elnwood
Puritan Board Junior
I mentioned before that the London Baptist Confession removes all of the Westminster Confession Chapter 27 regarding the sacraments.
WCF 27
1. Sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace, immediately instituted by God, to represent Christ and his benefits, and to confirm our interest in him: as also to put a visible difference between those that belong unto the Church, and the rest of the world; and solemnly to engage them to the service of God in Christ, according to his Word.
2. There is in every sacrament a spiritual relation, or sacramental union, between the sign and the thing signified; whence it comes to pass that the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other.
3. The grace which is exhibited in or by the sacraments, rightly used, is not conferred by any power in them; neither doth the efficacy of a sacrament depend upon the piety or intention of him that doth administer it, but upon the work of the Spirit, and the word of institution, which contains, together with a precept authorising the use thereof, a promise of benefit to worthy receivers.
It is replaced by LBC Chapter 28:
1. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordinances of positive and sovereign institution, appointed by the Lord Jesus, the only lawgiver, to be continued in his church to the end of the world.
2. These holy appointments are to be administered by those only who are qualified and thereunto called, according to the commission of Christ.
Every use of the word "sacrament" in the LBC is removed or replaced by "ordinance." The references to the sacraments being the signs and seals of the covenant of grace are removed, and also from 29.1. The "sacramental union" between the sign and the thing signified is removed. Every use of the term "grace" with reference to baptism.
So from a Baptist perspective, do you think baptism and the Lord's supper are sacraments? Means of grace? How would you define "sacrament" and "means of grace"? And, most important of all, what Scriptures would you use to defend it?
I want responses from BAPTISTS ONLY because:
1) The hermeneutical frameworks of Baptists and paedobaptists are very, very different. I want to discuss this among those of us in agreement on the proper recipients of baptism.
2) The Presbyterians are bound to defend "sacraments" and "means of grace" as scriptural because of their subordinate standard. We Reformed Baptists are not so bound. I'm more interested in a discussion revolving around Scripture rather than one in which the confessions are taken a priori as scriptural.
WCF 27
1. Sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace, immediately instituted by God, to represent Christ and his benefits, and to confirm our interest in him: as also to put a visible difference between those that belong unto the Church, and the rest of the world; and solemnly to engage them to the service of God in Christ, according to his Word.
2. There is in every sacrament a spiritual relation, or sacramental union, between the sign and the thing signified; whence it comes to pass that the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other.
3. The grace which is exhibited in or by the sacraments, rightly used, is not conferred by any power in them; neither doth the efficacy of a sacrament depend upon the piety or intention of him that doth administer it, but upon the work of the Spirit, and the word of institution, which contains, together with a precept authorising the use thereof, a promise of benefit to worthy receivers.
It is replaced by LBC Chapter 28:
1. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordinances of positive and sovereign institution, appointed by the Lord Jesus, the only lawgiver, to be continued in his church to the end of the world.
2. These holy appointments are to be administered by those only who are qualified and thereunto called, according to the commission of Christ.
Every use of the word "sacrament" in the LBC is removed or replaced by "ordinance." The references to the sacraments being the signs and seals of the covenant of grace are removed, and also from 29.1. The "sacramental union" between the sign and the thing signified is removed. Every use of the term "grace" with reference to baptism.
So from a Baptist perspective, do you think baptism and the Lord's supper are sacraments? Means of grace? How would you define "sacrament" and "means of grace"? And, most important of all, what Scriptures would you use to defend it?
I want responses from BAPTISTS ONLY because:
1) The hermeneutical frameworks of Baptists and paedobaptists are very, very different. I want to discuss this among those of us in agreement on the proper recipients of baptism.
2) The Presbyterians are bound to defend "sacraments" and "means of grace" as scriptural because of their subordinate standard. We Reformed Baptists are not so bound. I'm more interested in a discussion revolving around Scripture rather than one in which the confessions are taken a priori as scriptural.