Original Sin, Baptism of Regeneration and Baptism of Infants
The Scripture is clear in Romans 5:12, “… sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned…”. Through history, we observe that the Church taught about what is called “Original Sin” which is the contamination into which every human being is born; but by means of the baptism of regeneration, we are cleansed and rescued from Satan`s domain. Through this work, we will make a case for original sin, baptism of regeneration and baptism of infants starting from Jewish tradition and a biblical perspective towards the written works of the Fathers of the Church about these topics.
HISTORY OF THE CHURCHAGAINST HERESIESAPOLOGETICSAPOSTOLIC FATHERS OF THE CHURCHOTHER
Leo Ramirez
6/22/202528 min read
The Scripture is clear in Romans 5:12, “… sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned…”. Through history, we observe that the Church taught about what is called “Original Sin” which is the contamination into which every human being is born; but by means of the baptism of regeneration, we are cleansed and rescued from Satan`s domain. Through this work, we will make a case for original sin, baptism of regeneration and baptism of infants starting from Jewish tradition and a biblical perspective towards the written works of the Fathers of the Church about these topics.
Baptism in the Jewish Tradition
Baptism in Judaism is a ritual of purification carried out in a Mikvah which means “gathering of waters”. The word Baptizo in Greek is equivalent to the word Tevilah in Hebrew which means “to totally immerse”.
The Mikvah personifies the womb and the grave, so, when someone is immersed into the waters and come out, a rebirth is experienced. This is done with the purpose of purification, to be in a state of absolute way of connection with God. Also, it is said that the ritual reawakens and strengthens hope.
Ritual of purification for new converts to Judaism:
If a man wants to become Jewish must go through circumcision and immersion. If it’s a woman only immersion. When a gentile goes down into the waters of the mikvah, it is done with the meaning of a spiritual purification leaving behind their pagan ways (dying to their old life) and coming up out of the water as a newborn child with an entirely new identity.
The Talmud (oral law)
Yevamot 47b
When he comes up after his immersion, he is deemed an Israelite in all respects.
Yevamot 48b
One who has become a proselyte is like a child newly born.
As we can see, baptism in Judaism was and still is part of their tradition and has a meaning of purification and cleansing. Now, there is a prophecy about baptism that involves regeneration just as Christian tradition explains it, so, our next step is to go to Ezekiel writings and see what we find about it.
Prophecy about the baptism of regeneration
Ezekiel 36:25–26 (RSV2CE)
25 I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 ¶ A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
Ezekiel conveys God's word about water baptism to cleanse the uncleanness, and about the new spirit that God will put in those who believe in his message, both of which are fulfilled through Jesus' command about baptizing believers in the name of the Trinity and about the promise of the Holy Spirit.
Also, we read this in the book of Isaiah:
Isaiah 1:16–20 (RSV2CE)
16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your doings
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
17 learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
defend the fatherless,
plead for the widow.
18 “Come now, let us reason together,
says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
19 If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;
20 but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be devoured by the sword;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
The Epistle of James and the Fathers of the Church call it the baptism of regeneration and as we can observe, it has its roots in the Old Testament, but there is a difference between baptism in Judaism and Christianity, which is, that for Christians baptism now saves.
Let’s see what the New Testament has to say about baptism:
Baptism in the New Testament
John 3:22–24 (RSV2CE)
22 ¶ After this Jesus and his disciples went into the land of Judea; there he remained with them and baptized.* 23 John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people came and were baptized. 24 ¶ For John had not yet been put in prison. †
John the Baptizer was preparing the hearts of people to receive the Messiah, he was preaching to repent, confess sins and be baptized. Now, the Gospel of John tells us that Jesus and his disciples also baptized in water and both John and Mark agree that baptism is related to salvation and not only to ritual purification or a symbolic action. That is why Jesus said:
Mark 16:16 (RSV2CE)
16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
John 3:5 (RSV2CE)
5 ¶ Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Jesus gave the commission to baptize everyone without exception.
Matthew 28:19–20 (RSV2CE)
19 ¶ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 ¶ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”
Jesus did not give a command to baptize just adults, therefore, the ambiguity in the text was clarified by the book of Acts, Peter’s epistles and the apostolic tradition.
In the book of Acts we can read clearly that the promise of salvation through baptism was for adults and infants.
