At Covenant we affirm that Christian baptism signifies our being grafted into the Body of Christ. It symbolizes the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, the removal of sin’s guilt and the resurrection of the believer to newness of life.
We affirm that baptism is to the New Covenant what circumcision was to the Old Covenant, a sign and seal of God’s covenant of grace with those that He redeems by the blood of Jesus Christ. As circumcision was administered to male infants before their exercising faith unto salvation in the Old Covenant, so we affirm the appropriateness of administering baptism to infants born to believers in the New Covenant before their exercising faith unto salvation.
We affirm that baptism, as a sacrament, does not save, whether it is administered to an infant or to a new believer. We affirm that we are saved by God’s grace through faith, alone.
We affirm that baptism is appropriately administered by sprinkling or pouring water upon the head of the candidate for baptism, or by immersing the candidate in water.
We affirm that baptism is to be administered in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and only once to each person.
We affirm that there are many areas in doctrine about which equally committed and sincere believers in Jesus Christ disagree. Baptism is one such area of doctrine. We affirm that each Christian’s conscience about such matters must be bound only by the Word of God, the Bible, through the Holy Spirit. Accordingly, even as the leadership of Covenant Presbyterian Church will continue to affirm the appropriateness of infant baptism and encourage Christian parents to have their infants baptized, so also will the leadership respect the scruples of Christian parents who wish to have their children baptized only after they have exercised faith in Jesus Christ.
We affirm our commitment as a local expression of the Body of Christ to work for and to guard the peace, love and respect among ourselves as brothers and sisters in Christ in this area of doctrine and others about which we may hold different convictions.
Reference Articles on Baptism: