When Should One Be Baptized?

Richard Hollerman

Just the last few days I was drawn to this question. The young boy (and the subject could very well also be a girl) was one of about 13. Was this boy of a proper age to be baptized? As it turned out, the boy had gone through the popular “sinner’s prayer” view but if he had not, then the question arises, when should anyone be baptized?

[We are referring here to the age of baptism and not to the time of day that one is baptized!)

Over the years, for perhaps the last 1900 years, this has been a burning question with various answers given. In our research recently, we note that some articles warn again anyone being “re-baptized” for any reason. Granted, this may be an extreme reaction but there are millions of people (following many pastors and priests) who would heed this sort of warning and refuse to be “re-baptized.”

For example, we might go to the so-called “Anabaptists” of the 16th century (the 1500s) when opponents said that these earnest devotees were “rebaptizing” people. Thus was so opposed that thousands were either burned to death or drowned after imprisonment by the Catholics, the Lutherans, and even by the Calvinists. When the so-called Anabaptists explained that they could not accept the infant “baptism” of these established groups, thus they were not really “re-baptizing” them but baptizing them for the first time, their reasoning didn’t mean a thing—and many of them were murdered nonetheless.

But we are going ahead of our main theme here. The question has to do with when a young person should be “baptized” for the first time or at any time. This was answered in the third century by those who claimed that there was a “taint” of sin on a child that needed to be washed away as early as possible. Thus, Cyprian (who has been called “the first catholic” by some), living about 250 AD, was embroiled in a debate with other North African leaders. Some claimed that a baby should be “baptized” when about 3 days old (similar to the OT circumcision in which Moses stipulated 7 days) while others insisted on somewhat older—perhaps a few days older. As it turned out, both schools or thought were totally wrong for a baby cannot exercise saving faith.

Augustine went further (AD 354-430) when he thought, taught, and wrote that one needed to “baptize” a baby as early as possible to keep the child from going to hell. The favorite verses in the third, fourth, and fifteen centuries (and maybe later) was John 3:5. Jesus declared, “. . . unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Although baptism is not specified here the verse was constantly used to prove that a baby needed to be baptized to be saved and enter God’s kingdom. It probably is true that the verse does refer to a spiritual rebirth that involved in water (literal water), especially because of the context that emphasizes faith (vv. 14-18, 36), we must observe that the verse must not at all refer to baby baptism since a baby cannot have saving faith (contrary to the false doctrine of Martin Luther who taught infant “faith”).

Infant baptism was thus emphasized from the fifth century and later, even after Augustine’s false doctrine was past. The Catholic Church taught that a person would go to (1) heaven, or (2) hell, or (3) limbo (where unbaptized babies where thought to go), or (4) purgatory (where most were thought to go to “purge” the sins that had been confessed but were not totally forgiven during a person’s life.

All of this was false, of course, with Luther also emphasizing infant “baptism” (which was not really a “baptism” since a baby can neither exercise faith, cannot repent, and is not immerses—the meaning of baptism). After Luther, it has been pointed out that Luther’s younger contemporary in Zurich, Switzerland, Huldreth Zwingli, was perhaps the first to teach or at least emphasize a “faith only” view. Especially in the 1800s and 1900s we find the “sinner’s prayer” taught. This was contrary to Scripture that emphasized the need for a genuine faith and an authentic repentance (and confession of Christ) at the time that the subject was baptized. (By baptism, we mean an immersion in water.).

You may say that all of this background is interesting but it doesn’t really deal with the “meat” of our concern here. When should a boy or girl be “baptized”? At what age? Those of you who know your Bibles realize that God gives no precise age at which a youngster should be baptized. If we conclude that a subject must have true faith in Christ, must repent of his or her past life of sin, and must confess Jesus as Lord, the question arises, when must such a person be baptized?

Some may say as early as five or six. Others may say sixteen or seventeen. At one place where I worked, a woman was overjoyed that her grandson had been “baptized” at age 3! And we understand that some wait until the youth is perhaps eighteen (to make sure that he or she knows what the youth is doing. Jews would practice a “bar-mitzpa” (son of the commandment), a ceremony for the son about age 12. Contemporay Jews have also a “bar-    “ for girls about age 13. But this would be somewhat arbitrary and ritualistic. We are concerned about the need for baptism among young people who recognize their need for Christ and His salvation. When would this be? Would this be at age 10, or 11, or 12, or at some other time?

We cannot give an authoritative answer to this question since Scripture seems to give no answer. We must speak in what some may think is rather vague terms. The young person seems to be old enough to come to Christ if he or she recognizes that sin has become real, that Jesus is the way that He and NT writers claimed that He was, and that he or she is prepared to live totally and completely for God and His will. We have numerous articles on this website that would explore the meaning of all of this and we encourage you to consult these for answers.

Thus, we must proceed into this very important topic with must care. There are a few articles about being “re-baptized” and this is a possibility if you think that you did not know the meaning of baptism when you were lowered into the water. Although some may discourage this, we would say that there definitely is a place for one to be baptized again of he or she did not fully understand the meaning that Scripture attaches to this act.

We must discard the popular but, regretfully, wrong view of the so-called “sinner’s prayer” that has been the background for thousands (and surely millions) to think that salvation has been granted. Let us go back to Scripture itself and seek to learn what people at the time of Christ and the apostles did to be saved, to be born again, or to be forgiven. This is the safe way. This is the right way.