A friend handed me a book by Herman Hanko and said that I had to read it. I was only a christian for about 6 months at the time, and had just left a Super Fundamental Baptist church that hated everyone but the Mormon's ( I was in Salt Lake City ). There was no way I was gonna be a baby sprinkler! So, I put the book in a good hiding place, underneath my Unauthorized Version.
After sitting under the strongly Reformed teaching of the Rev. Jason Wallace, I decided to look deeper into Reformed Theology. And about 6 months later and 1400 miles a way in North Carolina, I realized that I was a Reformed Baptist. About the same time my friend had asked if I had read the book that he gave to me by Hanko. He was still not sure which side he was on, but he could see the arguments well for both. He gave me advice in which I will never forget, he said to learn the Paedobaptist position as if I were going to teach it to convince others of the viability of the position.
So, intrigued as I was, I began to read the book, until Herman said that Reformed Baptist was an Oxymoron, and that offended me and I put down the book and have not looked at it but a little sense. I had not yet read Calvin in any manner, as I was seriously afraid because of the bad and evil predestinator to hell, anabaptist burner, straw man built by my Fundy Friends. After many more conversations with my good friend, I decided that I had to do a study on baptism.
(I had at this time read my Bible through 4 times and was studying the Old Testament extensively, along with Church History and Sytematics. Yay! no more Solo Scriptura for me!)
I started with John Calvin on one side and Fred Malone on the other, with the Bible in the middle. John Calvin was convincing to say the least, Malone seemed to have great points too. I went on to every Systematic Theology text I could find, and then through the debates online, and nothing could convince me really of standing on either side firmly. The only thing that kept coming to my mind is that most my friends were Baptist, and some family members too, and I knew they did not understand the Reformed side. I was afraid they might think I was drinking with Calvin out of the baptismal and they would probably not speak to me knowing that I had even read anything from the murderer of Servetus! I did not want to be a baby sprinkler! Especially, knowing the reputation of the Baptist Boxing Club! If you only knew!
It was not until that I heard a wonderfully learned and godly man(Rev. Brent Bradley) explain to me, in short summary, the WCF, in a membership class, the Covenant of Grace. By that time I was aware of the new covenant arguments, and I thought the baptist side was pretty strong. And then, when he had shown how Abraham asked that the Promise be through Ishmael, and God told Abraham that it would be through Isaac and then God gave the sign of the covenant, circumcision, and being that Ishmael received that sign even though the promise was not through him but through Isaac, I was struck and it was at that time that the God of Promise was real to me! And as I had gone to Scripture yet again, and I had to go back to John Calvin again, and it was then that I began to read on Covenant Theology. Which "sealed" the deal for me.
(Since then, I think the best arguments and best debates have been right here on the PB.)