But our faith must not be limited to that personal relationship alone. . the children of Christians are liable for their own sins; and that no guilt attaches to parents who withhold from baptism We must remember that a household always included children throughout the Scriptures. The Roman Catholic Church considers baptism, even for infants, so important that "parents "It is this one Spirit who makes it possible for an infant to be regenerated . not the infant, not the one prevented by necessity." to them, all such children should be baptized without scruple, lest a hesitation should deprive them of the cleansing of the to Abraham (Gn 17:12), reaffirmed in the Mosaic Law (Lv 12:3), and demonstrated Since others respond for children, so that the celebration of the sacrament may be complete for them, it is certainly availing to them for their consecration, because they themselves are not able to respond (On Baptism, Against the Donatists4:24:31 [A.D. 400]). Apostles, to whom were committed the secrets of divine mysteries, knew that there is in everyone the innate stains of sin, whenever there were not found reliable witnesses who could testify that without any doubt they [abandoned children] were baptized as a child and until he comes to years of discretion to choose between the two roads to which the letter of Pythagoras points, (Commentaries on Romans . This practice, rooted in the very earliest days of the Church, continued for 1500 years through the Reformation, was affirmed by Calvin and Luther, and then suddenly was thrown into question. to Abraham (Gn 17:12), reaffirmed in the Mosaic Law (Lv 12:3), and demonstrated Noahs whole household was taken into the ark with him (Genesis 7:1); Abraham had his whole household circumcised (Genesis 17:23), and specifically his son Isaac when he was eight days old (Genesis 21:4); the whole household of every family was taken out of Egypt, and Gods institution of the Passover specifically included the children (Exodus 12:2428). to save all through means of Himself-all, I say, who through Him are born again to God,-infants, and children, and boys, and It is a form of Gnosticism to believe a child must know their original sin before they can be saved from it. the Scriptural teaching of sin, grace, and faith, form the clear basis for the practice. Historically, he formed a link between the apostolic and patristic ages. Individual adult baptisms occurred, but there were no individual covenants. and be baptized. Infant baptism was not controversial in the Church during the first two centuries after Christ. nor as the first line of an apologetic for infant baptism. On Baptism,18(A.D. 200/206),in Optatus The third chapter discusses Polycarp, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Hippolytus, Aristides, and others who either mention the baptism of children explicitly or seem to imply the practice such as Irenaeus. . It was not for nothing that Naaman of old, when suffering from leprosy, was purified . Nowhere in the New Testament, they point out, do we read of infants being baptized. Based upon information related to when he apparently died and certain ancient records, it appears that Polycarp was born around 52 A.D. His name is Greek, hence he is believed to have been a Gentile. Nearly all the early Christian inscriptions are epitaphs. take this occasion to discuss something which our brothers often inquire about. of the divine mysteries were The Lord did not appear from nowhere with a message and language of His own inven-tion. For Christ also said, 'Unless you are born again, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven' . No one agreed to the course which you thought should be taken. been challenged or renounced. gives also the most hidden grace of his Spirit to believers, they may be his [Christs] members" (Baptismal Catecheses in Augustine, Ad And it is deeply Orthodox and fundamentally biblical, so much so that this alternative nationalism was the basis for the early Roman persecution of Christians. Council The kingdom is theirs, Jesus says, and they should be brought to him; and this means baptism. "And when a child has been born to one of them[ie Christians], they give thanks to God[ie baptism]; and if moreover If they grow up in a home in which conversations about Christ, prayer, and reading from the Bible and the lives of the saints are part of normal daily life, they will feed off this as much as the food we put on their plates at the dinner table. With God our Father, and the Church our Mother (Revelation 12:1), we gather as children of a holy family, each of us enjoying the full privileges of membership by a baptismal birthright. It is also well documented that Polycarp was 86 years old Even Martin Luther and John Calvin insisted on the practice. It is more than a mere sign. . and rid me of all doubts, why little children are baptized.?A. now saves you (1 Pet. But were children of eight days old then capable of We understand this not in terms of inherited guilt, but in terms of a fallen world. Will they break the holy fellowship of that dinner table? The views held by most Christians about marriage provide a useful comparison. We can talk about sin and guilt in three ways. "As to what pertains to the case of infants: You [Fidus] said that they ought not to be baptized within the second Their unanimous decision upheld the universally accepted practice which they had always followed. We know this because Ignatius of Antioch, another martyr in the early church, passed by Smyrna on his way to Rome where he would face execution and death for . He offers exegesis of pertinent New Testament passages, and readers will be impressed with the extra-Biblical evidence he produces to support that there was virtually universal observance of the rite in the post-Apostolic generations. We eat together at the dinner table, and we feast together at the altar. By virtue of baptism, they participate in this promise now. [After quoting Leviticus 12:8 and Psalm 51:5] Nowhere do we find it prohibited and everywhere we find it practiced. Polycrates "I, therefore, brethren, who have 28:19], they then receive was Baptized as an infant. To learn more, visit Conciliar's online booklet catalog. For the promise is for you and your children" (Ac 2:38-39). Children belong to this family exactly as each of my daughters belongs to my family. (Oration on Holy Baptism For they to whom the secrets of grace, and the Spirit effecting interiorly the benefit of grace, both regenerate in one Christ that man who was generated sanctified within the eighth day, we all thought very differently in our council. Polycarp resided in Asia Minor as bishop of Smyrna and sent an epistle to the Philippians c. 120-140 CE. able to respond" (On Baptism, Against the Donatists 4:24:31 [A.D. 400]). 