Dorothy PageHatcher, Eldridge B. (Eldridge Burwell)
Religion
Dorothy Page
Hatcher, Eldridge B. (Eldridge Burwell)
Christian fiction
Dorothy read on: "'Many of the Corinthians hearing believed and were
baptized.' Isn't it strange? Every time it is those that believed that
were baptized. Here is another: 'Then Simon himself believed also, and
when he was baptized he continued with Philip.' And again: 'Then they
that gladly received his Word were baptized.' They do not use the word
'believe' in that passage, but the words 'gladly received his Word', and
these are practically the same; they not only heard his Word, but
received it, and received it gladly."
"Oh, they were genuinely converted," said the Doctor. "There can be no
doubt about that. It occurred on the day of Pentecost and those converts
continued in the apostles' doctrine and bore good fruit."
"You see, Doctor," said Dorothy, "that those who were baptized in New
Testament times first believed. You say that infants ought to be
baptized because they have the heavenly and converted nature; but the
Bible does not say that. Those who were baptized first believed. Now an
infant cannot believe. I do not feel, Doctor, that I know a hundredth
part as much of the Bible as you know, but don't you think that Christ
meant by those words about little children and the Kingdom of Heaven
that they must cultivate the qualities of a little child and that the
child nature was a type of the heavenly nature? He did not connect this
with baptism."
"Did you know that whole families were baptized?" asked the Doctor.
"Many times baptisms were administered in homes not simply on those who
believed, but on the whole family, young and old."
"But are you sure, Doctor, that there were infants in those families?"
"Not absolutely sure, but almost; at any rate the burden of proof is on
those who deny that infants were in any of those families."
"Show us some of the accounts of family baptisms," said the father. "It
does look a little curious, daughter."
They turned first to Acts 16:13-15: "'And a certain woman, named Lydia,
a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, heard
us, whose heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things that
were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized and her household she
besought us, saying.'"
"How do you know there were any infants in her household? It does not
even say she was married," said Dorothy. "She was a seller of purple and
maybe she was an unmarried woman working for her living. At any rate I
do not see that you can prove that she had any infants in her
household."
"It looks to me," said the father, "as if that woman was a working woman
and as if her household were her fellow-workers, and that there were
probably no infants among them."
"Here is another passage," said the Doctor, "in 1 Corinthians 1:16: 'And
I baptized also the household of Stephanus.' Will you affirm there were
no infants there? How many households do you think I could baptize
without hitting upon an infant? Why do you exclude infants?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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