Does my baptism when I was a baby count?

Typically when someone has a baby, people will very soon start asking “when’s the christening” or baby baptism. Some will also ask if you’ve chosen your babies godparents yet, these people normally want the position themselves.

For most there is no question about the Christening of their child, it’s an absolute must. What I find amazing quite often none of these people has ever been to church and some point-blank denies the existence of God.

Still, they don’t mind standing up in church making vows on behalf of themselves and the baby, they will select godparents for the child who quite openly claim not to be Christian but that’s ok because he/she is their family or friend.

There are also those that will get their child christened into a particular faith because they have planned to get their child into one of the best performing schools which just happens to be a religious one. Quite often the conspiracy for this deception has had years of planning.

They will even go to the extent of going to church for a period of time just to keep up the façade and tell all manner of lies to achieve their goal.

Then there are those that are Christian but for some reason believe that by having their baby christened or baptised they are securing their child’s place in heaven. Someone has either deceived them or they are just following tradition.

Making Vows before God

Most of the churches that will carry out these baby baptisms will require the parents to attend church. Some will require the parents to take a course, to understand what their vows mean. Parents should know what part they play to live up to the vows. Some unbelieving parents will go through all of this to have their baby baptised or christened.

Also, godparents who quite often don’t believe in God (how ridiculous is that) will make vows saying that they will help to bring the child up to follow Christ. It seems like it’s a status symbol of some sort, for someone to say “that’s my god-daughter or my god-son.

The vows are also made to the baby but answered by the parents. This is because the baby is obviously too young to understand what’s going on. Which brings me to my answer to the question:

“Does Baby Baptism Count”?

The easy answer to this question is “No”. As a baby, you didn’t believe or make a decision to serve the Lord. The misconception held by your parents was when you were christened your place in heaven was secured.

There is no baby baptism in the bible although some people will like you to believe that there are. They point you to scripture where it talks about whole households being baptised. These don’t mention babies so at best they can only say there may have been babies in the household but as well there may not.

My advice is, if you were baptised or christened as a baby you should now make a decision for Christ. Base it on your own belief, then you should (1) Repent (2) Be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins (3) Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

A Christian’s job is to bring up their children in the knowledge of God and the bible. Pray continually for your child to follow Christ and live according to the word of God.

The Bible says in Proverbs 22:6:

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”.

So if you’ve brought your child up in the right way even though they may lose their way for a time they will find their way back and serve the Lord.

Written by

Pastor Donovan Benjamin