Thoughts on Baptism, Part one

I am going to attempt several posts this semester concerning my thoughts on paedo/believer's baptism. This has been a mystery for me for a long time as I will explain below. However, I am starting to feel the need to come down on this issue for several reasons. Because I hope to be joining Zion Church soon, I would like to be cultivating a theology of baptism that will show me how I will appreciate the sacrament. When a baby is baptized at Zion, I need to have a category for how I deal with it. Is it good? Is it acceptable? Is it praiseworthy? Is it done out of tradition or real biblical thought? Another reason for studying this issue is that I hope to attend seminary after school. This decision may or may not have an effect on my choice of seminary, but it definitely will affect how I relate with ideas and people within seminary.

I grew up in the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) in Mississippi. I witnessed many infant baptisms as I was growing up and did not question its validity until around middle school. I found out that my parents were of a believer's baptist position and that they only went to a PCA church because of the strong teaching. Then I realized that I hadn't been baptized as a child. I was baptized when I was 12 years old--I was sprinkled in that Presbyterian church as a believer. I befriended my pastors and struggled with the concept of baptism throughout high school. I was pretty much sold on the idea of believer's baptism when I finished high school and started college so I looked for Baptist churches in the area. Eventually, I had to come back to the PCA for the same reason my parents had joined years ago. I begin to question baptism again after my freshman year in college because of the influence of teaching and friends. And here I am uncertain again.

So I have picked up some reading that will guide me through this topic. I had some material for this previously, and I have a couple of books on order from Amazon. This may be slow processing because I don't have very much time to read. But I hope to get through these books by the end of the semester:

The Case for Covenantal Infant Baptism (Gregg Strawbridge). This came recommended to me by one of the elders in my Church.

Christian Baptism (John Murray). This is a short work but I hope to use Murray to really get an intellectual mindset for infant baptism. He is a very pithy and heady writer.

Believer's Baptism: Sign of the New Covenant in Christ (Thomas Schreiner & Shawn Wright). I chose this because it seems to be a definitive work on the covenantal aspect of believer's baptism. It is endorsed by the likes of Wayne Grudem and Bruce Ware.

I am also finishing a little essay by Bryan Chapell called A Pastoral Overview of Infant Baptism. As the name would imply, his concerns are largely pastoral and not exegetical, but I am using this as a guide to the key passages on baptism, especially in the Old Testament. Befor e I begin my analysis, here is a presupposition and a disclaimer:

Assumption: Covenant theology is largely true. I concede that there is more continuity between the old and new covenants than discontinuity. There is a flow of redemption that needs to be understood. So, any study of theological issues in the NT need to be understood in the context of the OT. I may find that there is some discontinuity in the area of baptism...especially that it is not the sign of the new covenant. But I must first admit that there is a connection between old and new.

Disclaimer: My study will not focus as much on historical example. I find history to be inconclusive when it comes to this issue. As far back as I can see, there has been disagreement about baptism. Even if one side could lay claim to precedence, it could not precede by much, and there are other historical factors that could be at work.

As I begin this study, I need to be very careful about man's opinion. I don't want to be swayed into either camp because I don't want to offend or hurt people. I have great respect for my parents and the people in my church in Sioux City. I also have respect for my friends and teachers in Lincoln. This is hard, but I want my arguments to be biblically grounded in truth, not what is most convenient for me. Any reading recommendations and solid advice are welcome.

I love working at LJS

Most of what I do at the Lincoln Journal Star is business over the phone. Usually, it follows a formula: The customer calls, I take their classified ad, I get payment from them, repeat. Occasionally, I get some really interesting calls.

This is a synopsis of one conversation I had with a lady today:

ME: "Journal Star Classifieds, this is Gray"

LADY: "Hello, my name is ______ and I have received a REVELATION. "

ME: "Ummm... ok"

LADY: "I have received a revelation from the Lord. He told me that every child in the Lincoln Public Schools needs to say the Lord's prayer at 8:00 on Halloween. This is what the Lord said, Children need to know the Lord's prayer and he wants them to say it on Halloween. If this happens, then we can prevent all of the "Woes" spoken of in the book of Revelation. You see, I believe that I am the INCARNATE EVE. In the garden, It was not Adam who was tempted. It was Eve who was tempted, and...."

ME: (Interrupting) "Umm...Ma'am. I'm sorry but did you want to place a Classified Ad."

LADY: (hesitating) Well, how much would it cost me to put this in the paper.

ME: Well, that depends. When did you want this to run.

LADY: It needs to go in tomorrow. We need to get it in there. Children only have 3 weeks to learn the Lord's prayer before halloween. (Then launches back into the prophecy again.)

ME: Well, for an announcement like this, we have to run it on our regular rates. One day will be $28.96. Would you like to place the Ad?

LADY: I will need to consult Gen____ (some name that started with a "G" or a "J"...it sounded to me like it was some kind of spirit guide or angel). I will find out if she wants to run it and call you back.

ME: Ok, thanks, bye.

Times have changed since Isaiah and Jeremiah were prophets. Now prophecy works through mass communication...and it operates on a budget.

Toplady and Wesley

The other day I was perusing monergism, as I am wont to do. I came across a published article written by Augustus Toplady entitled "A letter to the Rev. John Wesley." This article is a seething letter describing Toplady's outrage at John Wesley for secretly printing a pamphlet. Additionally, Wesley misquotes Toplady which enraged him even more. Look at this section:

Though you are neither mentioned, nor alluded to, throughout the whole book, yet it could hardly be imagined that a treatise apparently tending to lay the axe to the root of those pernicious doctrines which, for more than thirty years past, you have endeavoured to palm on your credulous followers, with all the sophistry of a jesuit, and the dictatorial authority of a pope, should long pass without some censure from the hand of a restless Arminian, who has so eagerly endeavoured to distinguish himself as the bellwether of his deluded thousands.

Bam! The letter never relents either. Apparently, Wesley never replied because Toplady wrote another published letter to him 9 months later saying that he had not responded or apologized. Two pastors that were under Wesley did respond, however. But Toplady makes fun of their underdeveloped writing skills instead of dealing with their arguments.

I find this whole situation to be really funny, kinda sad, and without the slightest guise of charity. I didn't find it necessary to read Toplady's other articles on monergism-- Arminianism: The Golden Idol of Free Will and Arminianism: The Road to Rome