Acts 2:38–39 (RSV2CE)
38 And Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 ¶ For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the Lord our God calls to him.”
Peter is clear: "be baptized every one of you". He is not referring only to adults. He says: "be baptized everyone of you... for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children". This means, those who have reason to discern good and evil, if they repent and renounce to Satan, both original sin and their personal sins will be forgiven through baptism, but in the case of infants, although they have no imputed personal sins, they need baptism to be cleansed of original sin and to be freed from Satan's dominion.
Peter baptized entire households, and we have an example in the book of Acts:
Acts 10:1–2 (RSV2CE)
10 ¶ At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, 2 a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms liberally to the people, and prayed constantly to God.
Acts 10:47–48 (RSV2CE)
47 “Can any one forbid water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48 And he commanded them to be baptized...
So, on the one hand we have Peter baptizing oikos (entire households which include children) and saying the following about baptism in his first epistle:
1 Peter 3:21 (RSV2CE)
21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In the other hand we can read Paul who wrote this about sin and baptism:
Romans 5:12 (RSV2CE)
12 ¶ Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned*—
Galatians 3:26–29 (RSV2CE)
26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 ¶ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
When you are baptized according to what Paul says here, you are baptized into Christ, you put on Christ, you are one in Christ, you belong to Christ, and you become heir of the promise.
In addition to Peter, Paul also baptized entire households, which includes infants and slaves:
Acts 16:31,33,34 (RSV2CE)
31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”… 33 And he [the jailer] took them the same hour of the night, and washed their wounds, and he was baptized at once, with all his family. 34 … and he rejoiced with all his household that he had believed in God.
Acts 16:15 (RSV2CE)
15 And when she [Lydia] was baptized, with her household…
Paul also does not teach baptism as something symbolic but compares the sign of the old covenant (circumcision) with the sign of the new covenant (baptism). We must understand that in the Old Covenant parents will circumcise males at the 8th day of being born which was the form of initiation for their kids into the old covenant, that is, into Judaism. Now, in Christianity, baptism is what initiates our children into the New Covenant.
Colossians 2:11–12 (RSV2CE)
11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; 12 and you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
So, under the Old Covenant, which is represented here by the circumcision, there was a responsibility of parents that after circumcision they must educate their kids in the commandments of God, this means, the children will serve the God of their parents, so when the children were old, they would continue in the ways of the Lord. In Christianity as parents, we have also a responsibility of baptizing our children and give them a Christian education at home.
So, what did the Church Fathers interpret when they read these and other verses and when they applied apostolic tradition to Scripture to correctly interpret passages like these?
Apostolic Fathers of the Church
Let’s start with Justin Martyr:
St. Justin Martyr – First Apology [155 – 157 AD]
I will also relate the manner in which we dedicated ourselves to God when we had been made new through Christ; lest, if we omit this, we seem to be unfair in the explanation we are making. As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and to entreat God with fasting, for the remission of their sins that are past, we praying and fasting with them. Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated in the same manner in which we were ourselves regenerated. For, in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they then receive the washing with water. For Christ also said, “Except ye be born again, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Now, that it is impossible for those who have once been born to enter into their mothers’ wombs, is manifest to all. And how those who have sinned and repent shall escape their sins, is declared by Esaias the prophet, as I wrote above; he thus speaks: “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from your souls; learn to do well; judge the fatherless, and plead for the widow: and come and let us reason together, saith the Lord. And though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white like wool; and though they be as crimson, I will make them white as snow. But if ye refuse and rebel, the sword shall devour you: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”
Justin Martyr, “The First Apology of Justin,” in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, vol. 1, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 183.
Baptism is not symbolic but regenerative to either the adult, the young, the kids and the infants.
Let’s continue with St. Irenaeus of Lyon, he was disciple of Polycarp who was disciple of the Apostle John.
St. Irenaeus – Against Heresies [c. 180 AD]
For He came to save all through means of Himself—all, I say, who through Him are born again to God—infants, and children, and boys, and youths, and old men. He therefore passed through every age, becoming an infant for infants, thus sanctifying infants; a child for children, thus sanctifying those who are of this age, being at the same time made to them an example of piety, righteousness, and submission; a youth for youths, becoming an example to youths, and thus sanctifying them for the Lord. So likewise He was an old man for old men, that He might be a perfect Master for all, not merely as respects the setting forth of the truth, but also as regards age, sanctifying at the same time the aged also, and becoming an example to them likewise. Then, at last, He came on to death itself, that He might be “the first-born from the dead, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence,” the Prince of life,11 existing before all, and going before all.
