Category: Musings on Baptism
And a certain woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay." And she prevailed upon us (Acts 16:14-15).
A woman named Lydia heard the gospel, and by God's sovereign grace (He opened her heart) she believed it. What does she, and all in her household who believed, do immediately? They were all baptized. No delay, no waiting for a time when the whole church could gather. They did it right then.
And when the jailer had been roused out of sleep and had seen the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Do yourself no harm, for we are all here!" And he called for lights and rushed in and, trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them out, he said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household." And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. And he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household (Acts 16:27-34).
A pagan jailer recognized his sin and that he stands condemned before God. He pleaded with Paul to tell him whether there was anything he could do to be saved from God's punitive wrath. Paul says, simply, "Believe in the Lord Jesus" (v.31). Now, was that really all that Paul said? In v. 32, Paul, "spoke the word of the Lord to him," and this extended gospel presenation must have included baptism because that very night he and his household were baptized. Why didn't Paul wait and allow the jailer to learn about baptism at another time. He believed, and that's all that mattered, right? (Maybe not.)
Here is where our brothers who like to pour water on babies' heads go to show that infant baptism is in the Bible. They argue that the households of Lydia and the jailer contained young children. To which I would respond that there were no kids under the age of nine in either of these households. "What?" they cry in reply, "how do you know that?" My answer--"The same way you know that there were infants in those households."
Furthermore, Paul's promise to the jailer's household was that all who believed would be saved. Surely, if we are going to assume anything, we would assume that the members who were baptized in verse 33 would be identical with those who believed in verse 31. In every other biblical circumstance, repentance and faith precede baptism; there is nothing at all in these two passages to suggest that any unrepentant, two-week old babies were baptized.