Why do Catholics baptize their babies...?

Question

when babies are without sin?

Answer 1

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 2

Roman Catholicism was the first denomination to honor ritualistic Baptism, and for many centuries, no Christian even 'thought' to wait to Baptize a child until Zwingli came around... 600 years later, the Baptist church was formed and they decided that they were against Baptizing an infant, despite the fact that Baptism was originally a Roman Catholic tradition that they chose to include in their religion and then bash Catholics from doing what was done from the start... It doesn't make sense to me, as that is similar to (random example) someone repainting Mona Lisa and saying that Leonardo da Vinci's original version is 'wrong,' and then bash on his original painting.

"Martyrdom was identified early in Church history as 'baptism by blood', enabling martyrs who had not been baptized by water to be saved. Later, the Catholic Church identified a baptism of desire, by which those preparing for baptism who die before actually receiving the sacrament are considered saved. As evidenced also in the common Christian practice of infant baptism, baptism was universally seen by Christians as in some sense necessary for salvation, until Huldrych Zwingli in the 16th century denied its necessity."

Answer 3

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RE:
Why do Catholics baptize their babies...?
when babies are without sin?

Answer 4

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that salvation is by baptismal regeneration and is maintained through the Catholic sacraments unless a willful act of sin is committed that breaks the state of sanctifying grace. The Bible teaches that we are saved by grace which is received through simple faith (Ephesians 2:8-9), and that good works are the result of a change of the heart wrought in salvation (Ephesians 2:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17) and the fruit of that new life in Christ (John 15).

Answer 5

Catholics baptize and Christians dedicate their babies both for the same reason ... they are accepting responsibility to train them up in the faith. Christians get baptized when they are old enough to choose the Lord themselves.

Answer 6

Us Catholics baptize babies to rid them of their original sin from Adam and Eve and to initiate them into the church. Yes, we know babies haven't sinned yet, and don't believe in limbo. It's more to show that the parents choose to raise them Catholic.
We choose to be part of the church ourselves at Confirmation.

Oh, and about the sprinkling and dunking water thing: you can choose to have your child dunked if you feel that for some reason it isn't "baptism" them. Just an FYI, we don't force u to be sprinkled with water.

Answer 7

Catholic Baby Baptism

Answer 8

Catholics, and most orthodox Christians, ascribe to a belief called "original sin" which identifies sin as being a condition that humanity is born into, rather than simply understanding sin as a conscious and willful act. For this reason, and others, infants are baptized by not only Catholics, but most Christians. Further, Catholics understand Sacraments as efficacious in themselves, rather than a kind of decision one is making about their life. In terms of this belief, God's grace is imparted not because the human subject agrees to it, or even is fully conscious of what the sacrament is, but because God uses the sacraments as a means to impart the grace of a relationship with him to the world.

Answer 9

The idea is that we are all born with original sin -- inherited from Adam and Eve, as I understand it -- and so baptism in infancy prevents these children from ending up in limbo. Neither here nor there. Basically, it labels them Catholics while they are still tiny, and commits their parents and godparents to bringing them up as Catholics.

Answer 10

I'm still looking for Scripture proof that identifies babies as deserving of heaven...

Both Catholicism and Arminianism believe that hell can be avoided - one through physical means of baptism imparting grace, the other through a denial of the existence of original sin.