We baptize infants because baptism isn’t a personal decision, it’s being born into the Church. Just as you didn’t choose to be born into your family, infants don’t choose baptism. They receive it.
This sounds strange to most folks in Southeast Texas. If you grew up Baptist or at one of the big non-denominational churches, you learned that baptism follows a conscious decision to accept Jesus. You walked the aisle, you prayed the prayer, you got baptized at summer camp or during a Sunday evening service. Baptism was your public declaration of a private choice.
Orthodoxy sees it differently. Baptism isn’t our work. It’s God’s.
What Baptism Actually Does
When we baptize an infant, something real happens. The child dies and rises with Christ. The Holy Spirit comes upon them in chrismation (what Western Christians call confirmation). They receive Holy Communion for the first time. All three happen together, usually when the baby is about forty days old.
This isn’t symbolic. We don’t baptize infants as a nice gesture we’ll validate later when they’re old enough to “really” believe. The child becomes a full member of the Church that day. They commune at the chalice every Sunday afterward. A six-month-old and a sixty-year-old receive the same Body and Blood of Christ.
The Church has done this from the beginning. St. Irenaeus in the second century wrote that the Church “gives baptism even to infants.” Origen said the Church received this practice from the Apostles themselves. The Apostolic Tradition, written around 215 AD, gives detailed instructions for baptizing “the little ones” and notes that if they can’t speak for themselves, their parents or godparents speak for them.
But What About Faith?
Here’s where it gets interesting. We don’t deny that personal faith matters. Of course it does. But we don’t think faith is something you manufacture and then bring to God as your contribution to salvation. Faith is a gift. It grows. Infants receive baptism the same way they receive everything else, as a gift they can’t earn or understand yet.
Think about circumcision in the Old Testament. Abraham circumcised Isaac when he was eight days old. Isaac didn’t choose it. He didn’t understand it. But it made him a member of God’s covenant people. When St. Paul calls baptism the new circumcision in Colossians 2, he’s making exactly this point. Baptism brings us into the new covenant the way circumcision brought people into the old one.
The book of Acts mentions household baptisms several times. When Lydia believed, her whole household was baptized. Same with the Philippian jailer. In the ancient world, “household” included children and infants. The Apostles didn’t line up the family members and ask each one to make a personal decision first. The household came in together.
The Role of Godparents
This is where godparents come in. They’re not just people who send birthday cards and Christmas presents. Godparents make the baptismal promises on behalf of the child. They renounce Satan. They confess the Creed. They promise to help raise this child in the Orthodox faith.
It’s a serious responsibility. That’s why godparents need to be Orthodox Christians themselves, active in the Church, ready to actually do the work. When your cousin who hasn’t been to church in ten years asks to be a godparent because it would be “special,” the answer is no. This isn’t about sentiment. It’s about spiritual parenthood.
The child will grow up. They’ll face their own struggles and doubts. They’ll have to choose, again and again, to live as an Orthodox Christian. Baptism doesn’t remove free will. But it does give them a head start. They grow up knowing the smell of incense, the taste of the Eucharist, the rhythm of the Church year. They’re not starting from scratch at age twelve or twenty-five, trying to figure out if they want to be Christian. They’re already in. Now they’re learning to live into what they already are.
What We Believe Happens
Baptism isn’t insurance against hell. It’s not a magical guarantee. The Orthodox Church has never taught that baptized babies automatically go to heaven while unbaptized ones automatically go to hell. We’re not that mechanical about salvation. We trust God’s mercy, especially for infants who die without baptism through no fault of their own.
But we do believe baptism is necessary. Jesus said you must be born of water and Spirit to enter the Kingdom. We take Him at His word. Why would we withhold that from our children? Why would we wait until they’re old enough to “decide for themselves” when we can give them the grace of baptism now?
Some people worry this makes baptism meaningless. If the baby doesn’t choose it, doesn’t understand it, can’t even remember it, what’s the point? But that’s exactly the point. Salvation isn’t about what we bring to the table. It’s about what God gives. An infant’s baptism shows that more clearly than anything else. The baby contributes nothing. God does everything. That’s how salvation works for all of us.
If you’re an inquirer coming from a Baptist background, this might be the hardest thing to wrap your mind around. You’ve been taught that salvation is a decision you make. We’re saying it’s a life you’re born into. Both involve choice eventually. But we start with grace, not decision. We start with God’s action, not ours.
Come to a baptism at St. Michael’s sometime. Watch the priest carry that baby down into the water three times. Watch the chrismation, the white garment, the candle, the first communion. You’ll see a beginning, not an ending. You’ll see the Church receiving a new member who’ll spend the rest of their life learning what it means to be Orthodox. Just like the rest of us.
