When Should You Baptize?

[Apotheoun]

St. Augustine had a perverted sense of man's nature, which was probably a vestigial element of his former Manichean error. St. John Chrysostom, who is more or less representative of the Eastern Church Fathers, held that baptism of infants was not to remove sin, because sin requires activity on the part of the sinner. Instead, the baptism of infants confers other gifts (i.e., other than the remission of sins) upon the recipient (e.g., filial adoption, divine inheritance, and membership in the body of Christ, etc.). Thus to reiterate what I said earlier, baptism according to Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic tradition is normally conferred upon an infant either on the eighth day or more commonly on the fortieth day after birth.

[Apotheoun]

"Blessed be God, who alone does wonderful things! You have seen how numerous are the gifts of baptism. Although many men think that the only gift it confers is the remission of sins, we have counted its honors to the number of ten. It is on this account that we baptize even infants, although they are sinless, that they may be given the further gifts of sanctification, justice, filial adoption, and inheritance, that they may be brothers and members of Christ, and become dwelling places for the Spirit" [St. John Chrysostom, Third Baptismal Instruction, no. 6].