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| Q: | Are the quotes that Baptism "is for you and your children" applicable for a pro-infant-baptism argumentation? How can we be sure that children doesn't mean descendants(some modern bibles translate that way)? Does WELS always reject rebaptism? Also if the first has happened in a different Christian denomination? Even though there is "One baptism, one faith,...." as one faith means the Christian faith and no other, how do we know that one baptism means not simply only the Christian Baptism? | ||||||
| A: | The word used in Acts 2:39 for "children" is the Greek word tekna. In some passages it can mean descendants when the context indicates that the writer or speaker is looking far into the future. But the meaning "descendants" doesn't fit the context of this verse at all. So this passage does indicate that baptism is for children as well as adults. If a WELS pastor knows for sure that a child was baptized by a pastor of another denomination that believes in the Trinity (and that uses Jesus' words exactly as he spoke them in doing baptisms), he ordinarily will not rebaptize the child because the baptism was done as Jesus commands that it be done. | ||||||
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