Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons^™

Should Southern Baptists Baptize Their Children?: A Biblical, Historical, Theological Defense Of The Consistency Of The Baptism Of Young Children With Credobaptistic Practices, Robert Matz

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Southern Baptists have expressed increasing degrees of alarm over allegedly rising rates of child baptisms. As a result, an increasing number of Southern Baptists have argued that the baptism of young children is inconsistent with Southern Baptists’ understandings of credobaptism and a regenerate church membership. Against these allegations, this dissertation asserts that children can be converted and when converted they should be baptized. The first chapter of this dissertation argues that water baptism is prescriptively contemporaneous with Spirit baptism. It establishes such based on the relationship between water and Spirit baptism as seen in the seven direct references to Spirit …