Theology
Category

By In Theology

Finally Discussing Paedocommunion for Real

By Luke Welch

At Kuyperian, it would be fair to peg us as proponents of including all the baptized in the Lord’s Supper. In earlier months, I kept writing as if I were going to be discussing the topic, but I kept falling short and only talking about baptism. So I have been dying for a chance to finally enter into the discussion of that blessed fourteen letter word: paedocommunion.

And here we are. I will start now. And today’s post will be relatively short: a summary of longer, future arguments.

Church doors

 

LOCUS CLASSICUS
1 Corinthians is the place the battle must be won or lost, though many other passages matter to the discussion. For today’s listeners, 1 Cor 11 is the roadblock. In soon-to-come posts the following will be spelled out. For now a summary of my series of arguments.

THESIS
1 Corinthians 10-13 teaches paedocommunion implicitly, and does not exclude children from the Lord’s table.

A – BODY means THE CHURCH
1 Corinthians 10-13 is a section intensely focused on the unity of the church; the controlling metaphor for the section is “one body made of many members (body parts).” We should expect “body” in this section to be a reference to the church, unless in some instance it is clearly a reference to something else.

B – IF YOU ARE WASHED, YOU EAT
There is a one to one correspondence between those who are baptized and those who are in the body, and then also between those who commune and those who are in the body. All the baptized commune. There is no non-communing member of the church.

C – PAEDOCOMMUNION PRECEDENCE
In this section, Paul explains the Eucharist by telling story after story illustrated by feasts that included children.

D – THE “WORTHINESS-TEST” IS NOT NEW IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
Those same feasts also required that participants be worthy and examine themselves. All the while, they included children.

E – THE WARNINGS ARE NOT TO CHILDREN
The major problems being addressed are high-handed sins: idolatry, flagrant immorality, and hypocritical use of the unity meal to treat the poor as second class citizens in the kingdom.

F – PAUL WANTS REPENTANT EATERS, NOT HARD HEARTED ABSTAINERS
No positive command is given as a prerequisite for entrance to the meal. Mostly we mistake corporate or liturgical actions as individual tests of worthiness.

SINCE YOU ARE ITCHING FOR HOMEWORK

See if you can identify what I mean before I post longer explanations!

UPDATE: Part 2 of this discussion can be found here:

Paedocommunion – One of the Most Un-Well Reasoned Things Calvin Ever Said

Luke Welch has a master’s degree from Covenant Seminary and preaches regularly in a conservative Anglican church in Maryland. He blogs about Bible structure at SUBTEXT. Follow him on Twitter: @lukeawelch<>neobrutраскрутка а 1с

Read more

By In Culture, Politics, Theology

Two Births of Jesus

One night in Nazareth, God became man in the virgin womb of Mary, a young lady betrothed to Joseph of Nazareth. Three trimesters later, Jesus was born on Christmas day. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes (Lk. 2:7). Gentile worshipers brought him gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Mt. 2:11). The infant’s life was threatened by an evil king, but he escaped death (Mt. 2:13-15).

Thirty-three years later, Jesus had his life threatened again by evil rulers (Mt. 26:65-68). Instead of escaping, he volunteered to die (Jn. 10:18). At his death in Jerusalem, Israelite worshipers prepared spices and oils for him (Lk. 23:55-56; Jn. 19:39-40). He was wrapped in fine linens and buried in a virgin tomb, a tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea (Mt. 27:57-60; Lk. 23:53). Three days later, he was reborn on Easter Sunday.

As we celebrate the nativity of our Lord today, let us recall the glorious providence of God. Let us remember that not only does Christ’s first coming look forward to his second coming, but that his birth out of the womb foreshadows his birth out of the tomb. King Jesus conquered death and now sits on heaven’s throne. We join his mother in singing these words from the Magnificat: (more…)

Read more

By In Culture, Theology

Christmas in the Tropics

DR beachby Marc Hays

As I write, I sit under an umbrella on the patio behind a house that I cannot afford. Somehow, my brother-in-law, Steve Griffin, a missionary with Daystar Baptist Missions, has connections that put us here for around the cost of a decent hotel. The villa where we’re staying could just as likely be found on the Mediterranean as the Caribbean, but I don’t know that it could be any more exotic. The sky is clear and blue; the sun is shining and warm; and palm trees are the norm. There’s always a chance of rain and never a chance of snow.

