Why do Catholics baptise babies, even though it says nothing of this in the Bible?

Question

In the Bible it says that a pesron should be baptised when they have accepted Jesus as their savior and have given their heart to him. But Babies are to young to make decisions like this, and in the Bible it says nothing of making the decision for a person(or child) or baptising babies.

I know that they say it is to take away the origional sin (Adam's sin) that every one is born with, but only God has the power to do that after the person has given their heart to Jesus. Other human beings have not got the power to take away sin.

Answer 1

It is was believed that if you would die as a baby without being baptized, you wouldn't be able to go to heaven. Instead, you would spend an eternity in LIMBO (not the dance.)

Limbo never was official Catholic dogma, but the Church didn't talked against it either.

In modern times, JP II worked hard to get rid of limbo. He died before it was officially recognized that limbo is not real. Benedict completed the job and now, you can say that there is no real reason to baptize catholic babies. The problem is that nobody has told most of catholics about this.

Answer 2

They do it to expunge original sin; they say babies are born with the sin of Adam!

Pope Benedict XVI, on or around 6 Oct 2006, advocated the abolition of Limbo, saying that babies who die before baptism now go straight to heaven and not to the void.

This infers that if babies have no sin, and have not the capability of sin, then original sin is NOT something with which we are all born, and babies do NOT need to be baptised.

John the Baptist only baptised adults.

Indeed baptism should only take place, by full immersion, at the age of 8 yrs or more.

Let the Vatican chew on this for a while!

Answer 3

1252 The practice of infant Baptism is an immemorial tradition of the Church. There is explicit testimony to this practice from the second century on, and it is quite possible that, from the beginning of the apostolic preaching, when whole "households" received baptism, infants may also have been baptized. <(1) Cf Acts 16:15, 33; 18:8; 1 Cor 1:16; >

1231 Where infant Baptism has become the form in which this sacrament is usually celebrated, it has become a single act encapsulating the preparatory stages of Christian initiation in a very abridged way. By its very nature infant Baptism requires a post-baptismal catechumenate. Not only is there a need for instruction after Baptism, but also for the necessary flowering of baptismal grace in personal growth. The catechism has its proper place here.

1232 The second Vatican Council restored for the Latin Church "the catechumenate for adults, comprising several distinct steps." The rites for these stages are to be found in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). The Council also gives permission that: "In mission countries, in addition to what is furnished by the Christian tradition, those elements of initiation rites may be admitted which are already in use among some peoples insofar as they can be adapted to the Christian ritual."

1233 Today in all the rites, Latin and Eastern, the Christian initiation of adults begins with their entry into the catechumenate and reaches its culmination in a single celebration of the three sacraments of initiation: Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist. In the Eastern rites the Christian initiation of infants also begins with Baptism followed immediately by Confirmation and the Eucharist, while in the Roman rite it is followed by years of catechesis before being completed later by Confirmation and the Eucharist, the summit of their Christian initiation.

Answer 4

Baptism by total immersion is probably the ideal method, but baptisms by sprinkling and pouring are also valid. The method changed when Christianity was legalized and the Church was growing rapidly throughout the Roman Empire, and priests had to take "shortcuts" in order to baptize large numbers of people. Many old Romanesque and even Gothic Churches in Europe still have huge tub-sized baptismal fonts, so immersion was still practiced at least occasionally well into the Middle Ages. I have also personally seen at least one modern Catholic Church that has a huge baptismal pool and that practiced immersion, so it is somewhat making a comeback. The real difference is not the method (sprinkling versus immersion) but the theological differences between the Catholic and Baptist understandings of Baptism, as explained in many of the prior answers.

Answer 5

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "Born with a fallen human nature and tainted by original sin, children also have need of the new birth in Baptism to be freed from the power of darkness and brought into the realm of the freedom of the children of God, to which all men are called."

Infant baptism is not a new thing. There are non-biblical documented sources starting in the second century telling of infant Baptism.

There are even several passages in the Bible where whole households were baptized. This would include everyone who lived there, men, women, children, and infants.

