Why Do So Many Practice It? Part 3

Introduction and Overview of the Study on Infant Baptism

0:00 This adult Sunday school class was held on August 21st, 1983, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now once again, particularly for the benefit of those who are visiting with us, whom we do cordially welcome in Christ's name this morning, I want to give a brief overview of where we have been and precisely what we are doing in the adult class at this point of our present field of study. So if you will please give me your concentrated attention while I try to bring together in about five minutes the essence of some, I think by now, eight hours of study. It is a fact that within what we would call Christendom, and that's this sort of shorthand for what you see here, Christendom, which represents all of the branches of the so-called Christian Church, everything from Roman Catholic to Greek Orthodox to liberal denominations, right down to those whom we would regard as brothers and sisters in Christ who hold to the essentials of saving faith.

1:14 It is a fact that the vast majority of the people in Christendom, practically, practice a ritual called infant baptism, or infant sprinkling, or christening, or in the case of the Greek Orthodox Church, infant immersion. Now that's simply a fact. One can be disturbed about the fact, one can question whether or not it ought to be that way, but it is a fact that in Christendom, that is, within the broad circle of all the various branches of religious groups, that call themselves by the name Christian, a ritual of placing water upon the head of infants is part and parcel of one of the major elements of Christendom. However, within Christendom, there are those whom we have reason to regard as our brothers and sisters in Christ who really do love the God of the Bible, believe the Bible, seek to obey the Bible, and yet, they also practice this ritual. And so we are concerned in our class in recent weeks to examine the question, infant baptism, infant christening, or in the case of the Greek Orthodox Church, infant immersion,

2:34 is it a biblical practice? Now our motive in doing this is not to be inflammatory, it's not to be schismatic, it is not to be judgmental, it is simply, to answer the question from the word of God, is this a biblical practice? If it is, then we ought to engage in it. If it is not, no matter how many in Christendom in general, or within what we would call the evangelical or even reformed wing of Christendom practiced it, we refuse to practice something for which we have no biblical warrant.

3:13 And Pastor Nichols is doing the main bulk of teaching in addressing, uh, us to this question, or addressing our minds to the question, infant baptism, is it a scriptural practice? And the line of argument that he is developing began first of all with the witness of the Bible to the subjects of baptism. And so every specific passage in the New Testament in which it is said someone was baptized was examined in its context, in its grammar, in its obvious teaching. At that point, uh, things got going rather tough for him here and he got into hot water and he went off to South Africa and left me holding the bag.

3:57 Well, he's back from South Africa now and then he's going to have to pick up next week God willing with point number two, which will be the biblical witness to the significance of baptism. And he will lead you in a study in which passages that speak of that which baptism signifies will also be expounded and grounded in their context. And then he will lead you in a study of what the Word of God teaches with regard to the doctrine of the sacraments in general and then the doctrine of the church and then the doctrine of the covenant community. And when he is done, I hope all of you will have a well-grounded, intelligent conviction with respect to the biblical answer to the question, is infant baptism a biblical ritual or practice? Now, in his absence, I felt it would be helpful from a practical pastoral standpoint to take up the question, why then, if there is no biblical warrant for baptizing infants, why do so many who claim to love and believe the Bible still carry on the practice? And I have suggested up till today three reasons why many practice infant baptism, although there is precious little biblical warrant for the practice. And I have suggested that for some it is a humble but misguided deference

Review of Previous Reasons for Practicing Infant Baptism

5:25 to good, godly, and learned men of the past and of the present. A humble believer opens up his Bible and says, well, frankly, I can't see infant baptism in the Bible, but if Dr. Hodge saw it and if Dr. Warfield saw it and if Dr. John Calvin saw it and if Dr. Owen saw it and those men loved God and knew the Bible far better than I, then I must take it on their account that it's somewhere there, though for the life of me, I can't quite see it for myself. Now, that may be humility in one sense, but it is a misguided humility because Jesus said, call no man master or lord of your conscience. And then a second reason why some engage in this practice is that they have a sincere but grateful and uncritical acceptance of a religious tradition.

