...someone would try to persuade me either way. Thankyou
SDG,
The "Reader's Digest" version is that God promised Abraham and the elect seed in Christ (Galatians 3; Romans 9; Genesis 17) salvation w/o condition. Even though the covenant promise pertained to the elect in Christ, God commanded Abraham to administer the sign of the covenant to his household (which would include infants). Circumcision was the sign that one was a member of the visible people of God, but it was not intended that the sign be reserved for only those who professed the true religion (since infants were to be counted among that number). The New Covenant is made with the elect as well. The only question is whether the New Covenant requires us to no longer consider the children of professing believers as subjects for the visible sign of entrance into the visible people of God. This argument cannot be refuted by a baptist. Rather they address a different argument, which is not the paedobaptist argument.
Reformed baptists will argue that the old the covenant was established with believers and unbelievers, whereas under the new, they will argue, it is only made with believers. From this premise they reason further that the covenant sign is now to be applied only to those who profess faith in Christ, since they believe that the New Covenant is now made only with the elect. Their reasoning is sound, but their starting premise is incorrect, which leads them to a faulty conclusion. The point is, the old covenant was not established with the non-elect, which Galatians 3, Romans 9 and Genesis 17 clearly and unambiguously teach. Accordingly, my first paragraph is what Baptists should deal with, IMHO.
I find it interesting that Peter couched the command to baptize at Pentecost in the language of the Abrahamic covenant. Are we to suppose that the Jews did not baptize their infants on that day, especially in light of the fact that for 2000 years infants of professing believers had been included in the outward administration of the entrance-sign to the covenant?
