Baptism, Studies in the Original Christian Baptism, by Johannes Warns translated from the German by G H Lang and published by Classics.
In this book the author goes through the New Testament and early Christian history (to the end of the second century), and finds no reference to infant baptism. From the third century he finds what he regards as “magical” notions being associated with baptism, notions which open the way for the application of baptism to unconscious infants. With the conversion of Constantine and the close alliance between Church and State engendered thereby, he finds an irresistible influence upon the Church to baptize all members of the State, the Church, in his opinion, being an agent of the State to bring its members under a central control.
This virtual subordination of Church to State, though broken by the Reformers' doctrine, reappeared in an even worse form in the Lutheran State Churches and the practice of infant baptism amongst Protestants, was retained, leading to the secession of the Anabaptists from the Protestant block, and indeed their persecution by Protestants, a persecution as bitter as any experienced by earlier Church movements, such as that of the Donatists. With this historical review in mind, he appeals to all whose consciences are moved by the Holy Ghost, to adopt the Baptist point of view, and be re-baptized as believers. The author also gives a full treatment to the question of the manner of baptism in the New Testament and in early Church times, and shows that it was by total immersion.
