Baby Dedications?

Questions?!

So in the title I put a question mark after “baby dedications.” The reason is that this can be a controversial subject. You may be thinking, “how could baby dedication be a controversial subject?” But it comes down to a couple of doctrinal positions. Now, our church has had baby dedications in the past and we will be again this Sunday, so I would like to point out the doctrinal issues that some people would have with having them, and why I think they are permissible and can be helpful.

Dry Baptisms?

The first doctrinal issue that could be raised in regards to baby dedications deals with our understanding of the doctrine of inclusion in the New Covenant. For our Paedobaptist brothers, it would seem as if we are trying to do what they do through the practice of “infant baptism.” Paedo is referring to the practices of baptizing infants or very young children who are not born again believers. The Presbyterian view of infant baptism is that the child of believing parents is baptized in the New Covenant community. The child is therefore a member of the visible church and the New Covenant, even though they are not yet a believer. They would regard this as an act of faith believing that the child will be a believer. They do not believe that baptism makes the child regenerate or "saved," however they do consider the child a “christian” in a strictly outward sense.

So, they would say that we are doing the same thing with baby dedications. However, we are not including our infants or small children in any way into the New Covenant. In distinction, we identify our child as unregenerate until they come to have faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord. This being the case, the child dedication is less about dedicating the child to the Lord and more about the parents and church dedicating themselves to the evangelization and discipleship of these children in the biblical knowledge of the Lord so that they can be saved through the proclamation of the gospel.

So while the practice of child dedications and paedobaptism may have some practical and liturgical similarities, this does not mean that they are related in terms of belief or practice.

Biblical Precedent?

The practice of child dedication as opposed to infant baptism is a relatively recent invention. I am not sure of the origins of the practice, but I am quite certain that it did not exist before the modern period. Which brings us to the other possible controversy. We would say that we want to be obedient to the Bible and conform our worship practices as much as possible to the commands and examples of the New Testament. This is usually referred to as the regulative principle of worship. This principle states that the church should only do those things that scripture instructs us to do in the corporate worship gathering. The opposing principle is the normative principle which states that the church is free to do anything that the scripture doesn’t specifically forbid.

For example, a church practicing the regulative principle probably wouldn’t have plays or skits during the worship service, because there wouldn’t be a positive example of this in the Bible. However, the normative church might include the skit, claiming that there is nothing forbidding such a practice in the Bible. You can see how both churches would understand themselves to be operating according to the Bible but based on different principles. All churches are probably operating on a spectrum, and two churches claiming to use the same regulative principle might still disagree on if something is permissible according to their interpretation of Scripture.

We do not see any New Testament examples of something like child dedication in the Bible. Also, the examples that could be pulled from the Old Testament, such as Samuel, must be interpreted in the unique purpose in which God was working in them. We also must remember that those Old Testament examples were under a system where unbelieving children were included in the (old) covenant people through infant circumcision. Child dedication does not in any way bring the child into the new covenant community in our Baptist view. Maybe it would be best to understand that in the child dedication we are acknowledging the responsibility of the parents and the church to instruct the child in the things of God but this does make the child a member of the church until they become believers.

So why is it ok to do parent/child dedications? The instruction for believing parents to raise their children to follow and honor God and for children to obey and honor their parents is consistent throughout scripture. Beginning in the Mosaic Law (Exodus 20:12), and extending into the New Covenant, Paul’s instructions to the Colossians about the responsibility of Christian children and parents (Colossians 3:20-21).

I also think that it is a very helpful reminder to the whole church that we have a covenantal responsibility to pray for each other, love one another, and help everyone in our church to grow toward holiness and maturity in the Lord. Once again, the commitments being made are not so much about what the infant will be or do, but rather what we (the church and the parents) (Ephesians 6:1-4) will faithfully strive to do for the good of our children and the glory of our God!

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