I have been, slowly and sporadically, working on content for my website. The latest is an original article about Christian Baptism. Hopefully I will have it completed before I die.
In the completed form at my website, there will be extensive footnotes and links as usual. But in the meantime, I thought I would blog the article in sections to keep you interested.
Baptism
It is unfortunate that among modern Baptist churches that the doctrine of the ordinance of baptism has often been neglected and weakened into relative insignificance, or else confused with mixture of errors that have never been practiced or believed by Baptists, but have found there way in as Baptists have rejected statements of orthodoxy and despised our historic roots. This arises from the importance of doctrine being relegated to only very core Christian distinctives, and often not even that, with nearly the entirety of church polity being open to various interpretations and beliefs which are all too readily accepted by an ignorant and apathetic laity.
In the completed form at my website, there will be extensive footnotes and links as usual. But in the meantime, I thought I would blog the article in sections to keep you interested.
It is unfortunate that among modern Baptist churches that the doctrine of the ordinance of baptism has often been neglected and weakened into relative insignificance, or else confused with mixture of errors that have never been practiced or believed by Baptists, but have found there way in as Baptists have rejected statements of orthodoxy and despised our historic roots. This arises from the importance of doctrine being relegated to only very core Christian distinctives, and often not even that, with nearly the entirety of church polity being open to various interpretations and beliefs which are all too readily accepted by an ignorant and apathetic laity.
As Dr. Timothy George has observed:
"The recovery of a robust doctrine of believers' Baptism can serve as an antidote to the theological minimalism and atomistic individualism which prevailin many credobaptist churches in our culture."
What follows is a short treatise on the Reformed Baptist theology of baptism,
which is an attempt at a recovery of the historic Baptist doctrine. I will give
positive statements of what baptism is, signifies, and the right administration
of it, as well as address some of the common errors.
Baptism is a New Testament Ordinance of Perpetuity
Baptism and the Lords Supper are ordinances of positive, and soveraign institution; appointed by the Lord Jesus the only Law-giver, to be continued in his Church to the end of the world. (1689 LBCF, Chapter 28: Of Baptism and the Lord's Supper)
Baptism is an Ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, to be unto the party Baptized, a sign of his fellowship with him, in his death, and resurrection; of his being engrafted into him; of remission of sins; and of his giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of Life. (1689 LBCF, Chapter 29: Of Baptism)
An ordinance is a regulative statute, or rule of law, ordained by a governing authority, with the limits and due administration of the statute prescribed by that governing authority. Jesus Christ is the governing authority of the church, and it is he who commanded the institution of the ordinance, its limits, and the right administration of it.
Jesus Christ gave the ordinance of baptism to the church after his resurrection, in his final address to his disciples before he ascended to the Father, known as "The Great Commission":
Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with
you always, to the end of the age."
Jesus starts by stating that he has been given authority to institute commands to the church; "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.". He then commands that the gospel be preached throughout the world; "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations," Disciples are students and followers of Christ; viz." teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." He then commands that his disciples be baptised; "baptizing them". Christ gives the ordinance as an institution to be observed in perpetuity, or, "without end", till he comes at the end of the age;
"The commission was given, just before Christ ascended to heaven, and was
designed for the dispensation which was to follow ... Since the ascension of
Christ, no change of dispensation has occurred by which the commission could be
revoked. The promise which it contains, of Christ's presence until the end of
the world, implies its perpetuity. Under this commission the ministers of Christ
now act, and by it they are bound, according to the manifest intention of his
words, to administer water baptism."
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment