“Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight” (1 Pet 5:2).

What is a pastor to do when parents bring their children to be baptized, yet there has been no fruit of regeneration demonstrated, nor has a clear profession of faith been conveyed that they have been justified by faith in Christ alone? A quick survey of the contemporary church culture shows that young people have gotten baptized by record numbers at a much earlier age than in the vast history of the Church. So are we to hold them off baptizing them?[i] What does faithful shepherding ministry in the gospel look like? We believe that the ordinances are a perpetual celebration of the finished work of Christ, rejoiced in by those who have personally believed in Christ. As we follow the pattern in the Early Church, we see that people heard the gospel, they believed, got baptized, and joined the church. “So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:41; cf. 4:32; 5:14; 9:42 et al.).

And it is here in the church where their profession is nurtured, and they are held accountable.

In the local church that they identify with and where they are committed to the Lord’s work, they begin getting discipled in the Word so that they might, in turn, disciple the nations as they begin to walk through the process of obeying the Lord, getting baptized, and following Christ in all areas of life. In the church, the saints are equipped for service and mature in Christlikeness (Eph 4:12-16). As they come together regularly, believers come to the Lord’s Table in vital fellowship with Him and one another (1 Cor 11:17). And why would they be allowed communion, celebrating essential fellowship with the Savior, when they have not even obeyed the Lord to be baptized as believers, proclaiming his allegiance? In other words, the ordinances go together.

Since these ordinances are for believers alone, why are they not fenced off more through faithful shepherding and teaching about their significance? Why are parents so quick to allow their children (which in many cases are unregenerate) to partake so freely (in many instances never baptized since belief in Christ), and why are some so quick to have their children baptized, when in some cases the children are not even convinced in their hearts about its importance, and in a host of instances, do not have a clear grasp of the gospel?[ii]

While affirming that baptism is the first step of obedience for the believer (Matt 28:19)[iii], we also need to consider the host of reasons as to why the delay with children is an issue of wisdom and prudence. In their present understanding, would prudence consider holding off for a time? Ponder the wealth of false professions of faith (cf Matt 7)[iv] and the damage of deception when the child is allowed to partake of the ordinances too early. Children by nature desire to please parents and pastors, so why wouldn’t they want to partake, knowing we desire their salvation and close walk with the Lord. Kids are typically impressionable, so it is not difficult for a zealous evangelist to secure a profession from 95% of young people. This points to the danger in our day of decision-oriented evangelism and the easy-believism so cherished in Evangelicalism.[v] While parents and pastors cannot authenticate the child’s salvation, by allowing their participation in the ordinances, we are giving the okay and rubber-stamping their profession and possibly insulating them from the biblical admonition to test and examine the legitimacy of faith as to whether it is saving or dead, spurious faith (2 Cor 13:5; cf. Jas 2:14-26). Where is the patient shepherding that should occur? All who profess salvation are to apply the biblical test, and it takes time to recognize religious affections of the heart that have changed and begun demonstration in life. I believe this time typically does not begin until the teen years when righteous choices cost friends, peers, and popularity (Matt 13’s Parable of the Sower).

As we consider why shepherding care looks a bit different for youth than adults, let’s consider what has often been referred to as the age of accountability or what I prefer discussing as the condition of accountability. No age ever spoken of in the Bible distinguishes the transition from ‘innocence’ to responsibility. While the Scriptures do not give a certain age, it does present a condition of the heart that manifests itself in maturity. But the Bible speaks of growth from childhood to adulthood, manhood, and womanhood. Paul attests that when he became a man (matured), he put away childish things that used to characterize it (1 Cor 13:11). Here, there is the clear delineation between children and adults. Children are not mature. They do childish things and don’t process through their actions’ consequences and logical conclusions.

