Different (Baptist) takes on when to baptize children

This week and last week we've been talking about baptism in our Sunday school class. One of the questions that has received a lot of attention is this"

When is it ok to baptize a child who professes belief? When is it wise to hold off?

The situation that the elders of our church and that many of us in the class want to avoid is the one displayed in this all-too-common testimony: "I was raised in a Christian home and professed belief at age 5. I was baptized at age 6 and continued going to church with my family. But I went through a long rebellious period in my teens where I turned from the Lord. Now I've come back to the faith, and I want to join a church. Have I been baptized? Or do I need to be baptized (again)?"

Confusion over one's state of salvation is epidemic in America, and poor baptizing methods have certainly added to the problem. Too many unsaved adults look back to their childhood baptism to give them comfort over the state of their souls. False hope and false comfort of salvation are barriers that keep people from sensing their need for Christ.

The elder who was teaching our Sunday school class summed up the attitude of another large and prominent Baptist church toward baptizing children in this way:

• Children are easily decieved.
• Children of Christian parents desperately want to please their parents in the things that their parents consider to be important.
  
• Therefore, it is easy for the child of Christian parents to be confused about whether or not he actually believes. For this reason, it is best to wait to baptize such a child until a time when they are out from the under the authority of their parents and have begun to experience the weight of the world. After this time, it will be more clear whether or not the child's (now an adult) faith is genuine.
  
• There would be possible exceptions in cases of children who attend the church but do not have Christian parents, or in the case of a child who begins to work outside the home at a relatively young age and interacts with the world, where the fruit of his or her faith is more visible.
  

Our ss teacher gave two reasons why he does not hold to this position:

• We should not be surprised when a child of Christian parents professes faith. God uses means to save people, particularly, the hearing of the gospel and the reading of the Word. When a child is raised in a context where she regularly hears the gospel and sees it lived out in her parents' lives, then we should not be surprised when she professes faith.
  
• The above position (of the other church) has the tendency to make a child think that he must prove his salvation by good works. The idea is that the church desires to see evidence of salvation before it is willing to baptize. If you say to a child, "we won't baptize you now, but once we see evidence of salvation in your life then we will," they will most certainly understand this to mean, "you may not be saved. Once you begin to do things to show that you are, then we will believe you." This may possible result is an anxious child who begins to try to 'earn' his salvation by good works.
  

The whole issue is very interesting and definitely not easy. It's common practice in many European Baptist churches not to baptize any children, hands down. Even for Presbyterians, who would disregard the validity of the entire issue, there's still the question of when do you admit a child into membership? All of the same questions apply. This is something I hope to understand better as I have my own children, as I begin to see the life of a child on a day to day basis.