Notable Quotables On Baptism

I’m throwing these quotes out here, not because I necessarily agree with everything they advocate, but only to provide a glimpse into the high view of baptism held by many of the first and second generation Reformers and the Puritans. The phrase “baptismal regeneration” has been much overused, misunderstood, confused, and used by low-church evangelicals as a condemnatory dismissal of those heretics who actually believe that baptism accomplishes something. As I’ve written before on this blog, I believe the majority of Reformed and Presbyterian churches to be rigidly low-church in their understanding of baptism and its efficacy. I find this particularly ironic in light of the very high view of baptism advocated by Reformed scholars in times past. These quotes by no means set the record straight. They are only a glimpse into a much neglected reality, namely that integral to a Reformed understanding of baptism is the idea that the divinely appointed sacrament accomplishes profound covenantal realities for both regenerate and unregenerate alike.  I’ve taken these statements from my notable quotable section on the top of my blog.  Other quotes on the subject can be found there.  I’d also strongly recommend Joel Garver’s wonderful article entitled Baptismal Regeneration and the Westminster Confession of Faith located under the Covenantal Paedobaptism section in my links.  Also consult Rob Rayburn’s great article on Christian nurture, also included among my links.  

“Has the Church been wrong in believing, that such change of state, such transplantation from the kingdom of the Devil over into the kingdom of Christ, must in the nature of the case be a Divine act; and that as such a Divine act, it must be something more than any human thought or volition simply, stimulated into action by God’s Spirit? Has the Church been wrong in believing, finally, that the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, the sacrament of initiation into the Church, was instituted, not only to signify this truth in a general way, but to seal it as a present actuality for all who are willing to accept the boon thus offered to them in the transaction?Baptismal regeneration! our evangelical spiritualists are at once ready to exclaim. But we will not allow ourselves to be put out of course in so solemn an argument, by any catchword of this sort addressed to popular prejudice. The Liturgy avoids the ambiguous phrase; and we will do so too; for the word regeneration is made to mean, sometimes one thing, and sometimes another, and it does not come in our way at all at present to discuss these meanings. We are only concerned, that no miserable logomachy of this sort shall be allowed to cheat us out of what the sacrament has been held to be in past ages; God’s act, setting apart those who are the subjects of it to His service, and bringing them within the sphere of His grace in order that they may be saved.”

-John Williamson Nevin, A Defense of the Baptismal Liturgy

“If piety may commence at any age, how solicitous should parents be for their children, that God would bestow His grace upon them, even before they know their right hand from their left; and, when about to dedicate them to God in holy baptism, how earnestly should they pray that they might be baptized with the Holy Ghost- that while their bodies are washed in the emblematic laver of regeneration, their souls may experience the renewing of the Holy Ghost, and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus.  If such sentiments expressed above be correct, then may there be such a thing as baptismal regeneration; not that the mere external application of water can have any effect to purify the soul; nor that internal grace uniformly or generally accompanies this external washing, but that God, who works when and by what means He pleases, may regenerate by His Spirit the soul of the infant, while in His sacred name, water is applied to the body.”  

-Archibald Alexander

“We confess and teach that holy baptism, when given and received according to the Lord’s command, is in the case of adults and of children truly a baptism of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, whereby those who are baptized have all their sins washed away, are buried into the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, are incorporated into him and put him on for the death of their sins, for a new and godly life and the blessed resurrection, and through him become children and heirs of God.”

-Martin Bucer

“We assert that the whole guilt of sin is taken away in baptism, so that the remains of sin still existing are not imputed. That this may be more clear, let my readers call to mind that there is a twofold grace in baptism, for therein both remission of sins and regeneration are offered to us. We teach that full remission is made, but that regeneration is only begun and goes on making progress during the whole of life. Accordingly, sin truly remains in us, and is not instantly in one day extinguished by baptism, but as the guilt is effaced it is null in regard to imputation. Nothing is plainer than this doctrine”.