My brother-in-law and his family do not live in this town. They live about 15 minutes east in the city of San Pedro de Macoris. San Pedro is a city teeming with people – about 250,000 of them. It is dirty, and it is loud, like many cities. There must be 50 motorcycles for every car, and at least 4 people for every motorcycle. It is common to see a family of four riding down the street on the same motorcycle.Dominican-Republic-Pillion-Crowded

I like to drive, but I am glad I am not driving here. There are lines on some roads, but a painted line has never kept a car in it’s lane. There are lights at some intersections, but a light has never stopped a car, or a motorcycle, yet. I have not witnessed a traffic accident, but I have seen thousands of near-misses. It seems like every car or motorcycle you pass is a near-miss.

The buildings here are all made of concrete. They build a single-story house like we build sky-scrapers in the States. The support structure is made of steel reinforced, concrete columns. The walls are made of concrete blocks and finished with a layer of stucco. The floors are concrete. The ceilings are concrete. The roofs are concrete covered in tiles. Wood rots. Concrete doesn’t. They laugh at us for building houses with “sticks.” The termites and the humidity will not allow for stick-built homes here.

When you build a house in San Pedro, you need more blocks than just the ones for your house. You need blocks for the walls that encircle your house. Virtually every home is surrounded by a concrete wall, and entry to the property is secured by a steel gate. Due to the alarmingly high number of petty thefts, even the doors and windows of the house are covered in iron bars. The Dominicans have done well in adapting though. Many of the homes’ anti-theft protection is made of intricately woven patterns of iron and steel, painted in blacks and golds. The bars and gates are as beautiful as they are necessary.

But, oh, how the gospel could change all that. “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.” (Eph 4:28) Oh, how the gospel will change all that. The earth will be full of the knowledge and glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (Is. 11:9; Hab. 2:14) A city with no need for walls may sound like some utopian ideal, but it’s not. It’s much simpler than that. It’s heaven on earth.

This Christmas, we remember that when Jesus began to grow inside the womb of Mary, heaven and earth overlapped. It was small at first, but God likes to start small. He starts with a trickle from under the altar. (Ezek 47) Jesus grew and the overlap grew with him. Kings murdered; demons railed; hypocrites pontificated; traitors kissed; witnesses lied; and soldiers nailed; but no one could stop the overlap from growing. The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers took counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed (Ps 2), but the water had already begun to flow out from under the altar. Immanuel, God with us, was here, and he was not returning to the Father unsatisfied. The Kingdom was his for the taking; all he had to do was die, and die he did. The veil was torn in two. The waters that flowed from under the altar had overflowed the threshold of the temple and were becoming a river.

But Jesus did not stay dead; for death had no power over him. He arose, and the river swelled deeper than the knees, the waist, the chest. The overlap between heaven and earth was ever growing. Jesus returned to the Father and the Holy Spirit was sent. The river from the temple made it all the way to the sea, and the salt waters were made fresh. Jews and Gentiles became brothers and sisters. The middle wall of partition was taken down, and the overlap grew.

But how will the Dominicans, or anyone else, know that Jesus came so that they could stop building walls? How will they learn that a poor man with a crust of bread that he bought is happier than a poor man with a stolen plasma screen? How did the people of Bethlehem find out that heaven was overlapping earth in a stable just outside of town? “When they (the shepherds) had seen this (Jesus in the manger), they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.” (Lk 2:17,18) How will they hear unless there’s a preacher? (Rom 10:14)

This Christmas, I’m happy to be in the tropics, meeting some fellow Gentiles that Jesus came to redeem. I’m glad I got to give my children the gift of seeing other Christians, other people, in other places. This Christmas, I’m glad that Jesus sent preachers into my life and is sending preachers into every nation until the overlap is complete – until the earth is as full of the knowledge and glory of God as the waters cover the sea through the Son of God, who is also the Son of Man, Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas!

Go to www.drvision.org to find out more about the mission organization that Steve and Julia are working with.

<>google adwrodsнужно поисковое продвижение а

Read more

By In Theology

How Can Christmas Be Merry When I Am Grieving?

By Uri Brito

My three-year old son and I have a wonderful little work we do on Mondays and Thursday evenings. Our neighbor, who is a widow, no longer possesses the balance and strength to take her garbage can out. We head to her back yard and my son’s little hands grasp the garbage handle and out we go to drop it off at the curb. It is great training in service. And he is a true little gentleman already.