6:18 Infant baptism came to them in a very noble, godly, and good context. In the context of godly parents, of Christian nurture, of a good church, and all of these things became the very instrument of their salvation, and it came in a context in which water was placed upon the head as an infant. And because of this great, this appreciative attitude toward that entire tradition, they dare not even question this practice lest it appear as ingratitude for the entire framework within which it came to them. And then last week, we studied together a third reason, and it's what I called capitulation to a powerful but unsanctified parental emotion. It is proper that parents should want the best for their children, and when a parent becomes a Christian, the best best that he desires for his children is saving grace. And if that desire is not sanctified by utter resignation to the sovereignty of God, the human mind will conceive of something that will give to the heart of a believing parent some kind of a semblance of a ground to believe that with respect to his children, God's electing grace, God's electing grace is prejudiced. God is utterly free to love his Jacob's

7:46 and hate his Esau's out there, but not my Jacob's and Esau's, they must all prove to be Jacob's. And it is that pressure of parental emotion which leads many to carry on the practice of infant baptism and to construct a theology to justify that practice. All right, now we come this morning to the fourth and last of this parenthetical dimension of our study. Why then do people who love the Word of God, who love the God of the Word, carry on a practice for which some of the best of their theologians admit there is no express warrant in the New Testament or no express warrant anywhere in the Bible, that the whole fabric is built on deduction and inference.

Reason 4: A Subtle but Essentially Pagan, Superstitious Notion

8:31 And I would like to suggest that a fourth reason is this, a subtle but essentially pagan, superstitious notion regarding infant sprinkling and infant salvation. A subtle but essentially pagan, superstitious notion regarding infant sprinkling and infant salvation. Now within Christendom, all branches of it, the notion derived from the Bible that man is essentially a sinful creature is widespread. Now that does not mean that everyone in Christendom has a thoroughly thought out biblical notion of the sinfulness of man. But the doctrine of original sin, that man is conceived and born in sin, so pervades even Christendom that in the consciousness of people within Christendom from the most uninstructed to the most articulate evangelical and reformed believer, there is some degree of consciousness that our children are conceived and born in sin. And with that conviction comes the biblical notion that sin deserves wrath and punishment and the ultimate wrath and punishment, according to the Bible,

10:00 are to be meted out in hell. And in the light of that, there is in the hearts of men this subtle but essentially pagan superstitious notion that if we can perform a ritual upon the infant, which in some way or another signifies and is connected with the blessings of salvation, our kids will be safer if they happen to die in infancy. Now let me show how this works and give you a little history. In the New Testament, as you will see in greater detail as Pastor Nichols leads your study into this second area, the significance of baptism, baptism as a religious ritual is often so closely identified with the spiritual blessings that it signifies that at times the two merge and one is spoken of as the other, so that the thing signified salvation, spiritual blessing, and the sign merge. For instance, Ananias said to Paul, Arise and be baptized, ritual,

11:25 washing away thy sins, spiritual blessing. Now you see how closely the two are brought together? Arise and be baptized, washing away thy sins. The two things signified, spiritual blessing and sign, brought very, very close together in our teaching and the expositions of John the Baptist's ministry in Mark chapter 1.

11:53 He preached a baptism of repentance unto remission of sins. He preached a baptism which was so closely identified with the spiritual blessings of repentance unto remission of sins that the two things, as it were, confluenced. Now very early in the church, because of this conjunction, people began to think the only way you could have the spiritual blessings which baptism signified was to have baptism. Then it was only one step more to say if you have baptism, you have the spiritual blessings which it signifies.

12:36 And then you go one step further and say if you don't have baptism, then you can't possibly have the spiritual blessings which it signifies. So if you believe that, what are you going to do? You're going to get people baptized at any cost. And so you began to have clinical baptism.

12:52 People who were physically unable to be brought to a place of public baptism, public immersion in water, and people began to take water to them on a sick bed and pour it upon them because there was this growing conviction that perhaps the salvation the spiritual blessings were not quite complete without the sign. So before very long into church history, sign and things signified began to be so closely identified that people were really fearful you couldn't have this without this. Then they went a step further and said if you have this, you have that, and if you don't have this, you don't have that. Now you see how the framework is set for infant baptism. Are children conceived and born in sin? Yes. Do children die in infancy?

13:45 Yes. Well to make sure that they have the blessings of grace and salvation we better get them baptized so that we can be certain that they have the spiritual blessings of salvation in Jesus Christ. Now some may regard that as a little bit of an oversimplification but this is not a course in church history in detail. But it's not inaccurate.

