Is this infant unbaptiseable?

[shelly]

Would any of you baptise an infant of people who weren't members or even attended your church?

What if they used to attend, but never joined and then ended up attending/joining a credo church? In other words you know them, they aren't just strangers off the street wanting their infant baptised.

What if they came with a recommendation in hand concerning their profession and life and wanted their infant baptised?

What about a paedo going/joining a credo church but wanting to take their infant to be baptised in a paedo church. That would be a bit difficult, wouldn't it. Would you who are credo pastors have a problem with it? Would you give them a recommendation? Would you attend the baptism as a representative of your church?

If no one would baptise this infant; then all that's left is the father, which I think is fine anyway. Y'all take RC baptisms so there shouldn't be a prob with a father's baptism of his own infant, right?

Or is this all just too weird? That would be where we are except we don't have an infant. If we did we would be asking these questions of some pastors in person.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

What "church" will this child be a member of?

I think that is the essential question. If the parents belong to a baptist church, that church isn't going to put this child on their roll, just because I baptized him. They don't recognize the baptism. I can't put him on MY church's roll, because his parents don't belong here, and don't bring him here for nurture. How will I keep track of "my" lamb?

My father baptized my daughter in his church, because he knew that child was going straight onto the rolls of the church in which I served at that time.

Baptism is a church-act. The whole thing will probably sound different to a baptist's ear, but its how we paedobaptists understand it. This is not an act that is all about an individual--all about his singular, individual act of discipleship that the church is supposed to validate. It is about God making a statement: about claiming someone, and about his oath to save everyone who believes in him.

Any other answer I would give to a particular set of circumstances would be related to the facts I have already presented.

 

[Ginny Dohms]

Regarding who is to baptize, the Westminster Confession of Faith states:

WCF XXVIII:2. Proper Element and Formula

The outward element to be used in this sacrament is water, wherewith the party is to be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, by a minister of the gospel, lawfully called thereunto .

 

[Contra_Mundum]

I missed that part of the question, thanks Ginny.

The answer you provided dovetails with the rest of my post. Water baptism is to attach a person to the visible church. No private person has any authority to perform an act that is an official church-function. There is no special benefit to a person (or his parents) to get wet, if it is not to admit that person to the visible church.

 

[Zenas]

If no one would baptise this infant; then all that's left is the father, which I think is fine anyway. Y'all take RC baptisms so there shouldn't be a prob with a father's baptism of his own infant, right?

He doesn't have the authority to do this, unless he happens to be an elder of the church.