Last Sunday my son Silas, just short of his 3-month birthday, was baptized. This is a blessed event, but sadly, it can be divisive. Not all Christians believe in infant baptism. They’re convinced that only professing Christians should be baptized. This issue is, of course, one of the big dividers between Baptists and Presbyterians or other denominations that embrace the tradition of infant baptism.

I have my reasons for embracing infant baptism, and don’t want to use this blog post to lay out all of my views. Suffice to say that baptism is a sacrament—it’s something that first and foremost God is doing—a sign and seal of the Covenant of Grace. God’s promise is made to believers and their children, and children of believers have a right to the sign and to the outward privileges of the church under the Gospel, no less than the children of Abraham had in the time of the Old Testament (the Covenant of Grace in substance being the same).

I could go on but won’t. What I will do, however, is ask that, if you ever wish to acknowledge a child’s baptism, you acknowledge what it is, a baptism, and not what you might prefer to call it—perhaps a “christening,” or a “dedication.” That’s the language of people who don’t accept infant baptism. Those of us who embrace baptism don’t refer to the sacrament by any term other than “baptism.” When our children come to age of discretion, they are expected to make public profession of their faith, but they are not to be rebaptized.

Do we, as parents of the baptized infant, dedicate our children to God during the baptism ceremony? Yes, we do. The pastor asks, “Do you now unreservedly dedicate your child to God, and promise, in humble reliance upon divine grace, that you will endeavor to set before him a godly example, that you will pray with and for him, that you will teach him the doctrines of our holy religion, and that you will strive, by all the means of God’s appointment, to bring him up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?” “We do,” we respond. Therefore, “dedication” isn’t an entirely wrong way to refer to what we’re doing. Yet it’s only part of what happens in baptism, and should never to be used to describe the whole of the sacrament.

So it’s a little disheartening when loved ones who have different convictions congratulate us on our child’s “christening” or “dedication.” Sometimes the mistakes are well-intentioned, but sometimes the well wishes are uttered by those who know better but won’t acknowledge the beliefs of the baptized child’s parents. Such incidents put a damper on what otherwise is a great celebration.