The Root of Superstition in Fallen Human Nature

14:10 The process that I've outlined is accurate. It can be documented. And the problem is this. It answers to something fundamentally superstitious in fallen human nature.

14:24 According to Romans chapter 1, when man is alienated from God, he does not cease to be a religious being. He is still religious. He is clean. He is fallen.

14:42 And his religion will reflect his fallenness. But religious he is. Notice Romans chapter 1 verse 20. For the invisible things of him since or from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity, that they may be without excuse because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, but as the Son of Man.

15:11 And when they gave thanks, became vain in their reasonings, their senseless heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man and of birds and of four-footed beasts and creeping things. Verse 25. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped. They are still religious creatures, but they worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever.

15:46 So man is still a religious being. But now in the darkness of his mind and the perversity of his heart, his religion is a reflection of all of that darkness. Hence religious superstition is part and parcel of fallen humanity. Tribes of the most, what we would say, backward-looking people of the world, backward perspective, animistic tribes, they have their holy men who perform their holy rituals to do their holy things.

16:19 And that's the spirit that so often lies behind the pressure in the human heart in the direction of the practice of infant baptism. There is this sneaking superstitious feeling somehow if my child dies in infancy he'll be safer if he's been done. And that is not pejorative. That is not something spun out of my own imagination.

16:48 We have an example of that that is as current as just several months ago. A situation with a very dear friend of ours where the son involved in this family relationship is not a Christian. The daughter-in-law is not a Christian, but raised in a state church situation where everyone in that particular country has his or her child sprinkled as an infant. Though neither of them attend church, neither of them professes Christianity, they would not dare to leave the child unbaptized in their language just in case.

17:26 Just in case. Just in case what? Just in case the child should die, they would have more reason to believe he would go to heaven. Just in case.

17:40 Now what is that if it is nothing but pagan superstition to think that some kind of ritual, some incantation with some kind of material substance will fit the soul of a fallen son or daughter of Adam for heaven. When only the mighty efficacious grace of God applied however he applies it in the case of infants can fit an infant for heaven just as much as it can fit an adult for heaven. It is superstitious. And that superstitious element is a powerful element in the realm of Christendom and the evidence of it is seen not only in the kind of instance that I just quoted, but in our own country. Multitudes of people, I have them on my own block in my own neighborhood who don't darken the door of a church months on end. But when a child is born, off to church they go to have it christened. Why?

Clarification and Biblical Examples of Superstition

18:43 They can breathe a bit easier. The child is safe if it dies. Now don't anyone go out and say and anyone listening to the tape that Pastor Martin said that all those who practice infant baptism are guilty of pagan superstition. Pastor Martin said no such thing.

19:02 And if you say he did, you're breaking the ninth commandment. All Pastor Martin said was that for many people the rationale for the perpetuation of a ritual for which there is no biblical warrant is indeed a subtle but essentially pagan superstitious notion regarding infant sprinkling in conjunction with infant salvation. And you see this spirit at work in the Israelites who had all the revelation of God in the Old Testament. I want us to look at just two examples of it.

19:42 In Jeremiah chapter 7 they had this religious superstition about the presence of the temple in Jerusalem. Here's the nation. And God gave them a revealed ritual from heaven and it centered in the temple. Now God never said they'd be saved because they had a temple.

20:06 God never said they'd be safe simply because they had a temple. But this was the symbol of God's presence and it is special gracious dealings with them as the covenant nation. Now when the prophet preached to these people and said you bunch of sinners with all your privileges you're going to go into captivity. The false prophets came along and told them no everything's all right.

20:30 Let's read now Jeremiah 7 and verse 1. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from Jehovah saying stand in the gate of Jehovah's house right here. Stand right there. And proclaim there this word and say hear the word of the Lord all ye of Judah that enter in at these gates to worship Jehovah.

20:53 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts the God of Israel amend your ways and your doings and I will cause you to dwell in this place. In other words repent of your sins. Truly trust me as the God of covenant mercy who forgives us penitent sinners and blesses penitent believing sinners. Amend your ways and your doings and I'll cause you to dwell in this place.

