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38 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 shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the Lord our God calls to him.” (Acts 2:38-39 RSV)
Read the Bible, households and families were baptized. As has been brought up in the excellent posts, baptism replaces circumcision and the promise included children.Everett Ferguson's book on "Baptism in the Early Church" preforms a very thorough job of review of all Christian writings, architecture and liturgies in the first 5 centuries. His conclusion is that the early church baptized normally by credo-baptism but allowed infant baptism when the infants life was in danger. He list an impressive list of church fathers that we have definitive proof were not infact baptized, even those with very devout parents.
Simple question to you all, who is the first great church member who we have definite proof of an infant baptism? (Polycarp doesn't count as he does not specify when he was baptized, he could have as easily have been a catechized as an infant but baptized later. Everett points out that from his understanding the first person we know was baptized as an infant was Julian.)
Read the Bible, households and families were baptized. As has been brought up in the excellent posts, baptism replaces circumcision and the promise included children.
Luke 18:15–16: "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’"
NT also says whole household believed as well. NT contrast circumcision and baptism etc...
Citing Ferguson p 626...
Here is a list of people who we now were not infant baptized. Ephraem the Syrian, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nysa, Gregory of Nazianzus, John Chrysostom, Ambrose, Jerome, Rufinus, Paulinus of Nola, Augustine. We could also add Ambrose's brother Satyrus, Gregory of Nazianzus father Gregory, his sister Gorgonia, brother Caesarius, Jerome's friends Heliodorus and Rufius, Paulinus of Nola's brother and Rufinus of Aquileia. Some of these people above had devout parents, eg Gregory of Nazianzus had bishop for a father.
Can you kindly provide the name of the first known person (with a name) to have an infant baptism (that was not done as a clinical baptism of a dying infant)?
he could have as easily have been a catechized as an infant but baptized later.
St. John Chrysostom ca. 349-407 said:You see how many are the benefits of baptism, and some think its heavenly grace consists only in the remission of sins, but we have enumerated ten honors [it bestows]! For this reason we baptize even infants, though they are not defiled by [personal] sins, so that there may be given to them holiness, righteousness, adoption, inheritance, brotherhood with Christ, and that they may be his [Christ’s] members. (Baptismal Catecheses)
Tertullian said:With no less reason ought the unmarried also to be delayed until they either marry or are firmly established in continence: until then, temptation lies in wait for them, for virgins because they are ripe for it, and for widows because of their wandering about. All who understand what a burden baptism is will have more fear of obtaining it than of its postponement. (De Baptismo, XVIII)
and how do you catechize an infant?
In the third century - there was a controversy within Christianity over baptism. There was a movement in the church that, in varying degrees, taught that post-baptismal sins could not be forgiven. Some split sins into mortal and non-mortal - and stated that only non-mortal ones could be forgiven post-baptism, while others said that no sins would be forgiven post-baptism. This movement impacted the timing of when some of the early Church fathers and well-known Christians of the time were baptized later in their lives. Constantine is a well-known example of this, as he was not baptized until his death-bed.
It is worth noting that this was not the modern credo-Baptist position. The Christians of the time strongly believed in the remission of sin and regeneration through baptism. The question wasn’t so much a question of whether one should have faith first before baptism, rather than a question of when baptism is most prudent in the realm of our lives the baptized since they are likely to lust (a mortal sin)!
Basil of Caesarea Homilies 13:1 speaks of "catechumen since infancy"
Augustine (Confessions 1:11 and 6:4) is held to have been catechumenized from infancy.
Cyril of Alexandria comments on John 11:26, "When a newborn baby is brought to receive the chrism of the catechumenate or chrism of perfection in holy baptism..."
Pope Siricius (384 - 399) decreed "whoever has vowed himself to the services of the church from infancy must be baptized before the years of puberty and join the ministry of the lectors."
I wasn’t referring specifically to Baptists.All4Christ,
I am not a Baptist, but I am a credo-baptist, I believe that baptism is for the remission of sins and regeneration. I think the issues of post baptismal sins is earlier than the 3rd cent, it is the main theme of the Shepherd of Hermas
Who is the first great church member who we have definite proof of an infant baptism?
Who is the first great church member to have told the Christian community that there is an age requirement for people seeking to be baptized?No one answered the question I posed.
Who is the first great church member who we have definite proof of an infant baptism?
What "sheer numbers" are you referring to? I am unaware of the existence of records from the first century that list the total number of people who were baptized.It just strikes me that if Infant baptism was the universal practice of the church from apostolic times than the sheer numbers of credo-baptized people doesn't make sense.
Wy would GOD bring a person into election, repentance and salvation and then destroy him in hell for dying before he is baptised...especially when HE is in charge of the death of everyone?? The mind boggles at how little people know of GOD and are willing to believe such claptrap because of their ignorance.Yes, that's on the Bible
Polycarp says he was baptized in around 75 ad. as a baby
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