-John Calvin, Reply to the First Decree of the Fifth Session of the Council of Trent

“Seed rests for a time in the earth, and takes root before one sees from its fruit that it has germinated … The root of understanding and of reason has been poured into all children, as soon as they receive life … God has planted a seed and a root of regeneration in the children of the covenant … In time, the fruits of the Spirit germinate from it. For he who has been baptized with Christ in His death, also grows from Him, like a tender shoot on a vine …”

-Caspar Van Der Heyden, Short and Clear Proofs of Holy Baptism

“The principal point … is that all elect infant do ordinarily receive from Christ ]the Spirit of regeneration as the first principle of spiritual life. This they receive, or their solemn initiation into Christ, and for their future actual renovation in God’s good time—if they live to years of discretion”

-Cornelius Burgess (Westminster Divine), The Baptismal Regeneration of Elect Infants

“The sacramental view [of baptism] most accords with the idea of God’s initiating a covenant by his sovereign decree in election–effecting this through effectual calling. This is because, instead of God “watching/witnessing” the transaction represented by baptism, He is present as mediated through the sacrament to initiate and effect the covenant. He is God the covenant Actor, not merely God the covenant witness, and this is related to the whole order of salvation held by the Reformed tradition. Therefore, we don’t think of baptism as something we do, but rather as something God does–at least in the ultimate sense. While the recipient physically gets wet, God washes the elect to with the Holy Spirit unto regeneration in effectual calling.”

-Preston Graham (PCA Minister)

“Here certainly appears the extraordinary love of our God, in thatas soon as we are born, and just as we come from our mother, he hath commanded us to be solemnly brought from her bosom as it were into his own arms, that he should bestow upon us, in the very cradle, the tokens of our dignity and future kingdom; that he should put that song into our mouth, ‘Thou didst make me hope, when I was upon my mother’s breast: I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly,’ Ps. xxii. 9, 10, that, in a word, he should join us to himself in the most solemn covenant from our most tender years: the remembrance of which, as it is glorious and full of consolation to us, so in like manner it tends to promote Christian virtues, and the strictest holiness, through the whole course of our lives.  Nothing ought to be dearer to us than to keep sacred and inviolable that covenant of our youth, that first and most solemn engagement, that was made to God in our name.”

-Herman Witsius

 

 

 

 

 

 

Listening or Talking

“On a daily basis we’re faced with two simple choices. We can either listen to ourselves and our constantly changing feelings about our circumstances, or we can talk to ourselves about the unchanging truth of who God is and what He’s accomplished for us through His Son Jesus.”

-C.J. Mahaney, Living the Cross Centered life

My Blogging Continues…

Wow! So it has been quite a while since I’ve last posted. Our family now resides in Rochester MN while we save money for seminary and take some much needed time off from school. I’m currently working at a Starbucks directly across from the Mayo Clinic, we are members of a wonderful PCA church (Trinity Presbyterian), and I’ve pretty much devoted most of my time to reading books I’ve been unable to read throughout the past few years due to the intensity of school work. All this to say that our family has been greatly blessed by our good Lord.

Earlier this morning, our family had the incredible privilege of visiting our former church in Dickson City, PA (Faith Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.) Pastor Bell’s sermon was an exposition of 2 Tim 1:1-18 and was centered around the idea of the centrality of the family in Christian discipleship. One comment was particularly engaging and I’ve been meditating on it ever since.

“We believe in infant baptism because we reject the premise that the Christian life begins when a personal decision for Christ is made. The Christian life of a covenant child begins with the faith of Christian parents, and the administration of the covenant sign and seal.”

Now this is a very succinct statement concerning the historic Reformed formulation of paedobaptism and Christian nurture. While this truth remains a very basic tenet of Reformed thought and practice, its profundity addresses the radical individualism running rampant in both Baptist and Reformed circles. It’s become standard evangelical dogma in most circles that the most fundamental of spiritual realities is a “personal relationship with Jesus” mediated through personal reading of Scripture, personal prayer, individual acts of service, and individual encounters with God. The thoroughgoing ecclesial faith of our confessions has been all but lost on a generation fueled by enlightenment ideals of individuality and spiritual self-ownership. If there is one area of theology the church needs desperately to recover, it’s a robust ecclesiology informed by the Reformed confessions and regulated by the holy Scriptures. Christian discipleship begins not with revivalistic conversion experiences or personal professions of faith. Reformed ecclesiology demands that genuine Christian discipleship for a covenant child begins with the faith of Christian parents and the administration of the sign and seal of the covenant in baptism.