How Infant Baptism Relates to … Part 2

Driving home: Now, you see, that, although it may sound absolutely ludicrous and ridiculous, that is the flip side of transubstantiation. You follow that?

Martin compares the idea of an infant silently and imperceptibly confessing faith during baptism to the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, where bread and wine retain their properties but are believed to be Christ's body and blood. This analogy highlights the absurdity of believing something contrary to sensory evidence when driven by a predetermined theological position.

is indeed being made, and God can hear it. Now, you see, that, although it may sound absolutely ludicrous and ridiculous, that is the flip side of transubstantiation. You follow that?

14:28 - 14:44 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Suppose, I set before you an infant and ask you whether when he grows up he'll be a chaste man or a thief. Your answer doubtless will be, I cannot tell. And whether he in that infant age has good or evil thoughts, you wi…

Martin quotes Paul K. Jewett's 'The Uneasy Conscience Behind the Defense of Paedobaptism' to show that the concept of 'faith by proxy' (sponsorship) arose from the difficulty paedobaptists faced in reconciling infant baptism with the New Testament order of faith then baptism.

of vicarious faith. He says on page 176 and following of his book, the uneasy conscience behind the defense of paedobaptism reveals itself at this juncture. Many paedobaptists have been reluctant to affirm that the New Testament order of faith, then baptism, is simply to be set aside in the case of infants. To help the mind over this problem, they have suggested the notion of faith by proxy. And this idea antedates the Reformation by many centuries and was simply appropriated by Protestants, especially Lutherans and Anglicans. Its origins are in the same historical development that made infant...

23:19 - 24:33 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Suppose, I set before you an infant and ask you whether when he grows up he'll be a chaste man or a thief. Your answer doubtless will be, I cannot tell. And whether he in that infant age has good or evil thoughts, you wi…

Martin quotes from a letter by Boniface, Bishop of Rome, to Augustine, where Boniface expresses thinly veiled skepticism about the reasonableness of sponsorship, questioning how parents can declare an infant's belief when the infant is incapable of thought or future moral certainty.

If the child were too young to confess his faith, then someone had to confess it for him. Because in any case, where baptism does not play a role, but that he was baptized, it is. baptism is administered, faith must be confessed. Now, this novel idea that the mute ignorance of infancy can find a compensation in the confession of a stand-in, though it developed unchecked, did not go unchallenged. As late as the fifth century, Boniface, the Bishop of Rome, troubled by those who could not see the reasonableness of sponsorship in baptism, wrote the great Augustine a letter in which his own skeptic...

25:52 - 27:04 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin illustrates the intimate connection between sponsorship and confirmation by quoting the Anglican Prayer Book, showing how confirmation is presented as the child's personal…

Martin quotes from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer to demonstrate the explicit connection between sponsorship and confirmation, where children are expected to ratify and confirm what their godparents promised for them at baptism, thus making their own public confession.

the child's faith for them and then this is intimately connected with what comes next sponsorship and confirmation and to show you the intimate connection between sponsorship and confirmation i would like to quote from the anglican prayer book as it is quoted by jewett the anglican book of common prayer and it says this now this then has to deal with confirmation to the end that children being now come to years of discretion and having learned what their god fathers and god mothers promised for them in baptism they may they may they may they may themselves with their own mouths and consent ope...

32:30 - 33:50 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He explains the third method, dedication, where parents declare their faith and commitment to raise the child in the Lord, citing the Dutch Reformed Churches' baptismal liturgy as…

Martin quotes the liturgy for infant baptism from the Psalter book of the Dutch Reformed Churches, specifically the exhortation and three questions put to parents, to illustrate how the 'dedication' method incorporates a parental declaration of faith and intention into the baptismal event.

Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have heard that baptism is an ordinance of God, to seal unto us and to our seed his covenant. Therefore, it must be used for that end, and not out of custom or superstition. That it may then be manifest that you are thus minded, you are to answer sincerely these three questions. So the parents have questions put to them at the baptism of their children.

39:06 - 39:41 Read in full sermon