Acts 16:15, "After she and her household had been baptized"

Acts 16:33, "then he and all his family were baptized at once."

Acts 18:8, "came to believe in the Lord along with his entire household, and many of the Corinthians who heard believed and were baptized."

1 Corinthians 1:16, "I baptized the household of Stephanas"

St. Paul wrote that baptism has replaced circumcision (Col 2:11-12), and in Judaism circumcision was performed primarily on infants.

With love in Christ.

Answer 6

Baptism is practised by most if not all Christian faiths not just Catholics. Actually, there is a section in the new testement where Jusus is baptized by John the Baptist so it is mentioned and condoned for all followers and thier families.

Baptism in water is easily traced to ritual clensing of the Jews in the Mikvah and in the rites of the Essenes. There is another link

Catholics use the Sacrament of baptism to rid the child of Original Sin as well as the traditional naming ceremony. In the past, it was not unheard of to hold off baptism of children until they were older. Baptism of infants is relatively new as a practise (in church time.....)

Answer 7

Gen. 17:12, Lev. 12:3 - these texts show the circumcision of eight-day old babies as the way of entering into the Old Covenant - Col 2:11-12 - however, baptism is the new "circumcision" for all people of the New Covenant. Therefore, baptism is for babies as well as adults. God did not make His new Covenant narrower than the old Covenant. To the contrary, He made it wider, for both Jews and Gentiles, infants and adults.

Job 14:1-4 - man that is born of woman is full of trouble and unclean. Baptism is required for all human beings because of our sinful human nature.

Psalm 51:5 - we are conceived in the iniquity of sin. This shows the necessity of baptism from conception.

Matt. 18:2-5 - Jesus says unless we become like children, we cannot enter into heaven. So why would children be excluded from baptism?

Matt 19:14 - Jesus clearly says the kingdom of heaven also belongs to children. There is no age limit on entering the kingdom, and no age limit for being eligible for baptism.

Mark 10:14 - Jesus says to let the children come to Him for the kingdom of God also belongs to them. Jesus says nothing about being too young to come into the kingdom of God.

Mark 16:16 - Jesus says to the crowd, "He who believes and is baptized will be saved." But in reference to the same people, Jesus immediately follows with "He who does not believe will be condemned." This demonstrates that one can be baptized and still not be a believer. This disproves the Protestant argument that one must be a believer to be baptized. There is nothing in the Bible about a "believer's baptism."

Luke 18:15 – Jesus says, “Let the children come to me.” The people brought infants to Jesus that he might touch them. This demonstrates that the receipt of grace is not dependent upon the age of reason.

Acts 2:38 - Peter says to the multitude, "Repent and be baptized.." Protestants use this verse to prove one must be a believer (not an infant) to be baptized. But the Greek translation literally says, "If you repent, then each one who is a part of you and yours must each be baptized” (“Metanoesate kai bapistheto hekastos hymon.”) This, contrary to what Protestants argue, actually proves that babies are baptized based on their parents’ faith. This is confirmed in the next verse.

Acts 2:39 - Peter then says baptism is specifically given to children as well as adults. “Those far off” refers to those who were at their “homes” (primarily infants and children). God's covenant family includes children. The word "children" that Peter used comes from the Greek word "teknon" which also includes infants.

Answer 8

No it doesn't say that. It says that must a person must believe AND be baptized. It does not say believe AND THEN be baptized. What ever denomination you are probably thinks that they do it the "biblical" way, but in reality the mode and timing of baptism is really not defined concretely in the NT.


God bless ya!

Answer 9

...nor does the Bible say anything about NOT baptizing babies. If you believe in convenant theology, then baptism is simply a replacement (same concept though) for circumcision in the Old Testament, where babies were circumcised, rather than a profession of faith. The Jews would have understood any explanation of baptism to include infants, and they were not corrected.

Answer 10

What do you mean it says nothing of this in the Bible? What do you think "prevent not the children from coming unto me" means? Why do you think Jesus' protection is so bad? What you say the Bible says about baptism is just not in there, you should read it for yourself rather than listen to some junk someone tells you.