The Church and Infant Baptism, Part 6

Hebrews 8:10-11 Baptism

In "The Church and Infant Baptism, Part 6," Pastor Albert N. Martin continues his detailed examination of the biblical teaching concerning the Church of Jesus Christ, specifically focusing on the spiritual experience and distinguishing traits of its members. He systematically analyzes various New Testament epistles (Galatians, Hebrews, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, Revelation) to demonstrate that the church is consistently described as a community of believers who have personally known God, experienced conversion, and are marked by faith, obedience, and election. Martin argues that these descriptions are incompatible with defining the church as 'believers plus their infants,' addressing objections by illustrating how such a definition distorts the biblical portrayal of the church's identity and experience.

3 illustrations in this sermon

Addressing Objections: Infants in the Church Letters

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Letter to the Martin Household

In this part of the sermon: Martin addresses the objection that infants might be members but not addressed in letters because they can't read, using a vivid analogy of a letter to his own household to show…

Martin imagines Frank Chisholm writing a letter to his household (including infants) using the same descriptive language Paul uses for churches. He shows how the descriptions of faith, conversion, and spiritual experience would be nonsensical if applied to infants, thus arguing against infant membership.

Suppose, because he writes to us once in a while, suppose Frank Chisholm was to write a letter to my household, those who are now currently living under my roof, and this is what he says. He says, Dear Ginger, Greg, Grace Marie, Mindy, Renee, and Betsy. Now, he might say that. Frank Chisholm might do that.

40:49 - 41:17 Read in full sermon

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Who Am I? The Tire Illustration

Martin reuses his 'Who Am I?' game with a tire, where distinguishing traits lead to identification. He then applies this to the church, listing its distinguishing spiritual traits to argue that only believers fit the description.

He didn't say five, did he? That's true. Now, this brings me back to my tire illustration. my tire illustration it's like you play when your children you play the game who am i you know we play this game with the children who am i and we describe the various distinguishing traits of an individual and then they guess who it is right and that's what we did last week remember we looked at a tire and we said who am i and the tire said i'm round and i have a hole in the middle and some people thought it was a donut or a bagel but they didn't have all the facts yet then it said well i'm black a burn...

43:59 - 44:59 Read in full sermon

Addressing Objections: Children Addressed in Epistles

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Pastor Martin's Letter to Trinity Church

The point: Children should be present in the public meetings of the church; the idea of 'children's church' is wrong.

Martin recounts how he recently addressed both the congregation and children in a letter read during prayer time. He uses this to illustrate that addressing children in a public church gathering does not imply they are church members, just as Paul addressing children in Ephesians and Colossians does not imply infant membership.

They're not restricted to a private congregational meeting. So really, the fact that the children are addressed tells us nothing about how they relate to the church, whether they're members or whether they're simply present every week when it gathers for worship. And I just, last week, as Pastor Martin read his letter at prayer time, it struck me how true that was. It was very similar.

55:55 - 56:21 Read in full sermon

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