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The Church and Infant Baptism, Part 3

Acts 4:4 Baptism

In "The Church and Infant Baptism, Part 3," Pastor Albert N. Martin continues his polemical study against Paedo-Baptism, specifically addressing the assertion that infants should be baptized because they are included in the Church. He argues that infant inclusion is incompatible with the biblical descriptions of church membership, which consistently define members as those who have experienced the application of redemption. Martin critiques Paedo-Baptist attempts to reconcile this tension, particularly the doctrines of presumptive regeneration in Dutch Calvinism and the use of incompatible definitions of the church in Presbyterianism. He then addresses objections to his inferential arguments and clarifies the distinction between the church 'de facto' (what it is in reality, including unregenerate members) and 'de jure' (what it ought to be, consisting only of true believers), concluding that while infants may be present in Paedo-Baptist churches, they do not biblically belong there.

1 illustration in this sermon

The Problem of Incompatible Definitions and Approaches to Definition
compare analogy

Mercury from a Thermometer

In this part of the sermon: He highlights the difficulty in discerning which definition Presbyterians are using at any given time, as they vacillate between a biblical approach (studying 'ecclesia') and a…

Martin uses the analogy of trying to put one's thumb on a piece of mercury to describe the difficulty of pinpointing the error in Paedo-Baptist Presbyterian arguments due to their vacillation between incompatible definitions of the church.

And he weaves them in and out. And it is very difficult, it's very difficult to nail the thing down and to know what he's dealing with at a separate or specific point in time. It's, to use an illustration, trying to put your thumb on precisely the error of the Paedo-Baptist Presbyterian at this point is very difficult. It's like trying to put your thumb on a little piece of mercury that came out of your thermometer.

18:15 - 18:43 Read in full sermon
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