3 [A.D. 416]). I dont have to explain this to my children. the children of Christians are liable for their own sins; and that no guilt attaches to parents who withhold from baptism . 5:9 [A.D. 248]), St. Cyprian From his babes, even as the Lord has declared: Except a man be born again through water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into veteres, Vol. their birth'." Numerous church fathers in the second and third centuries equated baptism with circumcision. . St. Augustine confirmed the ubiquitous teaching of the Church when he wrote, "This [infant baptism] the Church always . the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead (Col. 2:1112). by public penance." Hippolytus was the disciple of St. Irenaeus of Lyon. Christ; and you were buried with him in baptism" (Co 2:11-12). Canon As a priest, I see just how real the life of faith is to children when they approach the chalice to receive communion. 2) Although several examples exist from the third century of the children of Christians being baptized A person becomes guilty when they personally sin. Christ Himself sanctified every age as God-bearing, since He was as much the perfect Word of God as an infant as when He was a grown man. No. This is especially significant when one realizes that the very early Church was made up primarily of In our council it seemed to us far otherwise. No one is expected: Do they understand the significance of belonging to the family? But Fundamentalists try to ignore the historical writings from the early Church which clearly He lived six years and was buried on the fifth of Ides of If, in the case of the worst sinners and those who formerly sinned much against God, when afterwards they believe, the remission of their sins is granted and no one is held back from baptism and grace, how much more, then, should an infant not be held back, who, having but recently been born, has done no sin, except that, born of the flesh according to Adam, he has contracted the contagion of that old death from his first being born. was due to his heresy that sin after baptism was almost unforgivable. . +Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004. infant is brought to baptism; and it is through this one Spirit that the infant so presented is reborn. Consider, too, that Fathers raised in Christian homes (such as Irenaeus) would hardly have upheld infant baptism as apostolic if their own baptisms had been deferred until the age of reason. For they to whom the secrets It declares: "The practice of infant Baptism is an immemorial tradition of the Church. . . 2,(A.D. 418),in Denzinger 101. Other recorded dates from Polycarp's life make it likely that eighty . None of these men postponed their baptism because of faith, Polycarp of Smyrna claimed to have served Christ "eighty-six years," surely meaning from infancy (M. Polyc.18.3). from the third century; edited by E. Diehl (second edition; Berlin, 1961)) Even one believing parent in a household makes the children and even the unbelieving spouse holy (1 Cor. to be denied to no man born" (Letters 64:2 [A.D. 253]). 5:14]. Gregory Nazianzen [329 - 390] The status of infant baptism in the patristic age was in some ways similar to its status today. Or when did they sin? That to truly believe, our minds must be capable of understanding why we believe, or at least able to provide intellectual consent. All of this fascinates them and draws them into Christ. have either worshipped idols or been polluted with manslaughter or fornication, they must not be admitted to communion, except times in the Jordan [2 Kgs. Allow sin no opportunity; rather, let the infant be sanctified from childhood. (Enchiridion; of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord, from our old transgressions, being spiritually regenerated as newborn Few Christians would say that a marriage ceremony is merely a sign. A change clearly occurs. informs us that "this sign [of circumcision] prefigures that 'circumcision of Christ' which is Baptism" (CCC no. Our modern world so exults reason and cerebralism that young children are sometimes treated as not fully human, or are at least treated less seriously than adults because they cant think like we do. the validity of infant baptism. For, . One of the first Christian martyrs, Polycarp - a disciple of John, had been baptized as an infant. The Church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they Haer., III.3.4. presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors. They are raised with the promise of eternal life, with the expectation of the Resurrection. St. Ambrose, and St. Cyril of Alexandria. Here Tertullian comments on his preference of not to confer Baptism shortly after birth." Irene who lived with her parents ten months and Luke 18:1516 tells us that they were bringing even infants to Jesus; and he himself related this to the kingdom of God: Let the children come to me . . the remission of sins, so that that which they have contracted from generation may be cleansed in them by regeneration" (Canon had, always held; this she received from the faith of our ancestors; this she perseveringly guards even to the end" (Augustine, A considerable number of Mileum II In fact, the question of infant baptism can hardly be raised without such a sacramental theology, since an affirmative answer is a foregone conclusion." . M.: Dial. whosoever says that those children who depart out of this life without partaking of that sacrament shall be made alive in into the kingdom of heaven' [John 3:5], and again, 'He that loses his life for my sake shall find it' [Matt. We have our national anthems in the hymns we sing. the Church has baptized babies. "He [Jesus] came to save all through himself; all, I say, who through him are reborn in God: infants, and children, None of the 10:39], no one . The Orthodox Church does not believe that children are born guilty of Adams sin and that unless freed of that guilt through baptism and communion they will die without Gods mercy. There is no evidence that anyone being against infant baptism in the early Church on the grounds that you must first "believe" baptized unto the remission of sins, but that they draw nothing of the original sin of Adam, which is expiated in the bath Family dinner as we know it was a Christian invention, not some natural form of family life. (Augustine, On Original Sin 2, 20). Rather, we all judge that the mercy and grace of God ought But since "No one is exempt from stain," one removes the stain by the mystery of Pope is that the baptism of the early Church followed that of proselyte baptism, in which children and infants were baptized with The Christian faith was passed directly from the Apostle John to Polycarp, then to Irenaeus, then to Hippolytus, who baptized infants in AD . Some may ask why Sts. 3) Neither the Ebionites, Novatians, Arians, Donatists, Montanists, nor any other early heresy refuted infant

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