The Practice of Infant Baptism
Keep in mind that baptism alone does nothing. It takes faith (Hebrews 11:6) and belief in Jesus (John 3:16), we must confess (Romans 10:9) and we must repent (Luke 13:3). When all of these things are done with the faith and understanding that God will forgive us when we humble ourselves and submit to his will, we receive salvation and the grace that is offered to God's children. We must do all these things. I will state them again for clarity:
1. We must hear the word of God (i.e., understand it) (Romans 10:14)
2. We must believe (John 3:16)
3. We must confess Jesus before witnesses (Romans 10:9, Matthew 10:32-33)
4. We must repent and turn our lives from sin (Luke 13:3)
5. We must be baptized for the remission of our sins (Acts 22:16, Acts 2:38, I Peter 3:20-21)
Thus baptism is the final act of obedience that places us into God's family and reconciles us back to God as his children.
Some people have the mistaken notion that a child must be baptized so that if it dies it will also go to heaven. This is usually to take care of any sins that the child is born with (i.e., inherited from the Father or Mother). The bible teaches contrary to this.
Let's look at Ezekiel 18:20:
"The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him." (Ezekiel 18:20)
We see from the above verse that only the soul that sins (commits the sin) will die. I hope that you will read chapter 18 of Ezekiel to place all of this in context so that no one will mislead you. We learn that the child DOES NOT bear the sins of the father and the father DOES NOT bear the iniquity of the son. The soul that sins will die.