When can children be baptized and/or participate in Communion? Is there an age requirement for baptism and/or the Lord's Supper?

from the old testament

• God called His people to follow Him with understanding, not automatically by family association. Deuteronomy 6:6-7 emphasizes teaching God’s commands to children but with the expectation that they grow to understand and obey them.
• Josiah is an example of a child who had a heart for God and followed Him even at an early age (2 Chronicles 34:3-4).
• Sacrifices, offerings, and temple worship required awareness of sin and obedience to God (Leviticus 4:1-35). This implies that participating in God’s covenantal acts requires a conscious understanding of one’s relationship with Him.

from the new testament

• The Bible teaches that baptism should take place following a person’s belief in Jesus Christ as Savior (Acts 2:38, 8:36-38; Mark 16:16). This means that even if a person was baptized as an infant or at an earlier time, he or she should be baptized following salvation.
• For Communion, the biblical precedent seems to be that a person should only partake in Communion or the Lord's Supper after baptism. Why? Every known occasion in the New Testament of people taking the Lord's Supper involved baptized believers. Further, baptism is designed as the one-time public commitment that a person is a follower of Jesus (Romans 6:3-4). Communion then becomes the ongoing, repeated ordinance to remember the death of Christ on one's behalf (1 Corinthians 11:24-26).

implications for today

The practice of infant baptism did not take place in the New Testament but was later developed in the church to "christen" or commit a child to the Lord. While it may not be specifically wrong to baptize an infant, this is an extra-biblical tradition. Those who come to faith in Christ are still encouraged to receive believer's baptism. The biblical pattern of baptism was one of immersion in water.

How young should a child be baptized? Since no child baptisms were clearly shown in the Bible, the only guideline is that it takes place after salvation. Some children may understand the gospel message enough to express salvation at the age of five or six while others will be teenagers before understanding well enough to decide to follow Jesus.

Some churches make guidelines to not baptize children until the age of twelve or thirteen to refrain from baptizing children too young to understand the decision they are making. Other churches instead require a children's baptism class to help children understand their decision to follow Jesus and the importance of baptism. Parents should be involved in their child's baptism decision as much as possible. Baptism of a child would not typically be conducted without the consent of a parent, since the parent is responsible for the spiritual upbringing of a child.

Rather than at a specific age, baptism should take place when a person understands salvation and is choosing baptism to identify as a believer in Jesus. Parents and church leadership should be involved in the decision to ensure the child's understanding. Similarly, people should only take Communion when they understand salvation and the significance of Communion. Once again, parental guidance and church leadership can be useful for introducing children to Communion. And as with adults, children who take Communion should examine themselves and take it in a worthy manner (1 Corinthians 11:28).