Sunday, June 25, 2006

Why I am Reformed and a Baptist.

Infant Baptism. Do we do it or not?I believe that Gods Word says no.Coming from an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist background made accepting Reformed Theology very hard for me.After much prayer Bible study and reading of many different viewpoints I was convinced that God is the one who does the saving.However it did not work for infant baptism.The more I read the more I was confused.It seemed that there were a bunch of ways to get to infant baptism.The closer I looked at them individually the more I was convinced of believer baptism.It seems that the more I looked for it the less I found it.
A lot of it depends on whether we are in the New covenant or the renewed covenant.We need to see that Christ is the new Abraham and all those who are His seed are to be baptized.A verse that was recently used as one reason for the baptism of infants was Matt 19:14. Here again if we look closer Jesus said to let the children come. infants cannot come.We also do not know if these were believing parents for we see that many came to Him for healing or earthly benefits.If people were having there infants baptized would Jesus need to correct the disciples ?Then He blessed them(not baptized).
Believer baptism is to be a sign of heart circumcision.Just as one is to examine oneself to see if they can take the Lords Supper but can be denied access if under church discipline then so it is with baptism.
If we try to force the unity of the Word then we end up with infant communion,theonomy and failure to follow the regulative principle.To be continued...