One of the arguments that comes up from time to time for paedobaptism is:
“How do Baptists approach reading the Bible and praying with their children?”
This has included the suggestion that it would be inconsistent to teach the Lord’$ Prayer to children because they cannot pray to God as father.
Linked to this, is this frankly bizarre argument from Peter Leithart (on a side note, I’ve been told a few times that I’m overstating my concerns about Federal Vision but it’s odd then how often people seem to resort to Federal Vision advocates for their reasoning on key issues).
Leithart’s error here is to assume that because you do one thing with your child this means you can substitute a whole host of other things. Thec reality is that a parent will do lots of things with their baby, sing to them, talk to them, feed them etc and not others. They ask them questions but don’t put them in for exams, push them in strollers but don’t stick them on roller coasters, given them milk to drink but not a pint of beer. The only argument that is relevant to paedobaptism is whether or not the child is a legitimate subject for baptism. Sadly, this is one of those examples of Federal Vision rhetoric. On the surface it sounds like a clever put down but falls apart at the gentlest of probing. What are they teaching in those Classical Christian schools?
Coming back to the original question, the simple answer is that we approach reading the Bible and praying with small children of believers in exactly the same way that we would approach it with anyone who is not yet a Christian. Now if course, there has been a fairly recent move to worrying about whether unbelievers can pray and sing in our meetings but the expectation that they might be present hasn’t been a concern for many Christians over the years.
The reality is that non-Christians have often over the years turned up to church, sung hymns, prayed and heard sermons about God’s fatherly love. Further more, we run kids clubs, beach missions and holiday clubs with Scripture, songs and prayers.
There is perhaps a question about how people best engage with the Gospel here. However, there is no knock down argument for paedobaptism.
Faithroots 