Excerpt from “The Greatest Heresy Plaguing Southern Baptists Today”

                                                                                                                                                                                                 Vol. XV, No. 1,  January 2002

[The following is reprinted from an article by the above name written by visiting professor Bill Bennett, which appeared in the Spring 2000 issue of Faith & Mission, the theological journal published semi-annually by Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. This journal is excellent for both laymen and clergy. Each issue contains five or six stimulating articles and numerous book reviews. TCP]

    Thousands of young children are being baptized in Southern Baptist churches today. One wonders how many of these – ranging from three to five years – are able to grasp the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. History does record the conversion of persons quite young, such as Sarah Pierpont, mother of Jonathan Edwards, but such conversions are exceptions rather than the rule. The facts seem to be that many children are being persuaded, often manipulated, to profess faith in Jesus, to be baptized and added to our church rolls, neither knowing the gospel nor the fact that they are lost.

    In fact it appears that what is transpiring in our midst is tantamount to infant baptism, though by immersion. Our Baptist forefathers opposed sprinkling as the mode of baptism. However, they were even more concerned about the person being baptized than the mode of baptism, insisting that the typical infant cannot understand enough to believe the gospel and be saved. In our day we cling to immersion, even in the case of very young children. At the same time we are guilty of practicing the heresy so opposed by our forefathers – the baptizing of unregenerate children, contributing to an unregenerate church and thousands not being prepared to enter heaven when they die.