A Question We Are Often Asked
Believer's Baptism
vs. Infant Baptism
A question we are often asked — especially by visitors arriving from Presbyterian, Reformed, or Lutheran backgrounds — is why Pray’s Mill, as a confessionally Reformed congregation, practices believer’s baptism rather than infant baptism. The Reformed Baptists and our Presbyterian brothers and sisters share a great deal: the doctrines of grace, the regulative principle of worship, covenant theology in its broad outlines, and the Reformed confessional tradition. But on this one practice we part ways.
This article is a brief, plain-English explanation of why. It is not exhaustive; for that, see chapter 29 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith and any of the resources in our recommended reading list. It is also not polemical — we hold our Presbyterian brethren in deep affection. We simply disagree, and our reasons matter.
Where We Agree
The Bible is one story of one covenant of grace.
Reformed Baptists and Presbyterians both reject the notion that the Old Testament is one religion and the New Testament a different one. We both read Scripture as one unfolding story of redemption, structured by God’s covenants with his people. We both confess that there is one covenant of grace, administered differently across redemptive history but always anchored in the promised seed, Jesus Christ. We both administer two ordinances given by Christ: baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Where we differ is on the membership and sign of the new covenant. And the difference is consequential.
The Reformed Baptist Position
The new covenant is made with believers only.
The new covenant, as Jeremiah prophesied and Hebrews quotes, has a striking feature unlike the old: “They shall not teach, every one his neighbor and every one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest” (Jer. 31:34; Heb. 8:11). Every member of the new covenant knows the Lord. Every member has the law written on his heart. Every member has his sins forgiven.
This is the Reformed Baptist conviction in a sentence: the new covenant is made with the regenerate alone. Membership in the visible church — signaled by baptism — should be given to those who profess credible faith in Jesus Christ. Not to infants of believing parents, because the new covenant is not extended on the basis of natural birth. It is extended on the basis of new birth.
This is what is sometimes called 1689 federalism: the structure of covenant theology articulated in the Second London Baptist Confession (chapter 7), which distinguishes between the covenant of grace (which is gradually revealed across all redemptive history) and the new covenant itself (which is made in Christ with the elect). When the new covenant is inaugurated, the sign that marks its members — baptism — is given to those who actually belong to it: believers.
Why Not Infants?
The Bible never commands or models it.
The Presbyterian argument for infant baptism rests primarily on the continuity of the covenant sign: as circumcision was applied to the male children of Old Testament Israel, so baptism (the New Testament sign of covenant membership) should be applied to the children of believers. It is an honest argument, and we respect it.
But we do not find it in the New Testament. The New Testament records baptisms by the hundreds and thousands — and never once an infant. The Great Commission charges the church to make disciples, baptizing them (Matt. 28:19) — disciples are baptized, not non-disciples. The household baptisms in Acts (the Philippian jailer, Lydia, Cornelius) are recorded as gatherings of those who “heard the word and believed.” The sign of the covenant has been redefined in Christ. It is now the sign of new birth, not of natural descent.
What This Means for Visitors
You are welcome here.
If you come to Pray’s Mill from a Presbyterian or pedo-baptist background — you are welcome. You may visit, sit under the Word, ask questions, and learn from us as we learn from you. We are not interested in winning an argument. We are interested in the truth, and we believe Scripture’s pattern is best honored by the baptism of believers.
If you are considering covenant membership at PMBC and were baptized as an infant, our pastors would be glad to walk through the question with you carefully and pastorally. Many of our members were once paedobaptists. There is no hurry, and there are no shortcuts: the goal is to be obedient to Christ in his ordinance.