But something different happened this past Thursday. Our neighbor asked us to go inside and plug something in she was not able to do, which we did promptly. On our way out my boy looked at her and said “Merry Christmas.” She smiled at him, but as he rushed to get on his bike, our 86 year old neighbor looked at me and started to cry. Her husband, a dear man, and a grandfatherly figure to my children, died last year. “Don’t ask me to have a merry Christmas. I don’t know if I can,” she said. Her words were piercing. Her grief evident. Her husband of 60 years was no longer here with her. Her comfort and joy had departed.

And then last night we were struck again. In the middle of a cheery evening, my cell phone rang. The number was foreign to me, but I decided to pick it up anyway. It was my old college professor. She and her husband both taught my wife and I in a small Christian College in Central Florida. Since retiring, they both moved to beloved Pensacola, Fl. Once in a while we see each other and exchange greetings and memories. Last week, while visiting my chiropractor, she was there. It was a delight to see her again. She told me about her husband and how it would be lovely if we met for lunch one of these days. Then last night, that foreign number was hers. She called me to let me know that her husband of more than 50 years past away two days earlier.

My sister-in-law told us it was a difficult day for her and close friends who lost a loved one of 19 years of age. Death’s sting lost much of its potency, but its affects are very present.

How can Christmas be merry for those who are grieving? We often overlook those grieving this time of the year. In the midst of the grand narrative of the nativity, the incarnation of joy is reason for sorrow.

No more let sins and sorrows grow…

There is a paradoxical dimension to Christmas. In one sense, the “hopes and fears of all the years” are met in the God-man. But sorrows are still here. Incarnation theology always needs to be connected to a healthy psalmic lament. Our lives provide plenty of moments of disorientation. A loved one who dies days before one of the most festive days in the Christian calendar offers a lesson to all of us. The light of the world is here. The life of the world is here, but still death is not fully destroyed. The “tidings of comfort and joy” may be for some of us an exhortation to become comfort and joy to those who are comfortless and filled with grief this time of the year. Who are these people? Who are they in our own congregations? That mother who lost a son and whose memories are still freshly imprinted? That widow or widower who lost a lover and comforter? Who are they? Let us seek them out. Do not let their grief be a lonely grief. Only grieving together makes grieving a profoundly biblical emotion.

I weep for those whose loved ones are not here to share in the feast of the Christmas season. But Christmas is not just a message for the jolly; it is a message for the grieving also. Christmas means that grieving is not meaningless. In fact, grieving only makes sense in a world incarnated by God. Christ came for those who grieve. As the Psalmist cries out:

Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress;

my eye is wasted from grief;

my soul and my body also (Psalm 31:9).

The incarnation answers the Psalmists’ petition.

Frederick Buechner once wrote that “The incarnation is a kind of vast joke whereby the Creator of the ends of the earth comes among us in diapers… Until we too have taken the idea of the God-man seriously enough to be scandalized by it, we have not taken it as seriously as it demands to be taken.” Those who are scandalized rightly by this profound event are those who can grieve rightly.

As I look across the street I notice that my neighbor’s sons have arrived. They will help her in her grief. The merriness of Christmas is not dependent on whether we are ready to receive it or not, Christmas is merry because the Rod of Jesse is here. But still our hearts ache and we are called to grieve with those who grieve. We grieve, however, with hope because our hope is here. And so we pray:

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

<>бесплатная раскрутка а google

Read more

By In Culture, Theology

Darkness and Hell at Christmastime

By Peter Jones

For some reason Christmas has become too angelic, all lights, Santa, glitter, and shining cherubs on gaudy Christmas cards. There is a sliver of truth to this, of course. When Christ came as a child the true light shineth. When Christ came he did bring gifts. But Christmas is also (maybe even mostly) about demons and Hell and darkness. It is about the darkness of eternal fire. It is about the worm that does not die. It is about the terrors of death. It is about the dragons that live in our own hearts. There is nothing wrong with rejoicing in the light, but if we forget the darkness the light loses its potency. It is easy at Christmas time to take the light for granted, to forget what Christ actually came to do. Christmas songs can be a great remedy for this memory lapse.

Gustave_Dore_The_Massacre_of_the_Innocents_300_captioned

It may come as a surprise that many of the Advent and Christmas songs we sing mention this darkness and hell. I thought I would quote a few lines from these songs to give some perspective on what exactly Christ came to do.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel is one of the best carols to show who we were before Christ came. It views God’s people as in exile and bondage to Satan and in need of rescue. Verses 3 and 4 clearly bring this out.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o’er the grave

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Anytime you are tempted to believe that Christmas has nothing to do with evil, Hell, death, and Satan sing this song.

The fourth verse of the song Savior of the Nations, Come has these lines in it:

From the Father forth he came and returneth to the same
Captive leading death and hell, High the song of triumph swell.

The final verse of Good Christian Men Rejoice, says, “now ye need not fear the grave.”

Of course, Joy to the World, talks about Christ coming to make his blessings flow “far as the curse is found.”

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, says that Christ descends ‘from the realms of endless day, that the powers of hell may vanish.”

Lo, How a Rose E’re Blooming, states that Christ “dispels with glorious splendor/the darkness everywhere.”

Of the Father’s Love Begotten says in verse 3:

He is found in human fashion death and sorrow here to know
That the race of Adam’s children doomed by law to endless woe
May not henceforth die and perish In the
dreadful gulf below evermore and evermore.

I am sure there are some I have missed. In addition to these references to Hell and darkness, numerous Christmas songs speak specifically of Christ’s victory over sin, which means his victory over death and Hell.

And of course, the Scriptures speak to this as well. In Matthew Jesus’ birth is not follow by peace on earth, but by Herod killing the children and Joseph fleeing with his family to Egypt. The battle begins at the Incarnation. Herod knew this. Unfortunately, we often do not.

mary

In Luke the power of Christ’s birth is sung about. Mary states that when God sent Christ he:

Showed strength with his arm
Scattered the proud
Put down the mighty
Filled the hungry
But sent the rich away empty

Christ’s entrance into the world was not warm and fuzzy. He came to crush the serpent and all those who align themselves with him.

Zacharias says that Christ came so:

We should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us..
That we will be delivered from the hand of our enemies.

Christmas is about a King who came to banish all the powers of darkness and Hell, not just a baby born in a manger. When the angel came to Mary and the angels sung to the shepherds the end of our enemies was already at hand. Christ came to destroy all our enemies. Don’t let Old Saint Nick and fat baby faced angels and “Santa Baby” cause you to forget about darkness, Hell, Satan, Herod, death, and sin during this Christmas.  To forget these things is to forget why Christ came.

Cross posted at Singing and Slaying<>продвижение турфирмы

Read more

By In Theology, Worship

How To Avoid Death-By-Eucharist

by Marc Hays

glass of wineGrowing up in a Southern Baptist church, I became accustomed to eating from the Lord’s Table once a quarter. The words of institution were read from 1 Corinthians 11, and the organ droned “Have Thine Own Way,” until everyone had been served. While the organ hummed we examined ourselves to see whether or not we should have been partaking at all. Most of us sat with heads bowed and eyes closed. (I know because I often got tired of examining myself and looked around hoping someone was doing something interesting.) Afterwards we left the auditorium in silence, not talking or fellowshipping until we had made our way into the outer hall. It was very respectful, for which I am thankful, and very somber, for which I am not.

In college, I was a member of a Primitive Baptist church, which I considered a much better experience. There was no organ, which I considered an improvement – though its absence was based on bad exegesis. Replacing the organ was robust, congregational singing in four-part, shape-noted harmony. The service of the Lord’s Supper was always followed by a foot-washing and a congregational meal. Both of which were high points in the first two decades of my life.

Compared to the Southern Baptists, the Primitives had some things going in their favor, but the thrust of the Lord’s Supper service was still focused on internal, self-scrutinizing assessment, which resulted in the feeling that this crust of bread and thimble of wine could put you on your death bed. The Primitive Baptists are working very diligently to be a “New Testament church,” employing a positivist, regulative principle of worship a that incorporates what God has said from Acts all the way to Jude. Unfortunately, this leaves out all of that revelation where God described in detail how He wants to be worshiped.

Here’s the rub. Christians should be careful to hear and to heed the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 11. He actually did say, “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” (11:28) Next, Paul really did say, “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. This is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.” (11:29-30) This type of talk could push a rational person toward the Scottish church and the whole “once a year communion” practice. That would radically decrease ones chances of “death-by-Eucharist,” but is that what this is really about? Did Paul really intend to turn a meal with Jesus into a time of inner turmoil and fear?

