Conflicted about (Infant) Baptism

Three years ago we were in Richmond, VA, and Davis was born. We were in a great Presbyterian church (shout out to West End Pres folks) and even though we weren't totally sure about the infant baptism thing, we felt like we could submit to the church and we were glad to have our son baptized.

Then we moved and had Zoe. The church we initially attended here in Durham/Chapel Hill was a Bible church and wouldn't do infant baptism. So here we had a quandry: if we had our druthers, we would prefer neither to be baptized as infants, but if we had one kid baptized, we certainly didn't want to have the other kid to not be.

So when we moved to All Saints Anglican, one perk was that our daughter would be baptized. So this past weekend Zoe turned one on Saturday and she was baptized on Sunday. It was a big weekend for our little girl.

I am still a bit conflicted about infant baptism. On the one hand, you've got the weight of European church history in favor of infant baptism. This was the primary mode of operation of the church for 1500 years or so. In the Presbyterian tradition, infant baptism is built around the idea that baptism is the sign of the covenant that replaces circumcision. So we baptize now to indicate that there is special favor on children who are born into God's family. There is a covenant community, it' s no longer ethnic Israel but God's church. To be born into that covenant community is a particular blessing and a particular opportunity.

On the other hand, currently you've got the largest population of Christians in the 2/3 majority world who don't know anything about covenant theology. All they know is Jesus, Spirit, Scripture and baptism--and for much of that world it's baptism as adults.

Isn't part of the whole move from OT to NT that God's work is no longer about an ethnic group but now available to all, and now all are fully responsible to respond and receive it? Or is that an overly-individualistic, Western way of thinking about faith and community and family that would be completely foreign to the writers of the Scriptures?

At any rate, we've got two kids who have been fully sprinkled. I do believe that God is already at work in them to communicate His love and grace to them. I believe He's using my wife and I to do that. I believe that He's doing that by other means, as well. Ultimately there will come a time when Davis and Zoe must respond to that work of grace for themselves. And regardless of whether that's simply them "realizing their baptism" or "receiving Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior" for the first time, it'll be a big day, worthy of great celebration, indeed.