21:19 Trust ye not in lying words saying the temple of Jehovah the temple of Jehovah the temple of Jehovah the temple of Jehovah are these. For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor if you oppress not the sojourner the fatherless and the widow and shed not innocent blood in this place et cetera then I will cause you to dwell in the land. You see what they were doing? They had a superstitious notion that as long as they had the temple they were safe.

21:51 And when the prophet thundered in their ears they said why get upset? Temple of Jehovah we got the temple we got temple we got God we got God we got blessing we're safe. And that's the mentality you see that works with many. The children can be uninstructed utterly ignorant of their own hearts utterly ignorant of God and of truth and of righteousness but their parents rest at ease they had them done.

22:18 And they've got their baptismal certificate to prove it. Now granted that mentality is much more prevalent out here in what we call a rather ill-defined Christendom than it is amongst those who would be more biblical and reformed but it is not absent from this circle. Otherwise Charles Charles Hodge would never say in his passionate emotional plea let us at least let them have their names written in the Lamb's Book of Life though later on they may choose to erase them. And I read that quote right from his own systematic theology to you last week.

22:58 If anyone questions it here's a Xerox copy of it right here you can see with your own eyes. So that spirit does work it was the same spirit with regard to the serpent of brass in 2 Kings chapter 18. We'll look at another example of how this superstitious mentality works even in the community of those who have the Word of God. And that's why I'm quoting these passages.

23:24 2 Kings chapter 18 verses 1 to 6 Came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel that Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah and he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord according to all that David his father had done. He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah these were the pagan gods that they had erected now notice and he broke in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made the very one that Moses had made at the direction of God and held up in the camp recorded there in the book of Deuteronomy for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it and he called it Nehushtan that is it's nothing but a hunk of brass so superstitious were these Israelites who had the law of God and the prophets and the revelation of God as no other nation they took a pole of brass and began to burn incense to it in the pagan superstition of their own unregenerate and darkened hearts so that spirit is very much with fallen man and one of its most powerful and widespread expressions is in conjunction

The Pervasiveness of Superstition and a Cautionary Note

24:53 with the matter of infant baptism if you don't believe me I challenge you to talk personally to people neighbors and others in ordinary conversation try to steer the conversation around to oh by the way did you have your children christened when they were infants oh yes why see what kind of an answer you get see if there's anything that even resembles a biblical rationale for the practice and you will find that the bottom line is they just feel safer if the children should die in infancy and it is that pagan superstitious notion that is the driving force for the perpetuation of the practice of infant baptism in the minds and in the hearts of many now that's all I want to say then about these four four of the major reasons why the practice is perpetuated I had seriously considered a fifth but I think it might leave us open to misunderstanding and as I prayed over the matter I said no I'll not go into that fifth reason but I think it might leave us open to some other reason though I have seen it operative in my own brief lifetime when people that I knew and loved who once stood on the biblical truth of disciple baptism and then went over to practicing infant baptism

26:23 and at the end of the day when the reasons were sought out they were not essentially in fundamentally biblical reasons it wasn't that they saw some new truth in the word of God it was that other motives of man old and new in their history man whoUT I was don't have to do anything that made me not ask for a part of something to fill my life to It's amazing what tricks the head will play on a man. And if a man will begin to play loose with his doctrine of baptism for the sake of a job, for the sake of a position, for the sake of a retirement fund, I wouldn't trust that man to be a spiritual guide to me because he'll begin to play footloose with the truth of God in areas of more crucial importance, and that would be a tragedy. Well, I've said all I want to say, and I said I would give you some chance for questions on this whole matter. Time has come.

Q&A: Engaging Friends on Infant Baptism

27:43 Ask your questions. If I don't have the answers, we have Pastor Nichols back and we can turn him loose on you. All right?

27:54 All right. Yes. Doug?

27:58 It's a practical question. We know people that believe in it and do have the children down there talking about it. Yeah. You want to remain friends with these people.

28:12 How do you try and tell them the truth and yet not make them feel like complete fools? How do you actually go about that? All right. Let me ask you to amplify.

28:25 You say they tell you how great it is. What do you mean? What do they say? To the guy that probably expects me to say, it's great.

28:41 Yeah. Yeah. And I couldn't. If I wanted to say more, I just wouldn't.

28:45 Okay. Good. Oh, I think. All right.

