The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Continuity in Old and NT

Funny you should ask! <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> Baptism is the visible sign (display) of the OBJECTIVE proclamation of the Gospel, i.e., that as the water cleanses the body of filth, so does Christ's blood cleanse the believer's soul from sin. It is a declaration of God's promise to save all who believe.

Thus... it matters not, i.e., the meaning of baptism is not dependent upon the recipient as it is grounded in the immutable promise of God to save all who believe. Just as the Gospel doesn't vary according to the one who hears, the meaning of baptism is always the same regardless of who is baptized.

Now, we are back full circle, for the disagreement is over WHO is warranted to receive the sign? Paedobaptists obviously hold that believers and their children are to receive the sign. Credobaptists hold that only "believers" are to receive the sign. But as has been thoroughly pointed out, no one can know who is a true believer. Thus, it would behoove Baptists to cease from launching their silly charge that Paedo's are baptizing unbelievers when they baptize infants. Averagefellar has repeatedly brought this inconsistency to the floor and he has not to this date received a reasonable answer that resolves this Baptist dilemma.

Again, if you are convinced that that the injunction to administer the sign of the Covenant to believers and their seed has been abandoned, i.e., a major discontinuity between the two administrations of the Covenant, then so be it. But I have never read anyone who has been able to show this is true from the Scripture, no, not even Mr. Malone, the current "White Knight" of the Credobaptist army. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/rofl.gif" alt="" />

Indeed....!! It is the Babdists who think it is strange that Paedobaptists baptize their children as was the practice for millennia in both the Old and New Covenant administrations. Paedobaptists do NOT think it is strange that Credobaptists baptize professing adults, for they do the same thing as it is what the Scriptures teach. What Paedobaptists DO think as strange is the illogical MODE which Baptists are willing to die for, i.e., immersion, which is even more difficult, if not impossible to defend than the baptism of infants. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/rofl.gif" alt="" />

In His Grace,