Do Not Hinder Them

Book excerpt: FOREWORD by Dr. John MacArthur Jesus said, "Permit the children to come to Me and do not hinder them; for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these" (Mark 10:14). Is this a verse in support of baptizing children who make a profession of faith in Christ as most evangelicals have supposed? If it is, why is it that so many of the children we baptize grow up to show little if any fruit of having been genuinely converted? Why do so many walk away from Christianity once they gain independence from the home? In Do Not Hinder Them, author and evangelist Justin Peters presents a compelling biblical case that both the nature of children and the nature of salvation warrant extreme caution before we baptize children who have made intellectual assent to the basics of the Gospel. Do Not Hinder Them encourages parents to teach their children the Gospel but also provides strong biblical and theological reasons to wait until they are older before following through with baptism.