Acts 2:36-41, 16:25-34

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Resources on baptism

Heidelberg Catechism

74. Q. Should infants also be baptized?
A. Yes.
“Infants as well as adults are included in God’s covenant and people (1), and they, no less than adults, are promised deliverance from sin through Christ’s blood and the Holy Spirit who produces faith (2). Therefore, by baptism, the sign of the covenant, they too should be incorporated into the Christian church and distinguished from the children
of unbelievers (3). This was done in the Old Testament by circumcision (4), which was replaced in the New Testament by baptism(5).”

1 Gen. 17:7; Matt. 19:14
2 Isa. 44:1-3; Acts 2:38-39; 16:31
3 Acts 10:47; 1 Cor. 7:14
4 Gen. 17:9-14
5 Col. 2:11-13

Belgic Confession

“We believe our children ought to be baptized and sealed with the sign of the covenant, as little children were circumcised in Israel on the basis of the same promises made to our children.

And truly, Christ has shed his blood no less for washing the little children of believers than he did for adults. Therefore they ought to receive the sign and sacrament of what Christ has done for them, just as the Lord commanded in the law that by offering a lamb for them the sacrament of the suffering and death of Christ would be granted them shortly after their birth. This was the sacrament of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, baptism does for our children what circumcision did for the Jewish people. That is why Paul calls baptism the “circumcision of Christ.” (Colossians 2:11) – Article 34.

Canons of Dort

“Since we must make judgments about God’s will from his Word, which testifies that the children of believers are holy, not by nature but by virtue of the gracious covenant in which they together with their parents are included, godly parents ought not to doubt the election and salvation of their children whom God calls out of this life in infancy.”

– Article 17.