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 | | Dear
Cecil,
In order to understand the Reformed doctrine of
paedobaptism, (the
baptism of believers' children) as held by
John Calvin, John Knox,
Matthew Henry, Jonathan Edwards, Louis
Berhof, etc., you need some
background on Reformed covenant
theology and soteriology.
(Soteriology=study of the plan of
salvation)
Covenant theology, in contrast to dispensational
theology, recognizes
more continuity than discontinuity between
the covenants of the Old
and New Testaments. The presbyterian
and reformed churches believe
that the New Covenant is
essentially the fulfillment and continuation
of the covenant
that God made with Abraham to bless him and his seed.
Genesis
12
1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy
country,
and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto
a land that I
will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a
great nation, and I will bless thee,
and make thy name great;
and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse him that curseth
thee: and in thee shall all
families of the earth be blessed.
This covenant that God made
with Abraham was a promise to make him
the father of all the
redeemed through his Seed Jesus Christ. Not
only one nation
would be blessed by Abraham, but "all families of the
earth",
who by faith in Christ are ingrafted into blessed Israel.
Galatians 3
7 Know ye therefore that they which are of
faith, the same are the
children of Abraham.
8 And the
scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through
faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In
thee
shall all nations be blessed.
9 So then they which be of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham.
There is essentially no
distinction between the Abrahamic covenant
and the "New"
Covenant. God's promise to Abraham was the new
covenant, it was
the "gospel" as Paul says here. Christ and the
diffusion of the
gospel is the fulfillment of God's promise to
Abraham to bless
all nations through him. In the Old Testament, the
covenant was
restricted to one nation, but now it is for people of
every
nation. In the Old Testament, the promise was passed on from
generation to generation. Even so, God's covenant promise is
passed
on from generation to generation today. In Abraham's day,
God gave
the sign of circumcision to confirm His blessing of
salvation on
Abraham and His seed.
Genesis 17
7 And I
will establish my covenant between me and thee *and thy
seed
after thee in their generations* for an everlasting covenant, to
be a God unto thee, *and to thy seed after thee*...
10 This
is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and
thy
seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be
circumcised.
God commanded Abraham to circumcize every male
child as a sign of the
covenant. Even though not every child
would grow up to fear the Lord
and recieve the promise, they all
recieved the sign of the promise.
It was a sign to confirm God's
blessing on His covenant people. You
had visible Israel, made up
of all circumsized males and their
families, and true Israel,
made up of all believers, to whom the
promise actually belonged
through faith. All of them appeared to be,
and so were treated
as, Israelites, unless and until they fell away,
(e.g. Ishmael,
Esau, etc.)
In the same way, the apostles in the New
Testament confirmed God's
covenant blessings as passing from
generation to generation for New
Testament believers of every
nation. The sign of the covenant has
been changed from
circumcision to baptism.(Col2:11,12) Just as the
male children
of Israel were to be circumcized in the Old Testament,
the
children of believers are to be baptized today.
Peter said,
Acts 2
38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be
baptized every one of
you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
remission of sins, and ye
shall receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost.
39 For the promise is unto you, *and to your children*,
and to all
that are afar off, even as many as the LORD our God
shall call.
The promise of salvation properly belongs to the
children of
believers, because they are part of the covenant
community. They
ought not to be denied the sacrament of baptism.
If we neglect to
baptize our children, we are treating them like
little heathen. God
calls the children of believers a "holy"
seed.(1Cor7:14) The
reformed churches believe that we are saved
by grace through faith
alone, and that faith is not of
ourselves, it is purely a gift from
God.(Ephes2:8) We don't know
for sure if our children are going to
be saved, but we apply the
sign of ingrafting into Christ while
hoping, and believing, that
God will give them faith and save them.
Just as with ancient
Israel, we consider them believers unless and
until they prove
that they are not. The sign of baptism properly
belongs to them
as born members of the church, which is the covenant
community.
I hope this helps you understand the Presbyterian and
Reformed
doctrine of infant baptism. For people who are not the
children of
believers, a profession of faith is required for
baptism. For the
children of believers, we assume that they are
believers until they
prove otherwise because of God's promise to
bless our children.
When I sent you that link to the RPCNA
constitution, I only meant to
show you the covenant, which is
about 5 pages worth of the
constitution. For the definitive
doctrinal statement outlining the
historic Presbyterian/Reformed
systematic theology, which explains
the doctrines of the
covenant, soteriology, and baptism, read the
Westminster
Confession of Faith:
http://www.opc.org/documents/WCF_chapters.html
It's
about 20 pages long.
God bless,
Riley
--- In http://groups.yahoo.com/group/christianbiblediscussion/post?protectID=219015091009099134036098066085231040248248015241077171013193194056143057077004239018127196091252086039147035038070085168,
cpt_tlr1167
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/christianbiblediscussion/post?protectID=219154114012175153218248017028052165026048139046>
wrote:
> Dan,
> I`ve not read all the
Covenant/constitution at the site you gave
me, but don`t
understand your comment" permissive view" ? .My
understanding
tho is salvation first then baptism,(for PC church) but
why
baptise children? Sounds like RC doctrine to me.
> We disagree
on the Millenium and its place in history.
> IMO "rapture"
first, 2nd coming after Tribulation(7yr period) then
Millenium,
then Eternity.
> Reformation/restoration IMO will not happen
until Christ reigns in
Jerusalem, then not complete until after
1000 yrs.
> Cecil 2 Cor.4:5
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