A Presbyterian Catechising, John Phillip, 1847
I continued our Sunday afternoon series last Lord’s Day
through Spurgeon’s Baptist Catechism, looking at Question 79:
Q 79: What is the duty of such as
are rightly baptized?
A: It is the duty of such as are
rightly baptized, to give up themselves to some particular and orderly Church
of Jesus Christ, that they may walk in all the commandments and ordinances of
the Lord blameless.
This is a place where the Baptist Catechism parts ways with
the Westminster Shorter Catechism, upon which it is based. The WSC does not contain a question like
this, because it carries different assumptions about what baptism means and who
is a proper candidate for baptism.
The more I reflected on this, the more it came it to me that
one’s views on baptism also reflect how one views his participation in both the
visible and invisible church. Here is
how I tried to explain it Sunday:
The Paedobaptist model:
1. You are part of the
visible church at birth due to
connection to believing parents.
2. You are baptized as
an infant in recognition of your membership in the visible church.
3. You may or may not
one day come to faith. If and when you
should be converted and profess faith, you become part of the invisible church.
The Credo-Baptist model:
1. You profess faith
in Christ and so join the invisible
church.
2. You are baptized in
recognition of your membership in the invisible
church.
3. You give yourself
up to membership in a visible church.
I concluded by holding that the Credo-Baptist model simply stands
on firmer Biblical ground. All we have
to do is look at the book of Acts and see the experience and practice of the
first Christians. After they heard the
gospel, repented of their sins, and believed in Christ (so becoming part of the invisible church), they were then added to the visible church (cf. Acts 2:37-42, 46-47).
A important matter, brother Riddle.
ReplyDeleteI was talking with another brother in Christ about this subject last week. In my opinion, the Bible clearly teaches that the visible A important matter, brother Riddle.
I was talking with another brother in Christ about this subject last week. In my opinion, the Bible clearly teaches that the visible church of christ must be formed by those who repent and believe in Christ, and these people show this when they are baptized (Acts 8.36-37).
I think that pedo-baptism (or "infant sprinkling", as john Gill said) can lead the church to face some membership problems, and many of these churches really face this problem until today.
May God bless you!