Irenaeus of Lyons, “Irenæus against Heresies,” in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, vol. 1, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 391.
Irenaeus explicitly wrote that Jesus came to save all through means of Himself, and when he says “all”, he means, infants, children, boys, youths and old men. How? Through being born again, which is, being born through Him, In the manner that Jesus said to Nicodemus, by the water of baptism and the Spirit.
by means of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord, from our old transgressions; being spiritually regenerated as new-born babes, even as the Lord has declared: “Except a man be born again through water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Irenaeus of Lyons, “Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenæus,” in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, vol. 1, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 574.
Tertullian – On Baptism [160 – 225 AD]
And so, according to the circumstances and disposition, and even age, of each individual, the delay of baptism is preferable; principally, however, in the case of little children. For why is it necessary—if (baptism itself) is not so necessary—that the sponsors likewise should be thrust into danger? Who both themselves, by reason of mortality, may fail to fulfil their promises, and may be disappointed by the development of an evil disposition, in those for whom they stood? The Lord does indeed say, “Forbid them not to come unto me.” Let them “come,” then, while they are growing up; let them “come” while they are learning, while they are learning whither to come;7 let them become Christians when they have become able to know Christ. Why does the innocent period of life hasten to the “remission of sins?”… If any understand the weighty import of baptism, they will fear its reception more than its delay: sound faith is secure of salvation.
Tertullian, “On Baptism,” in Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. S. Thelwall, vol. 3, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 678.
In that same interval of a few days we were baptized, and to me the Spirit prescribed that in the water of baptism nothing else was to be sought for bodily endurance. After a few days we are taken into the dungeon, and I was very much afraid, because I had never felt such darkness. O terrible day! O the fierce heat of the shock of the soldiery, because of the crowds! I was very unusually distressed by my anxiety for my infant.
Tertullian, “Ad Martyres,” in Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. S. Thelwall, vol. 3, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 700.
The infant was the son of Vivia Perpetua, who according to tradition and the evidence that we have presented until now, he should have been baptized with his mother.
It was from this circumstance that the apostle said, that when either of the parents was sanctified, the children were holy; and this as much by the prerogative of the (Christian) seed as by the discipline of the institution (by baptism, and Christian education). “Else,” says he, “were the children unclean” by birth:2 as if he meant us to understand that the children of believers were designed for holiness, and thereby for salvation; in order that he might by the pledge of such a hope give his support to matrimony, which he had determined to maintain in its integrity. Besides, he had certainly not forgotten what the Lord had so definitively stated: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God;” in other words, he cannot be holy.
Tertullian, “A Treatise on the Soul,” in Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. Peter Holmes, vol. 3, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 219–220.
St. Hippolytus of Rome – The Apostolic Tradition [c. 200 AD]
And (δέ) they shall baptize (βαπτίζειν) the little children first. And if they can answer for themselves, let them answer. But if they cannot, let their parents answer or (ἤ) someone from their family (γένος).
Hippolytus of Rome, The Treatise on the Apostolic Tradition of St. Hippolytus of Rome, Bishop and Martyr, ed. Gregory Dix, vol. I (London; New York: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; The Macmillan Company, 1937), 33.
St. Cyprian of Carthage – [c. 249 – 258 AD]
But in respect of the case of the infants, which you say ought not to be baptized within the second or third day after their birth, and that the law of ancient circumcision should be regarded, so that you think that one who is just born should not be baptized and sanctified within the eighth day, we all thought very differently in our council. For in this course which you thought was to be taken, no one agreed; but we all rather judge that the mercy and grace of God is not to be refused to any one born of man. For as the Lord says in His Gospel, “The Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them,” as far as we can, we must strive that, if possible, no soul be lost… Moreover, belief in divine Scripture declares to us, that among all, whether infants or those who are older, there is the same equality of the divine gift.
Cyprian of Carthage, “The Epistles of Cyprian,” in Fathers of the Third Century: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Novatian, Appendix, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. Robert Ernest Wallis, vol. 5, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1886), 353–354.