I propose that a meal with Jesus should be a happy time. Happy. Happy. Happy. Why so happy when this is a time to remember that Jesus has died? Well, I maintain that this time should be happy because upon every remembrance of Jesus’ death, we remember that He is not still in His tomb. We remember that Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification (Rom 4:25). Christ is no longer present on the cross. He is no longer present in the grave. He reigns.

Why so happy when this is supposed to be a time of self-examination? We have examined ourselves already; earlier in the same service actually. The whole body present in that room ascended the hill of the Lord, corporately confessed our sin and then heard the assurance proclaimed from God’s under-shepherd that we have been forgiven in Christ. We weighed ourselves in the scales of the law and found want; we confessed this lack of conformity to God’s Word, and He was faithful and just, just like He said He’d be, to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9); and we heard that our sins are forgiven in Christ proclaimed loudly and joyously by our pastor.

When self-examination is over, and at some point it is supposed to be over, it is time to feast. If the feast is your time of self-examination, then it may not be a feast with Jesus. He wants your head on his breast while you hoist your glass of wine; not your eyes on your belly button, while you wonder if you’ll make it out of the room alive.

Once, Nehemiah was interrogated by a king for being sad in his presence. Nehemiah knew better than to pull that kind of stunt, but he couldn’t help it. His heart was heavy because the place of his fathers’ graves was in ruins and the gates destroyed by fire. The king understood because Nehemiah had a good reason to be sad. Christian, your King is far more understanding than Artaxerxes could ever have been, but you have no reason to be sad. The gates are no longer in ruins. Jesus’ kingdom has come, is coming, and will come on earth as it is in heaven. What reason have you to be sad? Does your heart condemn you? God is greater than your heart, he knows everything. (1 John 3:20) Do you have sin to be confessed? Confess it. (1 John 1:9) Examine yourself, and then joyfully come. (1Cor 11:29)

Every week, my seven-year-old son, Seth, lifts his plastic, wine-filled thimble in my direction and waits for the toast. We toast and bless one another with a hearty “L’Chaim!” and then we drain it. We drink to life, because Jesus is life, and we are alive in Him. We drink to life because the grave has been conquered. We drink to life because the wages of sin have been paid, but not by us. We drink to life. We drink to Jesus.

Click on the book covers for resources for further study:

MEYERS LORDS SERVICEJORDAN LITURGY TRAP

<>услуги оптимизации а

  1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulative_principle_of_worship  (back)

Read more

By In Theology

Hospitality (Hebrews 13:3 and Genesis 18)

Guest Post by Mark Nenadov

By the oaks of Mamre

Abraham and Sarah received some company

He promised a piece of bread

they got a marvelous feast instead

they had some important thing to proclaim

Abraham would have a child to bear his name.

 

Abraham set before them a noble plate,

under the tree–there they ate

and they revealed the coming of a heir

in a line which would yield

the incarnate Son of God lovely and fair

whose kingdom is a “sell-all-and-buy-this field”

and who is precious as no pearl can compare.

 

But let’s pull out another lesson now

don’t get weighed down by selfish cares

invite some friends and make some chow

by hard work you can pull it off somehow

for in hospitality God often visits His people unawares.

For more publications and updates on Mr. Nenadov, see GoodreadsBlog, TwitterLinkedinWebsite<>rpg mobile online gamesтиц это

Read more

By In Scribblings, Theology

Peter Jones: Why Christ Cannot Be the Organizing Principle of Dogmatics

BavinckI am almost done with the first volume of Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics.  It has been an amazing read.  Below is a quote I like from early in the book. It shows Bavinck’s precision in thinking something through that at first blush seems right.  Throughout this chapter he has been talking about the task of dogmatics (theological study) and how dogmatics should be organized. Here is Bavinck’s definition of dogmatics: Dogmatics can be defined as the truth of Scripture, absorbed and reproduced by the thinking consciousness of the Christian theologian. Here is the quote where Bavinck explains why Christ cannot be the way we organize our theology.

However, the christological organizing principle is subject to even more objections [than the Trinity as organizing principle].  However attractive it may seem at first sight, it is still ununsable. It often rests on the false assumption that rather than Scripture the person of Christ specifically is the foundation and epistemic source of dogmatics. However, we know of Christ only from and through the Scriptures. In addition, though Christ is quite certainly the central focus and main content of Holy Scripture, precisely because he is the midpoint of Scripture, he cannot be its starting point. Christ presupposes the existence of God and humanity. He did not make his historical appearance immediately at the time of the promise [in Eden] but many centuries later.  It is, moreover, undoubtedly true that Christ revealed the Father to us, but this revelation of God through the Son does not nullify the many and varied ways he spoke through the prophets. Not the New Testament alone, nor only the words of Jesus, but Scripture as a whole is a Word of God that comes to us through Christ.

