Sure, we can go over covenant theology. The continuous sign of circumcision. Until the simple mind who inquired this has gotten lost in the word "covenant" or "people of God". They might as well just need to understand "grace of God comes before believe."
However, it's as simple as birthright citizenship. So, even non-Christians get this. I thought only I thought of this, but actually Darryl Hart had already come up with it (Thanks to Google AI!).
The opponent only has two defenses:
- "Mark 16:16." Which is easily refuted as bad hermeneutic. It is not about order (i.e. first believe, then baptize) as many Baptists would say. Such as: He who loves America and has become citizen will be able to vote.
- "Baptism is the affirmation of one's belief and proclamation as a believer." This is not biblical, also, we never ask an infant to proclaim his love for America first before granting him citizenship.
2026-03-10 Update: on my citizenship analogy, after seeing the debates on the requirement of baptism from Mark 16:16, so as to be used in another topic (not concerning paedobaptism) of Mark 16:16, that Baptism doesn't save, only Believe saves: Instead of saying He who loves America or he who is 18 and loves America, I would say "He who is mature" and has become a citizen, can truly be taken seriously by his countrymen.