As was mentioned in Chapter 3, the rebirth in the orthodox Church coincides with the holy baptism; it does not come before being baptised. The baptism is salvation, for this and we do not deprive young children of it. The Lord ordered that no one should hinder the children from receiving the grace (Matt. 19: 14).
St. Irenaeus (d. 202) mentions that Christ "came to save via Himself; everyone, I tell you, that via Him is reborn in God, infants and children and young and old. For this He came for all ages and became infant for the infants, blessing the infants; nepios between the nepia, blessing the ones having this age..." (Irenaeus, MPL, 7,784).
Origen informs us of the acts of the Church of his time: "The children are being baptised for remission of sins...because (when) one is not clean from filth, the filth he gets rid of via the Mystery of baptism; for this and the children are baptised" (Memorandum to Rom. 5:9).
Tertullian, under heretic influence, goes against the then action of the Church and mentions: "Why does the innocent age rush to the remission of sins? Does she [means the Church] wish perhaps to deal with transitory things with greater care, and trust the divine goods with someone, to whom it does not yet even trust with the earthly ones?" (Tertull. On baptism, 18).
St. Cyprian (d. 258) informs us "we are not allowed to deny to any man, who was born, the mercy and grace of God. For, since the Lord mentions in his evangelion that the Son of man did not come to destroy the souls of men, but to save them (Luke 9: 56), it is not allowed, in all that depends on us, for a soul to be lost. For what is missing in the one that was formed in the womb of his mother with the hand of God"? "If something could stop people from receiving the grace, then the bigger sins would be much more of an obstacle for the grown-ups and older people and old people. If though remission of sins is given to even bigger sinners and to those that in the past had sinned against God many a time and no one is turned away from the baptism and the grace, if he later on comes back, how much less it is allowed to stop a child (from being baptised), who is newborn and did not commit any sin, but has only suffered with the first birth the effect of the old death, because the child, like Adam was born in flesh! This way it can reach to the remission of sins more easily, because there are no personal sins to forgive, only others' sins" (Cypr. Epistle to Fints, BKV 2,273. 275).
St. Gregory the Theologian, to secure nepiobaptism, mentions circumcision, that was being done on the eighth day after the child's birth (Gen. 17: 12) and the covering of the doors with lamb's blood (Exodus 12: 7) and underlines: "We use as an explanation, the eighth-day circumcision, which was a formal stamp and was given to those, to whom reasoning had not yet been developed. Similarly the covering of the doors, which was guarding with the things that could not sense, the first-born". (Greg. Theol., Speech 40,28). "You have a nepion? Do not give time to wickedness; baptise it from the infant age, offer it to the Spirit from the age of the tender nails" (Greg. Theol., Speech 40,17).
For a deeper analysis on the subject of Baptism, please go to Theme Three.
EXPLANATION OF TERMS USED IN THE CHAPTER
nepiobaptism = the baptism of infants. (Also, nepios = the one to whom reasoning has not been developed yet (male structure). nepion = same thing, but male or female (neuter structure) ; nepia = plural of nepion.)
mysteries = A mystery in the orthodox faith refers to the transmission of the invisible divine grace via visible signs. For instance, what the Roman Catholics call "the seven sacraments" are all mysteries, as well as the nativity of the Son from the Father and the procession of the Spirit from the Father and His mission from the Son are all mysteries. For more on this subject, visit this link.
evangelion = gospel (see also note on evangelic).
evangelic = related to the gospels; Gospel is called Evangelion in Greek from ev- for good (prefix) and angelos for messenger; i.e. the book of good messages. The word Evangelion refers to any of the four gospels of the New Testament (Mark, Luke, John and Matthew), for these were the ones that told the world the good message of Christ's coming. The Orthodox Church via her Divine Tradition rejects the so-called Apocryphal gospels (however the Orthodox and Protestants do not consider the same gospels as apocryphal, as the Protestants have rejected parts of the Greek translation according to the O' (70) from the Old Testament, i.e. of the Septuagint, and called these "apocryphal" too). Unfortunately, the word evangelical has been misused today by protestant groups to mean essentially hyperdogmatic i.e. not belonging to a specific christian group or viewing existence within a particular group as secondary, and thus, in some format, appearing to be "above dogma" (hence the name hyperdogmatic). On occasion, we will find the word evangelical to mean adogmatic i.e. having no specific doctrines, either formally (admitted by the group itself) or indirectly (when the group is hyperdogmatic and/or the doctrines are "clouded"). Clearly this is not the definition used by the so-called evangelicals themselves, but the term is not accurate anyway, exactly because their beliefs are not accurate (as a whole and not only locally). As an example of a definiton used by them, we will give that of the baptist pastor Billy Graham: evangelicals are those christians who accept the full authenticity of the Bible, have accepted Christ as their "personal Saviour" and wish to follow Him in the real life. Of course, this usually means that they accept ONLY the authenticity of the Bible, and their interpretation of who Jesus was, and the beliefs of the Church in their opinion differ considerably even within similar evangelical groups. Strictly speaking the word evangelical should mean "related to the gospels" so when I want to use that word I will use the word evangelic instead, to avoid (hopefully) confusion that could arise otherwise.
nepiobaptism = the baptism of infants. (Also, nepios = the one to whom reasoning has not been developed yet (male structure). nepion = same thing, but male or female (neuter structure) ; nepia = plural of nepion.)