What struck me about this quote is how many modern Christians do exactly what Bavinck says we should not do; separate Christ from the Scriptures or elevate the words of Jesus above the rest of the words of the Bible.<>что дает яндекс каталог

Read more

By In Theology, Worship

Hughes Oliphant Old on Anabaptism

Yesterday I posted some quotes from Hughes Oliphant Old’s book, The Shaping of the Reformed Baptismal Rite in the Sixteenth Century Old’s book is one of the best I have read on the history of baptism during the sixteenth century among Reformed churches. One of the great feats of the book is to show how the Anabaptist threat shaped the way the Reformers thought about baptism. Old shows how initially there were certain ideas among the Reformers that were wrong. However, they did not realize their errors until they ran into the Anabaptists. Being confronted by the encrusted rituals of Rome on one side and the flaming revolution of Anabaptism on the other side forced the Reformers to dig deeper into the Scriptures. Old’s chapter on Anabaptism is an excellent resource. He explains the differences among the Anabaptists themselves and then draws some basic conclusions about their theology. What I think is most important is that Old shows how Anabaptism was not  one limb on the Reformation tree, but was  a different tree altogether. And while I know you cannot draw a straight line from Anabaptists to modern-day Baptistic thinking there are enough similarities that should give Baptists, compromised Presbyterians, and general evangelicals pause before they claim reformed soteriology, but reject reformed sacramentology.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from Old on the Anabaptists.

“At issue in this question of believers’ baptism was an attempt to found a new church for the spiritually elite.”

“What happened in the social revolution was for Muntzer an exact parallel to the crisis of the conversion experience. It is the same dramatic reversal whether on the objective plane of history or in the subjective experience of the soul. Premillenarianism [as understood by Muntzer] and Anabaptism are logical twins.”

Proto-Anabaptists in Zurich “wanted to move out and form a new church made up of those who were fully committed Christians.”

“One notices that it [baptism] is not a sign of what God will do in the life of the baptized, as Zwingli had understood it, but rather it is a sign of what the baptized has done already and will do in the future. It would appear that for Grebel baptism is not so much an act of God as an act of the one baptized.”

Baptism 2

“For the circle of Conrad Grebel, as for Muntzer, believer’s baptism was the one key to the reform of the Church. If only those who gave evidence of a firm and mature faith were baptized, then the church would be free from impurities. Believer’s baptism would be the effective sword used to separate the true Christian from Christendom”

“The Anabaptists found it difficult to believe that Christendom was really Christian. As the Anabaptists saw it, there was only a very small number of real Christians in the world.”

For the Anabaptist, “the first responsibility of truly apostolic preaching was to bring people into the crisis experience.”

“For the Anabaptist, salvation was gained neither by the medieval sacramental system nor by faith, but rather by the conversion experience…baptism of children before they had this crisis experience would tend to prevent the development of the crisis experience.”

“The Anabaptists were, to be sure, not so much rationalists as they were voluntarists.”

The study of Hubmaier’s On the Christian Baptism of Believers “shows most clearly that the opposition to infant baptism arose primarily from an understanding of salvation radically different from that of classical Protestantism.”

“Several things should be apparent from even this brief study of these Anabaptist leaders. Anabaptism was not simply the ‘The Radical Reformation.’ Certainly it was not a radical reformation in the sense that it took the principles of the Protestant Reformation to their logical conclusions. It is far more a reaction against the Protestant Reformation. It is a very different approach to reformation than anything the classical Protestant Reformers had in mind. It was a taking  of a different road than the Reformers, not simply going further along the same road.”