Jesus Christ, the perfect God-man, increased (grew) in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and man (Lk 2:52). The maturation into adulthood, where we understand personal responsibility happens at different ages. There comes the point when a child can comprehend the gospel, recognize their lostness, and realize that they need to flee to Christ in repentant faith, even if they choose not to do so. Before man can ever get saved, he must understand the gospel message and what he must do in repentance and faith. God knows when each person reaches this condition of the heart to choose God and flee the evil of their sin. The problem is that we don’t know. That is why it takes a measure of wisdom to shepherd young people. When has someone rejected Christ in their heart and mind? Or when have they gained a love for God instead of the continued love for sin? When has the child reached the conscious condition of either rejecting Christ or desiring Him? (Probably fewer than we think, though children can and do get saved). God alone knows, so it is incumbent on parents and pastors to shepherd children through these gospel issues. In Ephesians 4:13-14 Paul speaks of spiritual maturity in contrast to children who are tossed here and there and easily deceived.

Again, we have no Bible instructions nor examples of this occurrence. We see many and only adult conversions but no children (not even in the household passages of Acts that paedobaptist friends use as prooftexts for infant baptism).[vi] If you apply the regulative principle to what we do in worship, silence is golden because we do not have biblical precedence for baptized babies or children, only those who are ‘adults’ or at least maturing into adulthood. Not children, but adults!

No matter how much we hear of a supposed in-between age of adolescence or those we refer to as teenagers, the Bible speaks of us either being a child or adults.[vii] In a Jewish matter of thinking, this occurred from 12-13 years old. Even the Jewish tradition of the Bar-mitsvah is the coming out party celebration of the transition from childhood to manhood. Though not fully mature, they are making more decisions that have consequences and taking on responsibility as they learn to reason and think through the consequences of choices. Take, for instance, Jesus, when taken by His parents to Jerusalem for the Passover and the Feast. He was in the temple questioning the teachers of the law as a young man. Jesusalso healed a man who had been born blind. His parents affirmed the reliability of his testimony as an adult that was to be accepted because he was “of age” (helikia) or mature (Jn 9:18-23). Adults make credible decisions that are just not possible for children. In Jewish society, a child could not even speak for himself. As young people enter puberty, they are becoming more aware of the changes in body (puberty) and soul; of their own impulses, feelings, drives, desires, and sinful passions. It was not until teen years or as young men/women that engaged in His powerful work through Daniel and friends, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joseph, Hezekiah, Ruth, Mary and Joseph, David, Josiah, and Mark. Further, those who believed Philip’s Gospel proclamation were baptized and were men and women, not children (Acts 8:12). So it is typically around this age that we can see demonstrated the ability to comprehend truth and the consequent responses necessary.

Are we saying we don’t deal with the Gospel with our single-digit children? Not at all. Every desire that they express to love and follow Jesus should be nurtured and encouraged. We just don’t know at what age there is that conscious decision to flee sin and follow Jesus all the days of their lives. How is a 4- year-old going to really comprehend Jesus’ absolute command to deny self, take up the cross, and follow Him (Lk 9:23)? They are unable at that age to count the cost of what that decision may cost them in friendship with their peers (Lk 14:27-33). False converts that look and sound genuine, where it looks like new life, are actually a sham and house of cards that falls with the tribulations and difficulties that righteous decisions bring about. Jesus Himself taught that there are responses to the Gospel of the Kingdom that do not lead to eternal life, though it appears so initially. There are temporary responses in which the affliction or persecution cause the respondent to fall away (Matt 13:20-21).

This is where pastoral wisdom comes into play. Do we baptize simply based on a profession of faith? How clearly does this profession of faith need to be given? Does their testimony need to sound like a seminary treatise on soteriology? Not at all! But even if the person has not been thoroughly schooled in the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ, can they present a believable understanding of the gospel and rely on the perfections of Christ rather than the self?

