On Baptism
(Butzer) Repeated what the argument was about and since Jorg claimed the sacraments were misused and specifically baptism, he said: we ask of you, since you blame us for abuse, that you point out the abuse to us.
Jörg: You misuse baptism, because the teaching of the gospel is that men are first to be convicted of their sin, afterwards they are incorporated in the fellowship of the holy church; which [ordinance] you let fall when you baptize infants.
Butzer: We say, the ordinance is as he says when the adults are dealt with, but with the children there is another order. In the Old Testament God had his covenant with Abraham and gave him thereby the seal, circumcision, and promised him thereby he would be a gracious God to him and his seed. Now Christ has wrought a covenant for us heathen who believe on Him and God will also be the God of our children and even so will have the sacrament of the rebirth, which baptism is for us, just as circumcision was in the Old (Covenant), confessed in his church.
Jörg: I hold to the text: “Go forth and preach.” Now faith comes from hearing; the children can’t hear, etc.
(Butzer) Asked if he believed that the children would be saved.
(Jörg) He had the text: “Let the children come unto me,” etc. (Matt. 19:14). With that he would let it be settled.
(Butzer) When he acknowledged that the children were saved and yet said the children couldn’t hear, he contradicted himself, for they also use the Word at the end of Mark, how the Lord said (Mark 16:15-16): “Preach the gospel to every creature, whoever believes and is baptized, the same shall be saved.” For there follows immediately: “Whoever doesn’t believe,” namely who have heard the gospel, “he will be damned”; because then the children don’t hear, as Jörg says, they must then be damned, where this ordinance of the Lord also applies to the children.
Jörg: We find nothing in any apostolic act except that they have acted first in repentance. The children have no understanding; therefore they cannot repent.
Butzer: At the end of Mark Christ established an ordinance, how the adults should be dealt with. But the Lord saves our children also, as Jorg himself acknowledges, and accordingly, as soon as the adults give themselves to him he takes up their children also in his covenant of grace. Like a prince, when he grants someone a patent of nobility, he takes up also the children and all the succession with it. Genesis 17:7, “I will be God to thee and thy seed; thereby He is also the God of our children. For when the adults are accepted the children are also accepted. We must regard the Bible as to what baptism and the covenant of the Lord may be. Now whoever would say there shall be no woman at the sacrament because no woman was there then when the Lord first held it, he would be doing wrong; yet one couldn’t display a single clear word by which the Lord declares it or gives an example according to which women should also participate in the holy sacrament. But since one understands the nature of the sacrament, it is easy to see that this sacrament shall also be administered to the women, for they also belong to the community of Christ as believers. Thus God now calls the children to salvation and will have the same publicly demonstrated as by the adults in the sacrament of rebirth; and Christ certainly affords all the gift and the evidence of grace which the adults have had; whoever then understands the manner of the sacrament will not exclude the children; even if one could dispute whether the apostles baptized whole households to the last detail and we had moreover no express command: Baptize children!
Jörg: Since then the ordinance of the apostles isn’t to be kept, baptize the children and let it stay that way, teach no repentance and improvement.
Butzer: It was the ordinance of the apostles to baptize according to the ordinance which Jorg cited, but the children according to the ordinance of circumcision; and when the children are grown they are to be catechized faithfully and taught to maintain everything which the Lord has commanded.
Jörg: It is clearly written to circumcise the children, but not this.
Butzer asked if we should abandon what we have no express command for, such as giving the sacrament to women.
Jörg answered: No, one would do wrong not to administer it to them.
(Butzer) [asked] whether we did wrong to celebrate Sunday.
Jörg: No.
(Butzer) Then he shouldn’t condemn the case of infant baptism either, even if there is no clear command so that one has good basis in Scriptures. The apostles proclaimed the services on the Sabbath and sinned not, even though there was a clear word against them: “Thou shalt do no work on the Sabbath day.” Thus Christ acknowledged the resurrection of the dead without an express word which proclaimed the resurrection of the dead. When Christ enlarged his covenant of grace with the heathen, how should we then exclude the children? How do we surpass in that the Word of God, how do we go beyond [the rule of] love?
Jörg: I will hold to that, where I’m certain that the apostles have baptized the repentant and let go where I’m uncertain.
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