But if anything could hinder men from obtaining grace, their more heinous sins might rather hinder those who are mature and grown up and older. But again, if even to the greatest sinners, and to those who had sinned much against God, when they subsequently believed, remission of sins is granted—and nobody is hindered from baptism and from grace—how much rather ought we to shrink from hindering an infant, who, being lately born, has not sinned, except in that, being born after the flesh according to Adam, he has contracted the contagion of the ancient death at its earliest birth, who approaches the more easily on this very account to the reception of the forgiveness of sins—that to him are remitted, not his own sins, but the sins of another.
Cyprian of Carthage, “The Epistles of Cyprian,” in Fathers of the Third Century: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Novatian, Appendix, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. Robert Ernest Wallis, vol. 5, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1886), 354.
But the subject in regard to which we had chiefly to write to you, and to confer with your gravity and wisdom, is one that more especially pertains both to the priestly authority and to the unity, as well as the dignity, of the Catholic Church, arising as these do from the ordination of the divine appointment; to wit, that those who have been dipped abroad outside the Church, and have been stained among heretics and schismatics with the taint of profane water, when they come to us and to the Church which is one, ought to be baptized, for the reason that it is a small matter to “lay hands on them that they may receive the Holy Ghost,” unless they receive also the baptism of the Church. For then finally can they be fully sanctified, and be the sons of God, if they be born of each sacrament; since it is written, “Except a man be born again of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
Cyprian of Carthage, “The Epistles of Cyprian,” in Fathers of the Third Century: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Novatian, Appendix, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. Robert Ernest Wallis, vol. 5, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1886), 378.
Origen of Alexandria – Homilies on Leviticus 8:3 [c. 249 AD]
Every soul that is born into flesh is soiled by the filth of wickedness and sin.… In the Church, baptism is given for the remission of sins, and, according to the usage of the Church, baptism is given even to infants. If there was nothing in infants that required the remission of sins and nothing in them pertinent to forgiveness, the grace of baptism would seem superfluous.
Jimmy Akin, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church (San Diego, CA: Catholic Answers, 2010), 282.
Canons of the Blessed Fathers who Assembled at Carthage [c. 345 – 348 AD]
Likewise it seemed good that whosoever denies that infants newly from their mother’s wombs should be baptized, or says that baptism is for remission of sins, but that they derive from Adam no original sin, which needs to be removed by the laver of regeneration, from whence the conclusion follows, that in them the form of baptism for the remission of sins, is to be understood as false and not true, let him be anathema.
For no otherwise can be understood what the Apostle says, “By one man sin is come into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed upon all men in that all have “sinned,” than the Catholic Church everywhere diffused has always understood it. For on account of this rule of faith (regulam fidei) even infants, who could have committed as yet no sin themselves, therefore are truly baptized for the remission of sins, in order that what in them is the result of generation may be cleansed by regeneration.
Item, it seemed good that whenever there were not found reliable witnesses who could testify that without any doubt they were baptized and when the children themselves were not, on account of their tender age, able to answer concerning the giving of the sacraments to them, all such children should be baptized without scruple, lest a hesitation should deprive them of the cleansing of the sacraments. This was urged by the Moorish Legates, our brethren, since they redeem many such from the barbarians.
Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., “The Canons of the Council of Sardica,” in The Seven Ecumenical Councils, trans. Henry R. Percival, vol. 14, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1900), 496–497.
St. Basil – On the Spirit [c. 360 AD]
On this account we do not, as is the fashion of the Jews, wash ourselves at each defilement, but own the baptism of salvation to be one.5 For there the death on behalf of the world is one, and one the resurrection of the dead, whereof baptism is a type. For this cause the Lord, who is the Dispenser of our life, gave us the covenant of baptism, containing a type of life and death, for the water fulfils the image of death, and the Spirit gives us the earnest of life. Hence it follows that the answer to our question why the water was associated with the Spirit is clear: the reason is because in baptism two ends were proposed; on the one hand, the destroying of the body of sin,7 that it may never bear fruit unto death; on the other hand, our living unto the Spirit,9 and having our fruit in holiness; the water receiving the body as in a tomb figures death, while the Spirit pours in the quickening power, renewing our souls from the deadness of sin unto their original life. This then is what it is to be born again of water and of the Spirit, the being made dead being effected in the water, while our life is wrought in us through the Spirit. In three immersions,11 then, and with three invocations, the great mystery of baptism is performed, to the end that the type of death may be fully figured, and that by the tradition of the divine knowledge the baptized may have their souls enlightened. It follows that if there is any grace in the water, it is not of the nature of the water, but of the presence of the Spirit. For baptism is “not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God.”
