Thread on Baptism:
I changed my mind on baptism (credo to paedo) largely because I began to see that in both the OT & NT, Scripture regards children as little Christians & encourages Christian parents to regard their offspring as in until proven otherwise.
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I changed my mind on baptism (credo to paedo) largely because I began to see that in both the OT & NT, Scripture regards children as little Christians & encourages Christian parents to regard their offspring as in until proven otherwise.
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As Herman Witsius puts it: "God has given that pledge to pious parents that they may regard their little ones as the children of God by gracious adoption, until, when further advanced, they betray themselves by indications to the contrary,..."
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"...and that they may feel not less secure regarding their children dying in infancy than did Abraham and Isaac of old." This is, in part, what Paul means in 1 Cor. 7:14 that children of a believing parent are holy.
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Baptists were right to challenge the way the Church had blended this covenantal Christian identity with national citizenship. In other words, state churches carried this assumption too far, extending it to any person born under the reign of a Christian magistrate.
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But their challenge went too far & invented a very narrow conception of regeneration & conversion, which was adopted more broadly by Brittish & American evangelicalism. Rather than regarding the children of believers as little believers until proven otherwise,...
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they were viewed w/ equal skepticism as the children of non-Christians, & required to have an individual, cognitively mature, & intentional decision to follow Christ before they are regarded as a Christian. This overreaction has unnecessary anxiety for covenant children...
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who feel pressured to have a crisis experience that garauntees they are really a Christian w/ genuine faith. Yet every advance in understanding brings with it the doubt that they were ever truly saved to begin with.
The important correction of evangelicalism has gone too far.
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The important correction of evangelicalism has gone too far.
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To add another important point related to this tweet, JTB did not BREAK the link between physical descent & children of Abraham. He confronted presumption in those that did not believe & clung to sin. This was a key insight for me in embracing infant B.