28:49 Good question, class. Why don't you answer it?

28:54 All right. What would you do? A close friend comes to you and not to be nasty or to engage you in debate, he, from his perspective, has done something that he feels pleases God and that has had the blessing of God and he comes and tells you, we had a precious service last week. We had our little willy done.

29:15 And how do you respond? All right. What would be some of the proper ways to respond? All right, Jeff.

29:42 All right. The scripture said, he that answers before he hears a matter, it is a condiment to him, folly and shame. Now, you don't know whether he's doing it out of pagan superstition, in which case, eventually, you're going to have to rebuke him and seek to open his eyes to his pagan superstition. He may be doing it out of unmortified parental affection, in which case, your exhortations, will take a different tack.

30:10 It may be that he's doing it out of that uncritical but grateful acceptance of the tradition he inherited that is so precious to him. It may be that he's doing it out of deference to good, great, and godly men. So you, first of all, have to find out what led him to do it. So as Jeff has suggested, you could respond by saying, well, Pete or Henry or whatever the fellow's name is, say, I appreciate your sharing with me something that obviously, is very meaningful to you, but, you know, it raises a question in my mind.

30:42 Why did you have your little Willie sprinkled? Would you mind telling me why? In your mind, what did that accomplish? What was the significance?

30:52 Now you know where you're coming from. He may say, well, it was very meaningful because to me, infant sprinkling is the public declaration that I, as a parent, am committed to rearing my child by the standard of the word, the word of God, to pray for his salvation. And you can put your hand on his shoulder and say, well, do you know that I'm committed to every one of those goals with my own children?

31:20 But I didn't have mine baptized. And then he may respond by saying, well, why not? If you're committed to raise your children by the word of God, to pray for their salvation, you ought to have them baptized. Now you turn it on him and say, is that what the Bible says is the significance of baptism?

31:38 Where did you go? Where did you get that notion? Now you've put it back in his court. And he probably has, if that's the way he's responded, he's never thought through point two that will be opened up starting next week, God willing, the significance of baptism, which is we will see, and here I'll dare take some of my brother's thunder, there is not one passage on baptism in the entire New Testament that signifies anything other than the blessings of salvation all over the world.

32:08 And that's what we're going to do. And that's what we're going to do. And that's what we're going to do. And that's what we're going to do.

32:09 And that's what we're going to do. And that's what we're going to do. And that's what we're going to do. Already conferred.

32:12 And there I will stand and you could bring a thousand theologians and I would defy them to bring forth one verse on baptism that signifies anything other than the blessings of salvation already conferred. Not hopefully conferred with the blessing of parental instruction. Not hopefully eventually given in answer to prayer. No, no, no, no.

32:46 Excuse me for getting excited. But I get so weary reading Petal Baptist literature on this point that baptism signifies what God will eventually do with his covenant. No, it does not signify something that will eventually be done. It signifies blessings already conferred.

33:07 You see? So in the case of that individual, then you could just lovingly, gently, with a nice soft voice like I'm not doing now.

33:16 You could just... I wouldn't talk to him that way.

33:19 I would talk with a soft voice and open up to him. Say, well, what does baptism signify? Let's turn to Romans 6. Let's turn to Acts 22, 16.

33:30 Let's turn to the book of Peter. Let's turn to the passages. Oh, I didn't realize baptism signifies that. Well, if that's what it signifies, then what my child got was really not baptism.

33:42 Was it? It was really a rededication of my wife and me to our role as parents. You say, fine, good, that's fine. Do that every day.

33:54 But that's no occasion to put water on your kid's head. Then you ought to do that every day. If the committal of a parent to his parental task warrants water on the head, then we'd be doing that every day if we're godly parents because we commit ourselves daily to our task to nurture our children, to train our children, to pray for our children. So find out where they're coming from with a couple of judicious questions.

34:20 Then you'll know which way to go in terms of your response. All right? Now, someone else had a hand raised. Yes, John?

Q&A: Addressing the Spiritual State and Being Grounded in Truth

34:50 Yeah. All right, in the case there. But I think my assumption was that Doug was saying he had no reason to question that this person was a brother in Christ. Did I read you rightly?

35:01 Oh, okay.