Basil of Caesarea, “The Book of Saint Basil on the Spirit,” in St. Basil: Letters and Select Works, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, trans. Blomfield Jackson, vol. 8, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1895), 22.
St. Jerome – The letters of St. Jerome [c. 372 – 374 AD]
He then goes on to say that he is quite ready to accept creationism as a solution of the difficulty if Jerome will shew him how this theory is reconcilable with the church’s condemnation of Pelagius and its assertion of the doctrine of original sin. The damnation of unbaptized infants is assumed throughout.
Jerome, “The Letters of St. Jerome,” in St. Jerome: Letters and Select Works, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, trans. W. H. Fremantle, G. Lewis, and W. G. Martley, vol. 6, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1893), 272.
For there is no soul, save that of the one Mediator, which does not derive original sin from Adam. Original sin is that which is fastened on the soul at its birth and from which it can only be freed by being born again.
Jerome, “The Letters of St. Jerome,” in St. Jerome: Letters and Select Works, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, trans. W. H. Fremantle, G. Lewis, and W. G. Martley, vol. 6, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1893), 287.
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles [c. 375 – 390 AD]
Nor indeed are those that are baptized by them initiated, but are polluted, not receiving the remission of sins, but the bond of impiety. And, besides, they that attempt to baptize those already initiated crucify the Lord afresh, slay Him a second time, laugh at divine and ridicule holy things, affront the Spirit, dishonour the sacred blood of Christ as common blood, are impious against Him that sent, Him that suffered, and Him that witnessed. Nay, he that, out of contempt, will not be baptized, shall be condemned as an unbeliever, and shall be reproached as ungrateful and foolish. For the Lord says: “Except a man be baptized of water and of the Spirit, he shall by no means enter into the kingdom of heaven.” And again: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”2 But he that says, When I am dying I will be baptized, lest I should sin and defile my baptism, is ignorant of God, and forgetful of his own nature. For “do not thou delay to turn unto the Lord, for thou knowest not what the next day will bring forth.” Do you also baptize your infants, and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of God. For says He: “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not.”
Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, eds., “Constitutions of the Holy Apostles,” in Fathers of the Third and Fourth Centuries: Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, Homily, and Liturgies, trans. James Donaldson, vol. 7, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1886), 456–457.
St. Ambrose – On the Mysteries [c. 387 AD]
20. Therefore read that the three witnesses in baptism, the water, the blood, and the Spirit, are one, for if you take away one of these, the Sacrament of Baptism does not exist. For what is water without the cross of Christ? A common element, without any sacramental effect. Nor, again, is there the Sacrament of Regeneration without water: “For except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”6 Now, even the catechumen believes in the cross of the Lord Jesus, wherewith he too is signed; but unless he be baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, he cannot receive remission of sins nor gain the gift of spiritual grace.
Ambrose of Milan, “On the Mysteries,” in St. Ambrose: Select Works and Letters, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, trans. H. de Romestin, E. de Romestin, and H. T. F. Duckworth, vol. 10, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1896), 319.
64. Who is he who is born of the Spirit, and is made Spirit, but he who is renewed in the Spirit of his mind? This certainly is he who is regenerated by water and the Holy Spirit, since we receive the hope of eternal life through the laver of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. And elsewhere the Apostle Peter says: “Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” For who is he that is baptized with the Holy Spirit but he who is born again through water and the Holy Spirit? Therefore the Lord said of the Holy Spirit, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again by water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. And therefore He declared that we are born of Him in the latter case, through Whom He said that we were born in the former. This is the sentence of the Lord;
Ambrose of Milan, “Three Books of St. Ambrose on the Holy Spirit,” in St. Ambrose: Select Works and Letters, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, trans. H. de Romestin, E. de Romestin, and H. T. F. Duckworth, vol. 10, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1896), 144.
Besides being a command, when the Church Fathers spoke about baptism in general or baptism of Infants it is implicit that it was because of Original Sin or both, original sin and personal sin, here are other quotations on Original Sin.
