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| Q: | A recent question in this forum asked: "Is the Word effective despite language differences?". In the response was stated: "If we cannot understand the language in which God's Word is being proclaimed, that proclamation is meaningless for us." Why do Lutherans believe baptism is any different? Infants do not understand what is happening in baptism, yet Lutherans believe it is effective for them. After all, isn't the power of baptism in the Word? Luther states: "It is certainly not the water that does such things, but God's Word which is in and with the water, and faith which trusts this Word used with the water." Also, should we not bother exposing infants to God's Word until will can be somewhat certain that they are beginning to understand the language in which it is spoken? | ||||||
| A: | The Bible teaches that we are to proclaim God’s Word in a language that people can understand (1 Corinthians 14:6-11). We therefore follow God’s command and strive to proclaim the gospel in the language of the people we are addressing. The Bible also tells us that the Holy Spirit works through baptism when we apply water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Titus 3:4-7). The Bible does not tell us how the Holy Spirit does this. It merely tells us that he does and commands us to baptize. We therefore baptize babies because (1) they are included in the “all nations” of the great commission (Matthew 28:19, see also Acts 2:38-39); (2) they are conceived and born in sin and need to be born again (Psalm 51:5, John 3:5-6); (3) the Bible says that they can believe (Mark 9:42, Luke 18:15-17); (4) the Holy Spirit works faith through baptism (Titus 3:4-7, John 3:5-6, Acts 2:38-39). We trust that the Holy Spirit works according to his promise even though we do not know how he accomplishes his purpose. You, however, are making an assumption about what babies can or cannot understand. We do not know what they can understand because they cannot speak to us. We do know that they have an amazing ability to learn language (in fact, any language spoken by the people around them and even more than one language at a time) that surpasses the ability of most adults. My son understood many things and could indicate that understanding by correctly pointing to someone or something or doing what we asked him long before he was able to talk. | ||||||
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