35:06 Oh, well, excellent. Now, as John has said, you've got a good chance to go after, his own spiritual state and say, look, you're thrilled that you had something done for your child. May I ask you a question? What has God done for you?

35:20 What is your own relationship to Jesus Christ and to the things that baptism signifies? And to use that as a springboard to deal with his own conscience and his own heart in relationship to the Lord. Okay? Yes, Pastor Clark.

35:35 I would like to interject at this point that if we are going to confront our workmates, our neighbors, our friends with truth,

35:44 we have got ourselves to be well-grounded in truth. You say, well, let the pastors take care of that. That's too deep for me in this question. Yeah.

35:54 Then we're not going to be able to confront people with biblical truth. We've got to learn it ourselves. Amen. Amen.

36:00 We've got to know the baptismal passages and be able to turn people to them and say, look, this is the baptismal passage. What does it teach? And know ourselves what they ought to say. Okay.

36:11 If they don't say what the passage teaches, we can bring them around to the proper teaching contained in that passage. Good point. And that's why we have a class like this. Some people would say, oh, this is for the people in the academy.

36:23 No, no. This is for you, the people of God, that you might be well-grounded and be able to give a reason to every man who asks of the hope that is within you. All right? Further question on any of the things we've ranged over in these past weeks, this large parenthesis.

Q&A: Infant Dedication as Waterless Christening

36:38 Yes, Florence?

36:48 Yes. All right. The question is, in some circles, is there sort of a parallel between the ritual of public dedication and the ritual of infant sprinkling? And I think my experience has been, and I can only say out of the matrix of some 30 years of observing this and talking with people, that in many places, the ritual of dedication, that is, on a Sunday morning at the close of a service where parents will bring an infant to the front of the church, place the infant in the office, in the arms of the pastor, and he will have a special prayer commending that infant to God, commending the parents to God.

37:30 It is what some of my friends, perhaps with a little bit of sarcasm, call a waterless christening. A waterless christening. I've seen it in Mexico and it's exactly what it is. All right.

37:45 They learn enough of evangelical truth that they reject Catholicism,

37:53 and yet they are not committed to the gospel. They reject the gospel themselves, but they bring their babies around to be dedicated. Yeah. It's just waterless christening is all it is.

38:01 Okay. And I had to rear from my head thanks against that one. Good. Good.

38:06 Well, I hope you continue to rear.

38:10 No. That's right. Now, here's a testimony from Mexico where religious superstition, you see, is shot through the whole fabric of the culture, and it becomes for many in that situation a waterless baptism. I know it from my experience, particularly in the itinerant ministry when I was an evangelist for some five years traveling all over the country.

38:29 Many a time I would have parents come to me with a broken heart and say, I can't understand what's happened to my teenage kid. I dedicated him to the Lord in infancy, and yet he's become this, that, and the other. There was nothing between the dedication and the child's waywardness. They didn't say we gave ourselves to careful training and instruction and consistent training and discipline.

38:55 We've set before our children by the grace of God a consistent pattern of godly living. Da, da, da, da, da. And in spite of all this, the child is turned aside. But again and again, and this is, I can only give my honest testimony.

39:10 I had people say, we did something to the child in infancy, and now he's gone astray. In their minds, that was supposed to secure something because they did something. Now, I am not saying nor would Mr. Clark say or anyone who has any broad exposure that in every single instance any parent who under any circumstances brought a child to the front of a church, put him in a pastor's arms for prayer, was equating dedication with infant sprinkling.

39:44 We are not saying that. Please don't go out and say we said that because word will spread all over the place. Trinity Church says anybody, practices dedication are sinners and they're going to hell. It's amazing how things get blown all out of proportion.

40:00 We never said that, but all we are saying is that in many, many cases the practice of infant dedication as a public or private religious ritual is nothing but a waterless christening. And it is the same motive of superstition that lies behind it. That's what we are saying, and we would be prepared to stand on that and give testimony as Pastor Clark has from a totally different culture as I have from my experience in our own culture. And it was very interesting the way it died a death years ago when I first came, Florence.

40:41 Maybe you remember the circumstances. The first young couple that came to me when we were in a different denominational connection and there was no evidence of grace in the young couple, but they wanted to have their kid dedicated. So I said to the elders at the time, look, can we quickly establish a new precedent? Any parents that want a kid dedicated, they must be willing to come and counsel with me first about the significance of what the dedication means.