St. Gregory of Nazianzen – Orations [died 390 AD]
Our belief is that since it was needful that we, who had fallen in consequence of the original sin… should be recalled and raised up again to our original position through the tender mercy of God our Father... That the Light that is exceeding bright should follow the Candle—Forerunner, and the Word, the Voice, and the Bridegroom, the Bridegroom’s friend,22 that prepared for the Lord a peculiar people and cleansed them by the water24 in preparation for the Spirit?
Gregory Nazianzen, “Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen,” in S. Cyril of Jerusalem, S. Gregory Nazianzen, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, trans. Charles Gordon Browne and James Edward Swallow, vol. 7, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1894), 427.
St. Gregory of Nyssa – On the baptism of Christ [died 394 AD]
For as the child new-born is free from accusations and from penalties, so too the child of regeneration has nothing for which to answer, being released by royal bounty from accountability. And this gift it is not the water that bestows (for in that case it were a thing more exalted than all creation), but the command of God, and the visitation of the Spirit that comes sacramentally to set us free. But water serves to express the cleansing.
Gregory of Nyssa, “On the Baptism of Christ,” in Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises, Etc., ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, trans. Henry Austin Wilson, vol. 5, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1893), 519.
St. John Chrysostom – Homilies on the Gospel of John, 3:5, Homily XXV [died at 407 AD]
That the need of water is absolute and indispensable, you may learn in this way. On one occasion, when the Spirit had flown down before the water was applied, the Apostle did not stay at this point, but, as though the water were necessary and not superfluous, observe what he says; “Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?” (Acts 10:47.)
What then is the use of the water? This too I will tell you hereafter, when I reveal to you the hidden mystery. There are also other points of mystical teaching connected with the matter, but for the present I will mention to you one out of many. What is this one? In Baptism are fulfilled the pledges of our covenant with God;3 burial and death, resurrection and life; and these take place all at once. For when we immerse our heads in the water, the old man is buried as in a tomb below, and wholly sunk forever; then as we raise them again, the new man rises in its stead.5 As it is easy for us to dip and to lift our heads again, so it is easy for God to bury the old man, and to show forth the new. And this is done thrice, that you may learn that the power of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost fulfilleth all this. To show that what we say is no conjecture, hear Paul saying, “We are buried with Him by Baptism into death”: and again, “Our old man is crucified with Him”: and again, “We have been planted together in the likeness of His death.” (Rom. 6:4, 5, 6.) And not only is Baptism called a “cross,” but the “cross” is called “Baptism.” “With the Baptism,” saith Christ, “that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized” (Mark 10:39): and, “I have a Baptism to be baptized with” (Luke 12:50) (which ye know not); for as we easily dip and lift our heads again, so He also easily died and rose again when He willed or rather much more easily, though He tarried the three days for the dispensation of a certain mystery… He freely gave to them by Baptism entire remission of their sins.
John Chrysostom, “Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on the Gospel of St. John,” in Saint Chrysostom: Homilies on the Gospel of St. John and Epistle to the Hebrews, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. G. T. Stupart, vol. 14, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1889), 89.
St. Leo the Great – Letter LIX [440 – 461 AD]
For such was the state of all mortals resulting from our first ancestors that, after the transmission of original sin to their descendants, no one would have escaped the punishment of condemnation, had not the Word become flesh and dwelt in us, that is to say, in that nature which belonged to our blood and race… when it received the mystery of redemption and regeneration, water and blood flowing from the side of the Crucified. For the very condition of a new creature which at baptism puts off not the covering of true flesh but the taint of the old condemnation, is this, that a man is made the body of Christ, because Christ also is the body of a man.
Leo the Great, “Letters,” in Leo the Great, Gregory the Great, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, trans. Charles Lett Feltoe, vol. 12a, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1895), 60.
Question XVI. Concerning those who have been left as infants by Christian parents, if no proof of their baptism can be found whether they ought to be baptized?
Reply. If no proof exist among their kinsfolk and relations, nor among the clergy or neighbours whereby those, about whom the question is raised, may be proved to have been baptized, steps must be taken for their regeneration: lest they evidently perish; for in their case reason does not allow that what is not shown to have been done should seem to be repeated.
Leo the Great, “Letters,” in Leo the Great, Gregory the Great, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, trans. Charles Lett Feltoe, vol. 12a, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1895), 112.
