Children and Baptism

There has been a moderate amount of blog dialogue on the issue of baptizing children, which needs to be distinguished from baptizing infants. The question is not whether God can save young children or whether God does save young children, but whether or not a response of immediate baptism is necessitated by Scripture and whether or not it is wise to do so (once the previous question has been answered). Tim Challies has chimed in (again) on this topic. I've appreciated what he has said previously, and he continues on his same course from previous posts. I think Challies is pretty clear (despite the comments from some readers) that God absolutely can save young children. However, Challies gives an example of a two-year old answering his father's questions with a "yes". I think that is a pretty good example to process through: if you say that you wouldn't baptize that 2 year-old, then what makes you more comfortable baptizing a 5 or 6 or 9 year-old? What are the principles you would use to distinguish between saying "no" to baptizing a 2 year-old but yes to someone who is 6?