (see,
e.g., 1 Pet 3:21; Acts 2:38-39; Titus 3:5-6; Matt. 18:6; Luke 1:15; 2 Tim.3:15; Gal. 3:26-27; Rom. 6:4; Col.
2:11-12; 1 Cor. 12:13).
Parents and sponsors of a baptized child bear the responsibility of teaching this child God's Word so that
the child's faith may remain alive and grow (Matt. 28:18-20). Confirmation is a time-honored church
tradition (not required by God's Word, but-we believe-useful nonetheless) in which the child baptized as
an infant is given the opportunity to confess for himself or herself the faith that he or she was unable to
confess as an infant. Faith is not "created" at confirmation, but rather confessed for all to hear, so that
the church can join and rejoice in this public confession, which has its roots in the faith which God
Himself created in Baptism.
Q: You say that infant baptism is ONE way of salvation. Since this practice was unknown in the New
Testament or even the early Catholic Church, it is speculative. The Bible says that repentance is a prerequisite
for faith. I repented at five, so it can be early, but not in someone's arms.
A: Infants are included in "all nations" who are to be baptized (Matt. 28:19). Certainly they were
included in Peter's Pentecost exhortation in Acts 2:38, 39: "Repent and be baptized everyone one of
you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins....The promise is for you and your
children and for all who are far off–for all whom the Lord our God will call."
Whole households, everyone in the family, were baptized in the beginning of New Testament times,
which in all probability included infants (Acts 16:15 and 33). [The "household" formula used here by
Luke has Old Testament precedent, with special reference also to small children, as for example in 1
Sam. 22:16, 19; see Joachim Jeremias, Infant Baptism in the First Four Centuries, 22-23.] In Romans 6,
the Holy Spirit tells us in the Word that in Baptism we have been united with Jesus' death and
resurrection–regenerated, dying to sin and rising to new life. That happens to infants when baptized
(Gal. 3:27). "For as many of you who have been baptized have put on Christ." Baptism through the Word
creates the faith necessary to receive salvation for infants. Infants can have faith. In Mark 10:14 Jesus
said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to
such as these." The Greek word in this text is "paidia" which means babes in arms. Infants can belong to
the kingdom of God. "From the lips of children and infants, You have ordained praise...." Psalm 8:2. "Yet
You brought me out of the womb, You made me trust in You even at my mother's breast" Psalm 22:9.
From the beginning of New Testament Christianity at Pentecost to our time, unbroken and
uninterrupted, the Church has baptized babies. Polycarp (69-155 AD), a disciple of the Apostle John, was
baptized as an infant. Justin Martyr (100-166 AD) of the next generation, about the year 150 AD, states
in his Dialog with Trypho The Jew that Baptism is the circumcision of the New Testament." Irenaeus
(130-200 AD) writes in Against Heresies II 22:4 that Jesus came to save all through means of Himself --
all, I say, who through Him are born again to God – infants and children, boys and youth, and old men."
Similar expressions are found in succeeding generations by Origen (185-254 AD) and Cyprian (215-258
AD), and at the Council of Carthage in 254 where the 66 bishops stated: "We ought not hinder any
person from Baptism and the grace of God....especially infants....those newly born." Origen wrote in his
Commentary on Romans 5:9: "For this also it was that the Church had from the Apostles a tradition to
give baptism even to infants." Origen also wrote in his Homily on Luke 14: "Infants are to be baptized for
the remission of sins." Cyprian's reply to a bishop who wrote to him regarding the baptism of infants
stated: "Should we wait until the 8th day as did the Jews in the circumcision? No, the child should be
baptized as soon as it is born."
Augustine (354-430 AD) wrote in De Genesi Ad Literam, 10:39 declared, "The custom of our mother
Church in baptizing infants must not be counted needless, nor believed to be other than a tradition of
the Apostles." Augustine further states: "...the whole Church which hastens to baptize infants, because
it unhesitatingly believes that otherwise they cannot possibly be vivified in Christ. In 517 AD, 10 rules of
discipline were framed for the Church in Spain. The fifth rule states that "...in case infants were ill...if
they were offered, to baptize them, even though it were the day that they were born...such was to be
done." (The History of Baptism by Robert Robinson, London, Thomas Knott, 1790, p.269)
