A meme recently circulated online showing a frustrated Baptist arguing with several early church figures like Augustine and Hippolytus. The implication was obvious: “The early church baptized babies, Baptists are denying history, end of discussion.” The problem is that the meme oversimplifies a very complicated issue. Historically speaking, the claim that “the early church didn’t baptize babies” is false if by “early church” we mean the post-apostolic church broadly across the second, third, and fourth centuries. There is real historical…