Having talked through accountability (a condition of the heart, not age), how do we assess it? It starts with the Baptism Class, which develops the biblical teaching and the history of a Believer’s Baptism (Credobaptism).[viii]  This class allows an opportunity to teach against baptismal regeneration. We use the Sword of the Spirit. Shepherds are teachers and are to exercise patience in their teaching as they shepherd young people at every point of growth and learning. While we may delay baptism for lack of credibility in their profession, or gaps in their understanding of belief and baptism, we also do not want to assault the work of the Spirit in their conscience.

We must tell our children to keep a conscience sensitive towards the Lord’s leading and conviction, as we do not want them to be callous to their conscience. Yet, at the same time, that conscience must be informed of God’s truth. The waters of baptism do not contribute a single percent to their justified status. Water baptism manifests through object lessons the work that the Spirit of God has already wrought in their hearts. We nurture every desire and step of pleasing and following the Lord. As we seek to discern the condition of the baptismal candidate’s profession, as well as understanding, we begin questioning:

• Would you tell me how God brought you to faith in Jesus Christ? (We are looking for an understanding of the gospel and justification by faith).
• Why do you want to be baptized? (We are looking for the desire for obedience to Christ).
• What do you think is the purpose of baptism? (We are looking to understand what they are doing — some young people just don’t know this answer, so teaching happens Then we can have them repeat back to us what we said).
• Does baptism save you? (We are looking for any wrong theology in their understanding of the gospel).
• Does baptism mean that you are saved? (The answer should be “no!” – We are looking out for them to understand that baptism is NOT where assurance is found).
• Do you understand this is a personal, adult decision? (We are looking for them to take responsibility for their own This is NOT the faith of their parents, etc. Sort of a, “Did your parents put you up to this, or are you making this decision?”).

We can talk of the necessity of being born again and believing upon Christ and His provision alone for salvation. Belief is vitally connected to and precedes the baptismal experience. As was stated earlier, we desire to encourage our young people to follow Christ in obedience, not discourage them. While we shepherd them to love Christ, let us stop short of simply securing a decision and checking the box of baptism so they can partake of the Lord’s Table. Do they just want to sip the juice, so they don’t feel left out, or is their conscience truly activated with a desire to repent and believe? To discern, this takes patient teaching at every corner of conversation. It takes wisdom and prudence, and if needed, due to misgivings about the gospel, perhaps the delay is the need for the next few months or years. May God help us shepherd our young people into the fold, should His kindness lead them to repentance!

Consider reading “Baptism of Children,” the elders’ statement at Capitol Hill Baptist Church or the baptismal practice at Grace Community Church as just a couple of other examples of the shepherding practice plead for in this paper.

References

[i] Thomas Schreiner states, “Baptisms of children eight or nine years of age, or even younger, were either unheard of or very rare.” He cites a study that shows from 1977-1997, there was a 250% increase in the number of baptisms of children under 6 just in Southern Baptist churches. Thomas Schreiner, Believer’s Baptism, 346-47.

[ii] Surely, they need to be taught that the Roman Catholic and Disciples of Christ systems are wrong in their views of baptismal regeneration.

[iii] An exposition of this passage can be found at www.biblicalexpositor.org in the preaching/teaching section under baptism titled “Baptism: The 1st Step of Christian Discipleship.”

[iv] An exposition of v21-23 of this scary text was proclaimed on a day when I baptized a church member who had come to understand that she was baptized in her youth as a false convert. “The Empty Hope of False Converts” can be accessed at the same place as #2 above.

[v] This dangerous reality is addressed in “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus…Maybe” in document downloads under “Gospel.”

[vi] The Reformation Study Bible, 1945.

[vii] Please consider reading my friend Rick Holland’s good apologetic of “The Myth Called Adolescence.” It can be accessed on my website. While adults understand the warnings in 1 Corinthians about partaking in communion worthily, children need parents and pastors to shepherd them in the Gospel to believe in Jesus and be certain they have believed before baptism and communion.

[viii] The audio and handouts can be found at www.biblicalexpositor.org under “baptism” in the preaching/teaching and document downloads.