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How should the church view their baptized infants?
As believers? As possible believers? As probable believers? As unregenerate until a profession or other evidences?
How should the church view their baptized infants?
As believers? As possible believers? As probable believers? As unregenerate until a profession or other evidences?
Very real Charlie, but I can say that I have a very real sense of obligation to the children of my congregation that does not extend to outsiders. I don't recall if it was an independent action or something actually written into the PCA BOCO, but In a PCA church where I was once a member, we were asked as a congregation to make a spoken commitment during a baptism. That seems most appropriate to me.
The same way we "view" other members of the visible church.
The same way we "view" other members of the visible church.
Exactly.
In response to the OP, and to Charlie, let me begin with an analogic question:
How is my child,--born of USA citizens, in the USA, with a State birth certificate--any different from the child of parents who are visiting this country long-term on a Student (tourist) visa (i.e. living here for a decade). My child can't vote, so really, is he a citizen? He is disallowed from the "sacrament" of driving, what's that? Why should he have to jump through some legalistic hoop, where he has to demonstrate some "road-knowledge and capability," and get a "license." Apparently, there's no difference between my kid, and any member of the tourist-family, right? Sometimes, they even speak our language better than we do.
You can't say education makes any difference, because the tourists' son is enrolled in the local public school. In fact, there's so much that's available to the non-citizen, one might well ask if there is any difference. The "meaningful" factors are practically indistinguishable.
Are they? Have we come to the place where it really doesn't matter that my children are citizens, and these other people aren't? At the end of all our side-by-side participation in countless activities of life, my kids belong here--and those folks DON'T. They are still human beings. They are still worthy of dignity and respect for their personal qualities. But, without proper transference, this place isn't their home. It isn't the home of their kid, who spent more than half his life here.
They are not entitled to the foundational privilege of all: belonging. And if at any time the benefits of belonging are restricted to members, they will be left out. And, they don't have any right to complain about that. Why? because this is not their home--and no amount of wishful thinking will change that. There is a way for that to change, but if they refuse to take that route, how does that help them?
As for my child, he is a citizen. He may only be able to fully participate in the life of the community in ways that are suitable to his minority status, but he's still a citizen, and he will get those other abilities and privileges in due time, all things being equal. And no one should be able to strip him of his citizenship or freedoms without due process. No one can deport him, because this is his homeland.
If we (in this country) NEVER make any difference between citizens and non-citizens, then our membership standards are useless. When our leaders pad the rolls of their supporters by "buying" the votes of non-citizens, and refusing to enforce any laws that discriminate between those who OWN the privileges by a true membership, and those who are interlopers, that does not mean that the concept of citizenship itself has been destroyed. It only means it has been devalued.
Likewise, if we never make it clear that church-membership is desirable, better, and worth more than non-membership, we are only devaluing membership, not invalidating it.
Here's the original question:
How should the church view their baptized infants? As believers? As possible believers? As probable believers? As unregenerate until a profession or other evidences?
I will answer the question in a way that is NOT related to the possibilities offered. I answer the question, based on what we can SEE, not on what we can't.
We treat these children as citizens; that's based on their "birth-certificate," which is a baptism (again, something we can SEE). We baptized them, because they were born to "citizens;" that is, persons who also have a "birth certificate" (however it was obtained), who have matured as they ought to have within the church (the kingdom), and continue under the discipline of the church. They are disciples (being under discipline), and so is that child a "disciple." To be under discipline is to be a disciple. "The disciples were first called 'Christians' at Antioch," Act.11:26. So these children are "Christians."
Citizens. Disciples. Christians. That's how these little baptized persons are to be viewed. ALL we citizens/disciples/Christians are in need of the gospel, all the time, every week in worship. We LIVE by faith in the gospel. We breathe gospel-air. Our children are being incubated in a gospel-environment (or they should be). So, in these children we are looking for signs of conversion, such as evident sorrow for sin; love for God, for Christ, for his Word; fruit of the Spirit; profession; understanding and belief of the truth we confess (catechism anyone?).
I preach the Word with the expectation that the children who are present are getting something from our worship, from the gospel especially. I believe the Spirit is at work there, and everywhere he promises. In the homes of diligent parents, for instance, rearing their children in the fear of God. But especially he's there at his audience-chamber, the gathered church, to meet and to bless those who belong there. For anyone there--old or young--I expect that they could start the worship an unbeliever (secret or apparent); and by the end, they may be a believer, regenerated, whole. I preach and speak according to the judgment of charity, generally. Although, I am not adverse to demanding that the hearer do some self-examining, to see if he is indeed in the faith.
Judging anyone according to [actual] belief/unbelief is (in my view) trying to see the UNSEEABLE. We expect a normal adult to be able to articulate his faith, in a quasi-intelligible way. We don't expect the same of our children. We judge of these different parties according to the facts that we DO know, not what we do not. ANY professing "Christian" today, tomorrow may fall away. ANY "disciple" who is today simply receiving ordinary discipline, may tomorrow face strict discipline, even unto excommunication. Just as any citizen may find himself free today, and tomorrow clapped in irons.
One of the differences I've pointed out before, between Baptists and Presbyterians, is our views of the church's composition on earth. The former sees the church as an "imperfect" (mixed) institution, made up of "perfect" (regenerate) people. Whereas the latter sees the church as a "perfect" (heavenly/ideal) institution, made up of "imperfect" (sinful, error-rid, susceptible to apostasy) people. It really would help for us to understand this distinction, and to follow it out, because it is a true and accurate description of the differences between us.
The Baptist locus of "perfection" is in the personal versus the corporate; the "church" on earth is supposed to be an ideal Christian fellowship, in which certain assumptions are made about the spiritual "perfection" (regeneration) of your fellow professors. But they will be the first to tell you, they do not suppose their "church" on earth is perfect, being a mixed company (possibly).
The Reformed locus of "perfection" is in the corporate, versus the individual; the "church" is those who actually gather for a meeting with all the saints who are in heaven. As Calvin said, true worship actually takes place in heaven, and believers go there to worship spiritually. Unbelievers don't really participate in what is going on. What we profess about ourselves in the church is not our "regeneration" (perfection), but our sinfulness, and our need of the gospel and the Savior, today as much as yesterday; tomorrow as much as today, until we actually GET to heaven. This is what we understand as the necessity of perseverance.
Please understand that I'm not saying that the Baptist doesn't find things to agree with about the latter paragraph; or that the Reformed guy doesn't understand that the individual is significant as far as church goes, or that professing faith is irrelevant to how we treat one another in the church. But this is a question about how we understand the CHURCH. How do we view our baptized infants? In the same we view our baptized adults. As sinners in need of the gospel of Jesus Christ for salvation. Believe and live.