Iconoclast
Puritan Board Junior
Why did Peter add, "and to your children" in Acts 2:39?
"Repent, and be baptized everyone of you, for the promise is to you and to your children."
The Baptist assumes the children must repent.
If someone said,
"Work hard, and enjoy the fruit of your labor, everyone of you, for the abundance is to you and to your children."
Does the Baptist also assume the children must work hard?
But you left a very important part of the verse out: as many as the Lord our God will call.
"Repent, and be baptized everyone of you, for the promise is to you and to your children, as many as the Lord our God will call."
The equivalent in your example would be:
"Work hard, and enjoy the fruit of your labor, everyone of you, for the abundance is to you and to your children, as many as the boss selects."
By this, the Baptist would assume that only those whom are chosen by the boss get the abundance. But you would have everyone getting abundance whether they have been actually selected or not.
Hello again, Pastor.
Thanks for the challenge.
Those who work show they have been selected. But children are not in the pool of potential selectees because they are not yet able to work. When they are able to work (profess belief) it will be manifest if the boss has selected them. In the meanwhile they benefit from a representative (patriarch of household) in enjoying the abundance (outward Baptism)
And another thing! The "promise" was the Holy Spirit, as promised in the New Covenant. Are you suggesting by using this verse that all children of believers automatically receive the Holy Spirit?
Since Peter is quoting Genesis, the promise is all the benefits of Christ promised to Abraham. No, I'm not saying all who are baptized are elect, I'm saying the promise is to individuals in households who do not grow up to despise their baptism. In other words, "you are now saved if you persevere in faith. If you do not persevere in faith, you are not now saved." This is the promise to holy infants.
These last two paragraphs are very troubling. It almost sounds like something I heard from the auburn avenue conference, confusing santification, with justification.
Using this logic[ I'm saying the promise is to individuals in households who do not grow up to despise their baptism.] Let us just baptize all babies born everywhere,and if they do not grow up to despise their baptism they also will be saved?
The question asked about the promise of the Holy Spirit once again re-surfaces.
Any child or adult who does not have the Holy Spirit is not Christ's Rom8:9. Rom.9:8