Can the faith of parents bring God’s grace and blessings upon their children—and does the Bible support infant baptism? In this powerful biblical teaching, Sam Shamoun explains why he abandoned believer-only baptism, also known as credo baptism, after wrestling with Scripture, early church history, and the universal Christian practice of baptizing infants.
Sam Shamoun shares how he was influenced by Independent Fundamental Baptists and later became a Reformed Baptist who believed that only those who personally profess faith and repentance should receive baptism. However, Sam Shamoun challenges Christians who reject infant baptism to confront an important historical reality: infant baptism was practiced throughout the early church and remained accepted by ancient Christian communities even after major divisions.
The Assyrian Church of the East, Roman Catholic Church, Orthodox Church, Coptic Church, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Calvinists, and many Protestant Reformers—including Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, and John Calvin—accepted infant baptism. Sam Shamoun asks how Jesus Christ, who is sovereign over His church, could allow Christians across the world to universally embrace a supposedly false and spiritually dangerous practice.
Sam Shamoun then presents the biblical principle behind infant baptism: God can bestow grace, healing, deliverance, forgiveness, and spiritual blessings upon one person because of the faith and intercession of another. In Mark 5, Jesus raises Jairus’s daughter because her father believes. In Mark 7, Jesus delivers the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter because of her mother’s faith. In Mark 9, Jesus frees a suffering boy after his father cries, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.”
Finally, Sam Shamoun examines Mark 2:5, where Jesus sees the faith of the men carrying the paralytic and declares that the paralytic’s sins are forgiven. Sam Shamoun explains why this passage challenged his Baptist tradition and convinced him that God can honor the faith of believing parents who bring their children to Jesus Christ through baptism.
This teaching is not merely an argument from church tradition. It is a direct biblical challenge concerning baptismal regeneration, infant baptism, parental faith, intercessory faith, the forgiveness of sins, the grace of God, and the authority of Jesus Christ over His church.
⏱️ Timestamps
0:00 Why Sam Shamoun once rejected infant baptism
1:07 Could Jesus allow the universal church to embrace false teaching?
2:22 The biblical principle behind infant baptism
3:39 Jairus’s faith and the resurrection of his daughter
6:45 The Syrophoenician woman’s faith delivers her daughter
8:33 A father’s faith and the deliverance of his son
10:30 Demons leave people for dead, but Jesus gives life
11:53 The passage that challenged Sam Shamoun’s Baptist tradition
13:12 Mark 2:5 and the forgiveness of the paralytic
14:08 Why biblical evidence alone may not change someone’s mind
⚠️ Important Disclaimer
I am not Sam Shamoun. This channel edits and shares clips from his teachings with permission in order to make his content more accessible and help spread the Word of God. All credit for the teaching belongs to Sam Shamoun.
