The “baptist” Lie

The “baptist” 1Lie, I don’t want anyone to be confused by this, you can be a baptist without being a
Baptist. A Baptist is just one who is honest about holding to this lie, many many others in
nondenominational movements and so on don’t like to be called Baptists, yet they still are baptists.
That is, they hold to The “baptist” Lie. The “baptist” lie is also known as Baptist Theology, or more
specifically the Baptist Doctrine of Baptism.

This lie is unscriptural in its premises, and satanic in its denial of grace, especially where the “liitle ones”
Jesus was so fond of are concerned. I hate Baptist theology because Jesus loves babies, and so do I.
baptist theology is based on the opinions of men, and not of Christ, and ultimately undermines the
doctrine of Salvation by grace through faith as a gift of God, the Gospel that Paul explicates in Ephesians
2:8-9, and the one gospel he admonishes the Galatians to hold firm to, warning them to let anyone be
accursed who teaches any other Gospel in the first chapter of his letter to them. Yet finally in the end it
is an illogical, untenable, and unintelligible position. To hold to this doctrine one needs to throw logic to
the wind, and ignore scripture.

baptists would have you believe that they believe in justification by faith alone, perhaps even
justification by grace through faith alone. Yet they deny this in the case of infants, because they believe
infants can’t believe. (Do I need a citation for that?) So infants are saved on account of something else
altogether, what that is varies from baptist to baptist, but usually it is something along the lines of their
own innocence or righteousness. Evidently babies don’t need Christ, they are in and of themselves
righteous in baptist theology, and therefore they don’t need to believe in the one true God. Of course, if
they don’t believe in God or trust in Jesus then they are guilty of breaking the first commandment, and
therefore are not doing so well in that bit on being righteous in and of themselves. But we tend to forget
that first commandment, it requires faith. Normally, though whether they believe the babies are sinners
or not, they hold out for an “age of accountability” nowhere found in scripture, at which point the child
is “able” to believe, and even repent of their sins, at which point they must be baptized. We will take
these three topics in sequence: whether infants can believe, “the age of accountability”, and the need
for repentance, analyzing these propositions according to scripture.

The Faith of Infants:

Over and over again it is posited that infants cannot believe. We have dealt a bit with the logic of this
statement already, it would seem to bar heaven from infants, or make faith alone a joke. But there are a
couple other problems with this statement. It ignores the clear words of Christ and the testimony of
scripture. It also ignores the fact that faith is a gift of God impossible for anyone to attain without the
work of the Holy Spirit. In fact, scripture seems to hint that it is easier for children to believe than adults.

The Clear Words of Christ:

1
Where the word Baptist is not capitalized it is done so on purpose.
“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have
a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” Matthew 18:6
(ESV)

"Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great
millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. “ (Mark 9:42 (ESV)

To spell it out, twice Jesus referring to infants “little ones” being held in his arms and the arms of
mothers, states that they believe in him, “THES LITTLE ONES WHO BELIEVE IN ME.”

And again in the 21st chapter of Matthew Jesus quotes scripture indicating that infants and even nursing
babes believe in Him. “But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did,
and the children crying out in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant, [16] and
they said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never
read," 'Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise'?" (Matthew 21:15-16
(ESV)

The infants and nursing babies are praising Jesus, that is they are confessing faith, one does not praise
God if one does not also believe in Him.

And again : “ And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples
rebuked them. [14] But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the children come to
me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. [15] Truly, I say to you, whoever does
not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." [16] And he took them in his arms and
blessed them, laying his hands on them.” (Mark 10:13-16 (ESV)

Here Jesus says these Children have the kingdom of God, and it is we adults who are supposed to
receive this kingdom like little children. In short to have the kingdom of God is to have that internal reign
of Jesus in your heart, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, also known as faith. It isn’t
children, here so young Jesus takes them up in his arms, that have trouble believing but adults that have
trouble believing.

