One of the last things I did in my effort not to jump my theological ship rashly was to call on my theologically minded pastor to come convince me I was headed in the wrong direction. I asked if there was a book I could read to persuade me back to the baptist position. I bring this up because the book he gave me used today’s exact argument amongst several others. It argued: Jesus says to “make disciples, and baptize them” so therefore – we cannot baptize babies because they cannot be disciples.

Today I would treat the answer completely differently than I did as a college student. Today I would say – So what? Converted disciples have baby disciples. I believe the point is made easily this way:

• God was automatically the God of children born to believers: I will be God to you and to your descendants after you, (Gen 17); the promise is for you and your children (Acts 2).
• This covenant was possible in tangible reality, not just in wishful thinking, because God normatively extends the gift of faith to the infants of the church: You made me trust you at my mother’s breasts…and from my mother’s womb you have been my God, (Ps 22).
• The nascent faith of babies grows into the intellectual faith of toddlers: This is why we are commanded to teach diligently to our children that “Yhwh is OUR God…” and that “You shall love Yhwh YOUR God with all your heart…” (Dt 6).

It said to teach them what is already true about them. Not teach them until they convert. But teach them that God has been their God, and let them sing it out – first as joyful noise in church (Ps 8), and later as a confession about God’s sovereign gift to a baby (Ps 71 and 22).

I had throughout my young Christian years remarked that there was no conversion into God’s religion for children born into the covenant in the Old Testament:

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Welcome back, my friends! When we last talked, we had outlined a list of arguments I personally used to use against infant baptism [LINK TO PREVIOUS]. As I had begun to question the possibility that infant baptism was correct, I had to address these exact items. These are not straw men. These are the kind of arguments that intelligent and godly men do employ. I am writing about them because I changed my mind about them after vigorously using them for a long time.

So I am not insulting you if you have said the same; I am not mocking you if you don’t agree with me. What I will say for my infant baptism view is that the doctrines of including children in the covenant have brought me endless joy since I came to see each one of these doctrines as true, convinced by scripture. This is why I hope to share such joy with others.

So today’s goal is to address the concept of baptism as full immersion:

My first memory of being taught an argument against infant baptism was an argument against sprinkling and pouring. It went like this: The Greek term for baptism, the word we get “baptism” from, is baptizo. Baptizo means “total immersion under water” and therefore sprinkling and pouring are NOT baptism because they are not full immersion. Furthermore, we are said to be buried with Christ in baptism, and only immersion pictures this – not sprinkling, and not pouring. Since baptism is by immersion only, infant baptism is false. That is the argument.

This counter-argument is fairly simple, and thankfully is unsophisticated:

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Now for something different: an album that might not be for everyone, as it is mainly “ambient music.” But if background music with great content is your cup of tea, then I hope you love this music as much as I do. David Baloche’s 2017 album “Labyrinth” is all scripture, and it is aimed at troubled minds and souls who need the reminder of God’s word to comfort them. Videos are posted below for quick experience of the music, but I urge you to listen long enough to hear the words, usually a minute into each song.

I don’t know a ton about David Baloche – as he doesn’t have a very large musical corpus online, and he is not overtly connected to other musicians I follow. I do know he is the son of famous worship leader singer/songwriter Paul Baloche. Also, I know that the album cover is cool. I mean, look at it! I also know that if you need music in the background that fills your mind with the grace of God’s word – this is a good place to start. I have enjoyed this album for a couple of years and come back to it regularly.

I am posting here the links to YouTube videos for each song, and the text of the songs. I am benefiting from the annotation work done and presented in the following videos:

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All throughout college I worked to convince various people that baptizing babies was wrong. But my hometown Sunday-school friends had gone off to different universities, and they were swimming in uncharted waters. That is, they were all now connected to Reformed University Fellowship, a Presbyterian college ministry. The only girl from my Sunday-school (the one girl in my tight-knit group of friends) was now eyeing engagement to a Presbyterian young man she had gotten to know. The back-home boys were alarmed. We started working overtime to keep her from the shipwreck of believing in infant baptism. We couldn’t let her drown in their depths, confused about something so obvious.

Then the unthinkable happened.

My best guy friend got sucked into the whirlpool. Casey had become a paedobaptist while trying to defeat paedobaptism questions from Karen. I was devastated and went into a panic mode. I shunned entertainment. I locked myself into my dorm room for two weeks and did nothing but read about baptism any time I wasn’t required elsewhere. I got on the phone about it. I emailed strangers about it, seeking information. I called in pastoral counsel about it. I was determined to know why Casey had deserted me. I read baptist books, and I read paedobaptist books. And finally, after two weeks, I unlocked the door and re-emerged… settled. Resigned. Convinced. I had changed my mind. I now believed in infant baptism.

But the story didn’t end there:

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“Prophesize” is not a word. No matter how many tv shows and movies illiterately declare that some religious leader “prophesized to the faithful,” real Bible readers have never seen or heard that word. But just because we can spell prophesy does not mean we understand the prophets. Very few have a real handle on the biblical role of a prophet. Jamie Soles’ super-fun 2007 album, “Fun and Prophets” gives us some superior insight.

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Dads, do you sing to your babies before they are born? Do you talk to them? Current experts tell us to speak to our babies before they are born, and we are told that they recognize our voices when they are born, because they have been hearing it the whole time. What can your babies know about you yet? They know immediately to latch on to Mom. They recline in her arms. They rest and receive. And they know your voice, too. Like sheep who know the voice of their master (John 10.4). Those sheep don’t know how to do logic, but they can find their shepherd. Are children less than sheep? Certainly not!

Last week, I made a big claim that Christians should fully treat their children as Christians. I want to show you that the Bible says such things. In ways both explicit and implicit, scripture says that there is a faithful relationship between Christian-infants and God. We are called on to confess this before God, and we are called to teach it to our children. And we can relax theologically in the rest of knowing that recumbency (lying back in the arms) is the picture God gives to portray faith in the womb.

I want to take time in this post to read through some of that actual Bible material so that it can sound more plausible, and harder to dismiss.

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Last winter, a good friend from church begged me several times to listen to some band called, “Psallos,” eventually prevailing. I regret that I didn’t listen to him sooner. My heart overflows when I hear them. My teenagers now beg me to listen to Psallos.

I started out testing them with their album “Hebrews” and later heard “Jude.” Both albums were exceedingly good musically, but most refreshingly, they were music written by people who adore the word of God.

But it would be really unfair to characterize a Psallos album as a music set that related to the Bible. A Psallos album is more like a movie than a record. It’s a movie for your ears. But not a spoken drama… But not NOT a drama… Each album is a fully-orbed story project with dramatic elements, and frequent switches in styles of music. The feeling of some songs is more serious, others more playful, but there is always respect toward the text of scripture. A Psallos album is a creative project so unusual that you really just have to… well… let me put it this way:

I beg you to listen to Psallos. Pick an album.

Lucky for you, a new album was released last Thursday (October 21, 2021). Their latest offering: “Philippians.”

Let me try my best to convey what happens during the album Philippians –

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