Children and Baptism

Sam — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 00:05:01 +0000

This is a topic that is very close to me since I have children who are perhaps ready to be baptized. Mike Gilbert-Smith’s article is very interesting and he makes some good points. However, there are a few things I don’t understand:

Before responding, here are a few assumptions that I’m not going to try to prove.

1. We can never see anyone’s heart, whatever age
2. Baptism should usually be followed quickly by local church membership and admittance to the Lord’s supper. Most paedobaptists are saved from must mess because they are not paedocommunionists, and recognise that 7 year olds are not capable of the level of self-examination that are necessary for taking the Lord’s supper.
3. No (self-consciously) unbaptised person should be admitted to the Lord’s table, as baptism is the initiatory ordinance, and the Lord’s Supper is the ongoing ordinance. As regards the order of the ordinances therefore, the Lord’s Supper before baptism is like sex before marriage.

I don’t know how he gets to assumption numbers 2 and 3 biblically. I can understand the heart of the matter, but I don’t see it textually. Not that I have all the answers and baptism and communion are certainly very difficult topics men far smarter than me have wrestled with for centuries. Nonetheless, this article is worth reading.

Baptism, Baptism, Baptism

Sam — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:48:54 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot about baptism of late, and I’m really looking forward to doing baptisms soon. Also, we’re very close to putting out a position paper on baptism. But I thought I’d plug this book because it looks really good on the subject.

The three views are by:

Bruce Ware (Believers’ Baptism)
Sinclair Ferguson (Infant Baptism)
Anthony Lane (Dual-Practice Baptism)

(HT: JT)

Gospel Prism » Baptism

Children and Baptism

Baptism, Baptism, Baptism