tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4836035001444911450.post6468094322369724178..comments2023-09-02T11:38:09.518-04:00Comments on The Lamb on the Altar: Cognitive Ability and FaithChuck Wiesehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09008527429925493264noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4836035001444911450.post-70694043073252858492010-05-26T21:51:25.655-04:002010-05-26T21:51:25.655-04:00Anonymous:
An adult who has vocal capabilities an...Anonymous:<br /><br />An adult who has vocal capabilities and so forth is physically able to say he believes and so I would expect him to do so. A baby is not and so I would not expect him to do so. An adult who is capable of working should be expected to get a job if he wants to eat. A baby is not capable and should not be required to get a job in order to eat.<br /><br />But I think you are misreading what Peter says here. Peter does not say, "Baptism now saves us and should be performed as the result of a good conscience toward God." Peter does not say that the baptism is a result of the good conscience but that the good conscience is given with baptism. <br /><br />If you read the text as it stands very plainly, it says that baptism gives us the answer of a good conscience toward God. It is not some mere washing away of dirt off the body but gives us something objective to show us that our sins have been washed away.<br /><br />If a subjective good conscience before God were a requirement for baptism, who could be baptized?<br /><br />The baptism of babies is not based upon presumption but on the promise of Jesus that baptism is for the purpose of the remission of sins. Why wouldn't I want my babies sins to be forgiven?<br /><br />Many adults are baptized who later fall away from the faith. Many babies grow up and continue in the faith. Some babies fall away from the faith but that does not mean that there was something wrong with the baptism. Because we are sinners we cast away the good gifts that God gives us but that does not mean they are not good gifts.<br /><br />Doing away with the baptism of babies is not to continue in the spirit of the Reformation but to run away from the Reformation and past the Roman Catholics in the opposite direction. The Reformation was based on a belief that we have done nothing for our salvation. Man does not even baptize. God baptizes. The Triune God marks us as His own. He works through human instruments just as He does in the preaching of the Gospel, but it is God who does the work. God baptizes. What better example of this could there be than the baby who didn't even decide to come to church that day being baptized. The babies that were brought by their parents to be blessed by Jesus did not ask to be blessed by Jesus.<br /><br />Among the Baptists we find a man-centered view of baptism. Baptism is described by the Baptists in such unBiblical terms as the "first act of obedience." Where is that in the Bible? Why call something that Christ says is for the forgiveness of sins, the first act of obedience? It is utterly Pelagian.Chuck Wiesehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09008527429925493264noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4836035001444911450.post-12737249900867540912010-05-26T21:36:16.827-04:002010-05-26T21:36:16.827-04:00What, dear anonymous, are the wages of sin? Do bab...What, dear anonymous, are the wages of sin? Do babies pay those wages? Does that not mean they are sinful? Does God abide with sinfulness? Condemning babies because God doesn't fit your rationale is NOT the spirit of the Reformation, nor is complete understanding of the mysteries of faith (and not is the KJV of the Bible, just in case you are one of those baptists).Rev. Jim Roemkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08765590533573457596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4836035001444911450.post-1231125017477292782010-05-26T15:32:03.001-04:002010-05-26T15:32:03.001-04:00"... Baptism doth also now save us (not the p..."... Baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." -1 Peter 3:21<br /><br />Uh .... would you baptize an adult who refuses to say for sure whether or not he or she has faith in Jesus? No, of course not! To do some would be presumptuous.<br /><br />And so is baptizing a baby who is not certain to have "a good conscience toward God." Why make promises of salvation to someone who has yet to have faith? Do we make God a liar because of the many babies who grow up never to have faith?<br /><br />Baby baptism is therefore putting the cart before the horse. Doing away with it is to continue in the spirit of the Reformation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com