Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: cadence!stevep@uunet.uu.net (Steve Peterson) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Infant Baptism (Was Re: Validity of Baptism) Message-ID: Date: 10 Nov 90 13:24:09 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Cadence Design Systems, Inc. Lines: 35 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu One the question of infant baptism: Was infant baptism practiced by first-century Christians? Math 28:19,20: "Go therefore and make *disciples*....*baptizing them* Acts 8:12: "When they believed Philip... they proceeded to be baptized, both *men and women* However, *later on*, Origen (185-254 C.E.) wrote: "It is the custom of the church that baptism be administered even to infants." (Selections From the Commentaries and Homilies of Origen, Madras, India; 1929, p. 211) The practice was confirmed by the Third Council of Carthage (253 C.E.). Religious historian Augustus Neander wrote: "Faith and baptism were always connected with one another; and thus it is in the highest degree probable... that the practice of infant baptism was unknown at this period [in the first century]... That it first became recognised as an apostolic tradition in the course of the third century, is evidence rather *against* than *for* the admission of its apostolic origin." History of the Planting and Training of the Christian Church by the Apostles (New York 1864), p. 162 Best Regards...... Steve Peterson ---- stevep@cadence.com or ...!uunet!cadence!stevep [The most honest answer seems to be that no one knows. Acts talks about whole families being baptized. I know of no way to decide whether this includes infants. All of the arguments I know take other information, and say because of this, it must have been the case that baptizing the whole family included|excluded infants. --clh]