Position · 200

Infant Baptism

The practice of baptising the infant children of believers, as well as adult converts.

Writers around 200 already mention it, and it became the general practice of the church. Augustine linked it to original sin and the need for grace from birth. Churches give different reasons for it. Catholic and Orthodox churches see it as washing away original sin and giving new birth. Reformed churches see it as the sign of God’s covenant, like circumcision in Israel. Lutherans see it as a means of grace that works faith. It was challenged in the Reformation by those who held to Believer’s Baptism.