Conclusion
We can continue with what was written by St. Augustine of Hyppo, he wrote about this topic many pages but just let me make quotations of some of them before closing this work.
The Christians of Carthage have an excellent name for the sacraments, when they say that baptism is nothing else than “salvation,” and the sacrament of the body of Christ nothing else than “life.” Whence, however, was this derived, but from that primitive, as I suppose, and apostolic tradition, by which the Churches of Christ maintain it to be an inherent principle, that without baptism and partaking of the supper of the Lord it is impossible for any man to attain either to the kingdom of God or to salvation and everlasting life? So much also does Scripture testify, according to the words which we already quoted. For wherein does their opinion, who designate baptism by the term salvation, differ from what is written: “He saved us by the washing of regeneration?” or from Peter’s statement: “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us?” And what else do they say who call the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper life, than that which is written: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven;” and “The bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world;” and “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye shall have no life in you?”7 If, therefore, as so many and such divine witnesses agree, neither salvation nor eternal life can be hoped for by any man without baptism and the Lord’s body and blood, it is vain to promise these blessings [salvation and life eternal] to infants without them [baptism and the Eucharist].
Augustine of Hippo, “A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants,” in Saint Augustin: Anti-Pelagian Writings, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. Peter Holmes, vol. 5, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1887), 28.
Now the Christian faith unfalteringly declares, what our new heretics have begun to deny, both that they who are cleansed in the laver of regeneration are redeemed from the power of the devil, and that those who have not yet been redeemed by such regeneration are still captive in the power of the devil, even if they be infant children of the redeemed, unless they be themselves redeemed by the self-same grace of Christ... infants are delivered when they are baptized; and whosoever denies this, is convicted by the truth of the Church’s very sacraments, which no heretical novelty in the Church of Christ is permitted to destroy or change, so long as the Divine Head rules and helps the entire body which He owns—small as well as great. It is true, then, and in no way false, that the devil’s power is exorcised in infants, and that they renounce him by the hearts and mouths of those who bring them to baptism, being unable to do so by their own; in order that they may be delivered from the power of darkness, and be translated into the kingdom of their Lord.
Augustine of Hippo, “On Marriage and Concupiscence,” in Saint Augustin: Anti-Pelagian Writings, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. Peter Holmes, vol. 5, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1887), 273.
“We condemn,” says he, “those who affirm that baptism does not do away all sins, because we know that full cleansing is conferred by these mysteries.” We also say this; but you do not say that infants are also by those same mysteries freed from the bonds of their first birth and of their hateful descent. On which account it behoves you, like other heretics also, to be separated from the Church of Christ, which holds this of old time.
Augustine of Hippo, “A Treatise against Two Letters of the Pelagians,” in Saint Augustin: Anti-Pelagian Writings, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. Robert Ernest Wallis, vol. 5, A Select
So, my conclusion is: We have sufficient evidence on Original Sin and the need to baptize infants from the Old Testament, New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers of the Church about Original Sin and the need to baptize infants which was a normal practice in the early church. Every parent has the responsibility to baptize and raise their kids in the Catholic Christian Faith.
The Great Commission is about making disciples. How? First, by baptizing them, which does not imply waiting until infants acquire complete knowledge. Just as through circumcision on the eighth day, a baby was initiated into Judaism and the Old Covenant without their consent, baptism is the initiation into the New Covenant in Christ. Furthermore, Jesus also said, "Teaching them what I have commanded you." In Judaism, from childhood, children were taught the way of the Lord and His commandments. So, in the same way, Christians have the responsibility to raise their children in the commandments of Christ's law.
Therefore, let no one prevent infants from coming to Christ through the baptism of regeneration. So, to those who ask:
Why do we baptize everybody including babies?
We do this to free them from the dominion of darkness and transfer them to the kingdom of the Lord.
For their salvation: Mark 16:16, John 3:4-5, 1 Peter 3:21.
For the forgiveness of sins (on infants, original sin alone): Acts 2:38-39
To be Into Christ: Galatians 3:27
To be clothed of Christ (Put on Christ): Galatians 3:27
To be one in Christ: Galatians 3:28
To belong to Christ: Galatians 3:29, Mark 10:14
To be heirs of the promise: Galatians 3:29, John 14:3
Leo Ramirez – BTh.