Other verses to consider when thinking about infants and their capacity to believe and be baptized
would be Matthew 28:18-19, Acts 2:38-39 (especially that “for your children bit”) and 2 timothy 3:15,
the Greek word “Brephous” is most accurately translated infancy. 2

Conclusion regarding the faith of Infants

In short scripture testifies that children can indeed believe. This necessarily makes us consider what it
means to believe or have faith. Faith and belief have to be gifts of God that should not be confused with
our ability to think, understand or give intellectual assent, even if faith at times makes use of those
abilities. Faith is perhaps the deepest mystery of scripture, intertwined with the mystery of the Gospel

2
Zerwick Max, and Crosvenor Mary, A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament, 5 th revised edition,
(Rome, Editrice Pontificio istituto Biblico, 1996) pg 644
itself. It cannot be so narrowly defined as to exclude anyone from the possibility of receiving it whether
child, or adult, genius or mentally handicapped.

The Age of Accountability

There just simply is no age of accountability in scripture given for after which a child must be baptize but
before which baptism is unnecessary. This is made up nonsense. Perhaps though, if one wanted to
push the relationship of Circumcision and Baptism as explained in the second chapter of Colossians, you
could make a case for baptizing when the child is 8 days old, that is if you wanted to be legalistic about
the grace of God.

“In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of
the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, [12] having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were
also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. [13]
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive
together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, [14] by canceling the record of debt that stood
against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” (Col. 2:11-14 (ESV)

In any case Baptists would shudder to think a child should be baptized at that tender age, whatever the
age of accountability is, it is not that! It’s hard to argue, the bible doesn’t talk about an age of
accountability. God’s law does though hold us accountable for sin, and scripture holds out death as the
ultimate judgment of that sin for which we are accountable.

Testimony of scripture concerning death as judgment for sin, and the means by which men are held
accountable for sin:

Death was the judgment for the sin of eating from the tree of Good and Evil:

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. [16] And the Lord
God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, [17] but of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
(Genesis 2:15-17 (ESV)

Whoever ate of that tree would be held accountable for their sin by dying. Death would be the
judgment for sin.

This is reiterated throughout scripture:

“ Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that
the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O
house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11 (ESV)

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death
spread to all men because all sinned—“ (Romans 5:12 (ESV)
 “Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the
transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.” (Romans 5:14 (ESV)

“ Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the
one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
“(Romans 6:16 (ESV)

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans
6:23 (ESV)

Romans 7:13 (ESV)

Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me
through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might
become sinful beyond measure.

Conclusion concerning the “Age of Accountability”

Perhaps that is enough on the Scriptural connection between sin and death. When a person dies they
are being held accountable for sin. It is actually quite that simple. It would seem then that one might
believe the “age of accountability” is any age after which it is reasonable to believe a person is
susceptible to dying. Nurses go through great trouble making sure children don’t die in the hospital right
after birth.

The Requirement of Repentance,

Now here is a Biblical requirement for salvation to be sure. But the baptist meaning of repentance is not
quite the same as that of the Bible. The baptist would again have you believe that the repentance that is
required here is within your own ability to do. They would have you believe that it is something akin to
feeling sorry for your sin, and particular ones at that, and a turning away from them. The Biblical
witness of repentance is nothing but the flipside of faith, it is impossible to have true repentance
without believing the gospel. Why? Because our first sin corresponds to the First Commandment, not
believing in God, not having faith in Jesus, to repent is to believe, to believe is to repent. So it is that
repentance too is a gift from God. He grants it.

Scriptural Testimony

“And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38 (ESV)

If one is to follow the gist of this verse, it would be impossible for someone on that day to have
repented without being baptized. Denying baptism is denying repentance. So it is with faith, faith gets
baptized, faith wants to be baptized, and those who stand in the way of those who believe and do not
allow them to be baptized, deny the grace of God, and the gift of repentance to that person.
 “When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, "Then to the Gentiles
also God has granted repentance that leads to life." (Acts 11:18 (ESV)

Notice God is granting, that is giving repentance that leads to life. This is different than feeling sorry for
stealing a cookie or a car. This is a turning away from one’s own efforts to rely solely upon the grace of
God for their salvation. In other words this is a repentance that only comes with the mystery of faith.

“Correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a
knowledge of the truth,” (2 Tim. 2:25 (ESV)

Again, it is up to God to grant repentance, not to the person who needs salvation.

“and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."
(Mark 1:15 (ESV)

Repent and believe the Gospel, the two go hand in hand. One cannot repent without believing the
gospel, one cannot believe the gospel without also repenting. And what is this repenting, it is to believe
in God to believe the good news that he has sent, the time is fulfilled the kingdom of God is at hand.

Conclusion on Repentance

Repentance gets a bit slippery because we normally use it in a way that is different and yet not quite
inconsistent with scripture. There is in scripture testimony of people repenting for specific sins. This is
often how we use the term. Specific sins meaning sins that we know we have committed and wish not to
commit again, a turning away from sins such as stealing, adultery, false witness, the laundry list can go
on. Most of us adults have a long laundry list of our own sins for which we are on some level repentant
for.

However, if this was the definition for the kind of repentance required for salvation we would have a
huge conundrum, it would mean that God actually requires us to sin before we can be saved. Now I have
gotten that impression from listening to not a few “testimonies” growing up. At one time I thought it
might actually be impossible for someone to be saved without first being a womanizer, a drunk, a drug
addict, murderer, and thief. And thank God that he brings such people to repentance! But God hardly
requires us to be guilty of actually committing these sins in the flesh before he grants us his grace and
salvation. God would rather us not make such a blatant mess of our lives, even if he is willing to forgive
it and clean it up. But if this is the kind of repentance he is looking for then it would indeed require us to
sin in thought word and deed before we could be saved, otherwise we would have nothing to repent of.

The truth is all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God, that is all, babies and infants included.
We don’t need to look for particular sins to be repentant of before we can be saved and baptized. We
have plenty more than we will ever be aware of in all honesty.

The second problem with requiring such repentance for salvation is that it is easily confused with the
repentance of unbelievers. Being sorry for doing bad things is not the monopoly of Christians. Today you
have all sorts of Karma peddlers. Atheists are known to feel bad for certain transgressions. Show me
someone who has never felt guilt, I’ll show you a sociopath. But feeling sorry for your sins hardly makes
up for them. If the forgiveness of Christ were dependent upon this sort of guilt, or repentance, it would
be dependent upon something we do and not the grace of God.

The danger here is one would always be wondering if their repentance was true enough, if they really
meant it. It makes faith and repentance our works that merit the grace of God. This cannot stand. This
robs God’s people, faithful parents, and children of the comfort God meant the Gospel to be. In the end
it ultimately denies the grace of God to those whom He showed such love for during his earthly ministry.

God attaches such comfort and promise to baptism that it can rightly be said he conveys grace through
it. As Lutherans say it is a means of grace. To be sure it is “a” means not the only means. God is so
abundant with his grace that he showers it down on us in manifold ways through his word and
sacraments. We receive grace by hearing his word, by being baptized, by eating and drinking his body
and blood for the forgiveness of sins in with and under the bread and wine of the Lord’s supper. Yet
though God can convey his grace through other means, to stand in the way of this means, baptism, is
still to deny the grace of God to His beloved Children, not to mention to disobey his command.

On a very serious level it is to teach them to despise his grace which he wills to offer in baptism, and
therefore to despise his words, despair of his grace, and trust in one’s own emotions and abilities. It is to
teach them to sin, and it would be better that a millstone be tied around one’s neck and they be thrown
into the sea than to teach one of these little ones who believe in him to sin, to despise his word, his
grace, his gospel. Better to hold to the promise of God and realize that the forgiveness of sins he offers
you, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, that is faith and salvation he extends to you in baptism, he also
promises is not only for you but for your children also.

“And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. [39] For the promise is for you
and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself." (Acts
2:38-39 (ESV)