jpechin
Puritan Board Freshman
I'm a new guy, so you will hopefully excuse what is likely the umpteenth million thread started on this issue and allow me to cut my young milk teeth on this issue...
I recently came out of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Great denomination, and I can say nothing wrong of them.
I had to become a credobaptist primarily for the following reasons:
1. When applying a similar hermeneutic as you would toward regulative worship, one must find that the new covenant trumps the old. The types and shadows of the old are fulfilled in the new, and I think that it is nearly unimportant who is in the visible church, in light of the invisible that has been made fully known in the new covenant. Our desire is definitively now to save our children, not make them a token member of some visible fraternity (as sweet as our fellowship is, there are tares). We do absolutely nothing eternal with the water baptism - it is the spirit of God and the visible fruits thereof that we hope and pray for in our children; obviously that is of God alone, but our children reap the wonderful benefit of being surrounded by the true children of the covenant by faith and His Holy word (two of the means by which God saves).
2. When I asked the OPC elders how I should consider a baby that has died after baptism but before they have displayed any fruits of repentance or faith, the answer was, "we should assume that this child is saved." This is the most consistent and systematic version of paedobaptism, as I presently understand. One is imparting the covenant, rather than God laying His guarantee upon it with the sealing in the Spirit. I simply cannot accept this model, in light of God's sovereignty.
3. Somewhat secondary/tertiary, these: The tradition of washings and baptisms is to ceremoniously wash one's sins in the manner of washing one's conscience and/or dedicating oneself to the teaching of a rabbi or sect of Judaism. The mikvah was often done on a regular basis, but just as there is only one bapitsm within the Spirit, we as Xristianos need only wash once. In light of this intent, along with the connection between the Lord's Supper and baptism, along with the admonishment that we need to examine ourselves before partaking of the elements, and with the practice of one fasting and praying and examining oneself in the early church prior to baptism (a great book on this matter is "Baptism in the Early Church", published by ARBCA).
In all things, let there be grace and I apologize if any of this sounds too beligerant. That's not my goal. That would be to crush paedobaptists and prove them wrong (KIDDING!!!).
Sincerely, let God and His word be glorified, and all creeds, confessions, perspectives, assumptions, etc be made secondary. Sola Scriptura, brothers.
Sola Deo Gloria!
I recently came out of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Great denomination, and I can say nothing wrong of them.
I had to become a credobaptist primarily for the following reasons:
1. When applying a similar hermeneutic as you would toward regulative worship, one must find that the new covenant trumps the old. The types and shadows of the old are fulfilled in the new, and I think that it is nearly unimportant who is in the visible church, in light of the invisible that has been made fully known in the new covenant. Our desire is definitively now to save our children, not make them a token member of some visible fraternity (as sweet as our fellowship is, there are tares). We do absolutely nothing eternal with the water baptism - it is the spirit of God and the visible fruits thereof that we hope and pray for in our children; obviously that is of God alone, but our children reap the wonderful benefit of being surrounded by the true children of the covenant by faith and His Holy word (two of the means by which God saves).
2. When I asked the OPC elders how I should consider a baby that has died after baptism but before they have displayed any fruits of repentance or faith, the answer was, "we should assume that this child is saved." This is the most consistent and systematic version of paedobaptism, as I presently understand. One is imparting the covenant, rather than God laying His guarantee upon it with the sealing in the Spirit. I simply cannot accept this model, in light of God's sovereignty.
3. Somewhat secondary/tertiary, these: The tradition of washings and baptisms is to ceremoniously wash one's sins in the manner of washing one's conscience and/or dedicating oneself to the teaching of a rabbi or sect of Judaism. The mikvah was often done on a regular basis, but just as there is only one bapitsm within the Spirit, we as Xristianos need only wash once. In light of this intent, along with the connection between the Lord's Supper and baptism, along with the admonishment that we need to examine ourselves before partaking of the elements, and with the practice of one fasting and praying and examining oneself in the early church prior to baptism (a great book on this matter is "Baptism in the Early Church", published by ARBCA).
In all things, let there be grace and I apologize if any of this sounds too beligerant. That's not my goal. That would be to crush paedobaptists and prove them wrong (KIDDING!!!).
Sincerely, let God and His word be glorified, and all creeds, confessions, perspectives, assumptions, etc be made secondary. Sola Scriptura, brothers.
Sola Deo Gloria!
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