Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Gary Crampton's "From Paedobaptism to Credobaptism"


I got several books as Christmas (or Ranzaa) gifts that I am working through including Bunyan's The Life and Death of Mr. Badman and Eric Metaxas' biography Bonhoeffer:  Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy.  Another is Gary Crampton's From Paedobaptism to Credobaptism:  A Critique of the Westminter Standards on the Subject of Baptism (RBAP, 2010).  Dr. Crampton is an elder now at the Reformed Baptist Church of Richmond.  I have had the opportunity to meet and speak with him a couple of times over the past year.  He had a long career as a Presbyterian pastor and theologian but eventually came to Baptistic convictions.  

In the opening chapter of his book, Crampton cites a three-fold problem with infant baptism:  (1) there are no examples of infant baptism in the NT; (2) baptism and the Lord's Supper go together (therefore, it does not makes sense to offer one--baptism to infants--while witholding the other--the table); and (3) there are multiple differences among paedobaptists as to why infants should be baptized (see pp. 4-10).

You can also read a multi-part interview with Dr. Crampton conducted by Richard Barcellos on the Illumination blog:  part one, part two, part three, and part four.

JTR

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