I wrote:

Let’s take the biblical precedent/situation of a hostile environment seriously when judging whether a person is making a valid, personal decision about baptism. Would their personal commitment to Christ pass the test of opposition from others, or even persecution? Whilst it’s difficult to replicate the apostolic context in this respect, we must take this dimension seriously, I think. For this reason I can’t remember ever baptizing any child under 16.

Nathan responded:

I think that is really important, not just when thinking about children, but when thinking about whether we should be baptising immediately upon conversion or instituting a process of formation to lead to baptism. The early church example seems to be that once Christianity started to become respectable, and eventually officially supported by the state, then the church found it increasingly necessary to develop a process of discernment and formation to ensure that converts knew what they were doing and weren’t just making a socially popular or expedient decision. Under persecution, there had been little danger of that!

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