| Believer's Baptism |
Infant Sprinkling |
| Believer's baptism is commanded - Matt. |
Infant sprinkling has not a single command. |
| Believer's baptism has examples. |
Infant sprinkling has no example. |
| Believer's baptism is from heaven - Matt. 21 |
Infant sprinkling is from men. |
| Believer's baptism is the counsel of God. |
Infant sprinkling has the counsel of men. |
| Believer's baptism has been sealed from heaven. |
Infant sprinkling never was sealed of God. |
| In believer's baptism the person submits in acts of obedience to
the gospel. |
Infant sprinkling the infant put forth no acts of obedience to the
gospel, but to men. |
| Believers are buried with Christ by baptism - Rom. 6:4 |
Infants are not buried, but only sprinkled. |
| All believers that are baptized are thereby brought into Christ -
Gal. 3:27. |
Infants are not thus brought into Christ. |
| All believers baptized receive the remission of sins. - Acts
2:37,38 |
Infants do not receive remission of sins. They have no sins to be
remitted. |
| God has promised that all who believe and are baptized shall be
saved - Mk. 16:16 |
God has not promised that all sprinkled infants shall be saved. |
| Believers rejoice when they are baptized - Acts 8:37; 16:34 |
Infants cannot rejoice. |
| All the world may undeniably affirm that believers were baptized
by the Apostles - Acts 8:12 |
But none can affirm that any infant was sprinkled by the apostles. |
| Those who practice infant sprinkling are compelled to confess
believer's baptism. |
But all baptized believers do not acknowledge, but deny infant
baptism. |
| All baptized believers are living stones, fit for God's building - 1
Pet. 2:5 |
But all sprinkled infants are not living stones, fit for God's
building. |
| Baptized believers build on Christ by their own faith. |
Sprinkled infants are built on the faith of others. |
| They that receive Christ upon their own faith, shall never perish -
Jn. 10:28 |
But such as are sprinkled upon another's faith, have no such
assurance. |
| Baptized believers know Christ to be precious - 2 Pet. 2:7 |
Sprinkled infants have no such knowledge |
| Baptized believers love Christ and keep his commandments - Jn.
14:15 |
Sprinkled infants do not love Christ nor keep his commandments,
for they are incapable. |
| Baptized believers may repel Satan as Christ did, saying, "It is
written, They believed and were baptized." |
But infant sprinklers cannot say, 'It is written, Infants were
baptized;' for it is not written. |
The foregoing contrast is enough, I would think, to convince every mind, which is not so shackled and trammeled by prejudice,
prepossession, and parental education, as to be rendered invulnerable to the truth, though strongly enforced by the infallible word of
God, reason, and every thing that merits the name of evidence. But the time is evidently near at hand, when, I awfully fear, they will
lament their folly. I tremble when I consider the near approach of the time when every thing of human policy, invented in place of the
pure religion of Jesus Christ, must be lost in one universal wreck of irreparable ruin. My apprehensions proportionably increase as I
view (as to me appears evident), that by far the greater part of the world is in an unprepared state; nay, the greater part of professors of
Christianity, are not prepared to say, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly"; nor the societies, to which they belong, ready to respond,
"Amen; come, Lord Jesus" (Reprinted from Millennial Harbinger, IV, XI, [Nov. 1833]: 547-548).
Guardian of Truth XXXVI: 7, p. 197
April 2, 1992
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