As I read Old’s account of Anabaptism one thought kept creeping into my mind: We are all Anabaptists. Even in Presbyterian circles, the themes of crisis conversion experiences for all including children, wanting a pure church full of pure Christians, rejection of anything like Christendom, and a voluntary approach to the Christian faith are dominant.  The question Old’s book forces us to ask is “How Reformed are we really?”  The answer would probably come as a surprise to a lot of  us who believe that we walk in the footsteps of Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and Knox.<>оптимизация овкак дать рекламу на гугле

Read more

By In Theology, Worship

Hughes Oliphant Old on Baptism

Hughes Oliphant Old

The title of scholar in the church is not easily come by.  It requires years and years of gathering information,  digesting that information, and then dispensing it so God’s people can benefit from it . That is why Hughes Oliphant Old is such a treasure to the church, but especially the reformed church. He is a scholar of the highest caliber and has done his work in an area that for years was ignored by the church, liturgical worship. I do not know of any author who has written so many helpful works on reformed worship. He has written some very practical works, such as Leading in Prayer  where he gives example after example of prayers he wrote for various parts of worship. He has written a popular, but learned book on reformed worship that traces the different facets of worship to their biblical origins and through their historical development. He has written a seven volume set on the history of the reading and preaching of God’s Word in worship. Finally, he has written numerous academic works  on various aspects of worship, such as, The Shaping of the Reformed Baptismal Rite in the Sixteenth Century.  

Whenever I read a book that influences the way I think and live I like to introduce people to it, like introducing them to a new friend. So without further delay I would like to introduce you to the last book I mentioned above. Very few books have clarified my thinking on an issue like this one. In The Shaping of the Baptismal Rite Hughes Old traces the reformers thinking on baptism by looking at how they changed the baptismal rites and liturgies from the Middle Ages, as well as how those rites and liturgies changed throughout the years of the Reformation itself, especially as the Reformers interacted with the Anabaptists.  The book is a wonderful combination of history, theology, liturgy, and Bible. There are so many great quotes in the book. One of Old’s strengths is clearing the mud away from an issue and helping the reader see exactly what is at stake and why a certain practice developed the way it did. Today I would like to pull out a few quotes,which show how the Reformers viewed baptism. Tomorrow I will post some quotes from the Anabaptist perspective to show the contrast.

“The early Reformed theologians were all in agreement that even before the children of believers made a confession of faith, even before they were old enough to make a decision, the Holy Spirit was at work within them applying the benefits of redemption in Christ. As Oecolampadius puts it, ‘Christ washed us from our sins by his blood and in this grace our children also participate.'”

Old spends a lot of time on Oecolampadius who seems to have influenced the Reformers quite a bit. I had heard his name, but was not familiar with his theology or contribution to the Reformation until I read this book.

“At the very heart of the Protestant Reformation was the revival of Augustinian theology with its strong emphasis on the primacy of grace. The Reformers believed that God took the initiative for humankind’s salvation. In the light of such a strong doctrine of grace the baptism of infants was quite understandable. In fact, the baptism of infants demonstrated very powerfully that our salvation rests not on any knowledge or work or experience or decision of our own, but entirely on the grace of God.”

“Baptism is a divine action because of the divine institution of the sacrament, the divine promises behind the sacrament, and the divine empowering of the ministry.

“Another matter which should be equally clear from this study is that the position of the Reformers in regard to infant baptism was an integral part of their whole theology.”

“Covenant theology is in fact the sacramental theology of the Reformed Churches.”

The two quotes above make me wonder whether reformed soteriology can be maintained where there is a loss of reformed sacramentology? Can a reformed view of God’s grace and sovereignty in salvation be kept if there is a low or wrong view of the sacraments?

“The confession of the daily sins of the already baptized Christian, the forgiveness of these sins, growth in grace, the spiritual gifts of understanding and enlightenment, the daily increase in faith, hope, and love, and the sanctifying of the Christian life are understood as the fruit of baptism. While baptism stands at the beginning of the Christian life, its fruit is born throughout the whole of the Christian life. The earliest Reformed theologians saw in baptism a sign not of a one-time-only repentance and cleansing of sin, but rather as a sign of a continual cleansing of sin.

“The Reformers came to the conclusion that the central sacramental action [in baptism] was washing, not a dramatization of the death and resurrection of Jesus in and out of a grave of water. “

In the quote above, Old is explaining why some Reformers used immersion, but it never became the dominant mode of baptism.

“Reformed Churches should not in their liturgical practice give ground to a separation of the baptism with water and the baptism of the Spirit.

“The final, and perhaps the paramount, goal of this reshaping of the rite of baptism was the concern that this sacrament should be clearly a sacrament of grace.”

“The Reformers continued to baptize the children of Christians because the practice was consistent with the revelation of God’s grace in Jesus Christ.”

 <> раскрутка ов спб

Read more