41:06 And the elders at that time said, fine, you have permission, new rule established. I said, good. So I called a couple in. I said, all right, now.

41:15 You're going to dedicate the baby. Will the baby know anything of what you're doing when you bring him up to the front of the church? Will the baby have any remembrance of that? None whatsoever.

41:23 I said, okay. Is there any magical power in me holding the baby in my arms? Is there grace flowing through my...

41:29 No, none whatsoever. Okay. So the baby isn't going to know anything, right? No.

41:34 And I have no power to do anything for the baby? No. So if this means anything, what does it mean? They said, well, it means that we're declaring something about ourselves.

41:41 I said, fine. What are you declaring about yourselves? Well, once we got on that, that we are determined to live before this child, the life that we're seeking this child eventually to possess, well, they saw the inconsistency. They said, well, I guess if that's what it's involved, we ought not to have a practice.

42:01 We ought not to have the baby dedicated, should we? I said, that's your decision? They said, yes. I said, fine.

42:05 I agree.

42:07 That was it. That was the last time. Now we had to use a little holy guile, but that's what happened. Once they faced what, the only thing that could have any significance, they weren't prepared for that.

42:20 Now you say, well, what about the parent that is? Is it wrong to have the ritual? Well, my answer, long before our children ever came out of the womb, they were dedicated to God. And long before they came out of the womb, we rededicated ourselves to be the parents we ought to be.

42:36 And after they came out of the womb, we commit them to God daily and commit ourselves. We're dedicating our kids every day. Almost 23, 19 and a half, and 18, my wife and I dedicate them to God every day and dedicate ourselves afresh to God, to be parents to them. Now if it's that kind of dedication you're talking about, then God give it to all of us and give us more measures than we've ever known before.

42:59 But that has nothing to do with an external public ritual and it has nothing to do with water on their forehead. All right? All right, further question on that or can we move to another? Yes, Larry?

Q&A: Social Aspects and Bringing Children to Jesus

43:58 That's right. And then usually there follows a big bash in the home that goes on all afternoon and the rest. We see it in our neighborhood. You can always tell when there's a christening or a confirmation because it's the only thing that goes on on Sunday of that particular nature and they'll have everybody and his uncle in and it becomes quite a big to-do and it obviously has absolutely nothing to do with biblical Christianity.

44:22 All right, further questions or comments? Yes, Gene? And then David.

44:38 That's a new one to me.

44:54 That's sheer nonsense.

44:57 Yeah, see when people ask me they say, well look, in the Gospels it says they brought the little ones to Jesus. Would you hinder people from bringing their little ones to Jesus? I say no. But where is Jesus?

45:08 He's on the throne of grace. The only way I can bring my kids to him is get on my knees and bring them there in prayer. And I better do it. And I better do it daily many times a day.

45:18 Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father upon the throne of grace. That's where I bring my children to Christ. I'm not Christ. Don't bring them to me to hold them.

45:30 Bring them to Christ to bless them. Bring them daily. Bring them before they ever come out of the womb. That's the true application of the passage of bringing the little ones to Jesus.

45:39 The brephos. The infants in arms to Jesus. Have you noticed whenever we make an announcement on a Lord's Day of a birth or on a Wednesday in the prayer we bring that little one to Jesus our first announcement of its arrival is joined with a prayer in which we bring that little one to Jesus and we bring the parents to Jesus. That they might be given grace to be what God says they ought to be as parents.

46:06 Alright? Yes. Pastor Nichols and then back to you David. It just jogged my memory.

Q&A: Distorting the Symbolism of Bringing Children to Jesus

46:10 I haven't thought about this in three weeks. I think that question came up at the end of a class several weeks ago and we didn't have time to say it but that's probably the major not talking now about the practical problems but that's probably the major exegetical or scriptural problem that I would have with instituting that as some type of a symbolic ritual that I would have to be done in a Baptist church. It is that the reason that Jesus gives for allowing that is that this is an object lesson. This is a picture of salvation.

46:49 For us as the servants of Christ to take the place of Christ would be utterly to distort the whole object lesson which was intended in the passage. Yes. Because people don't come to us for salvation. They come to Him.

47:02 That's the very priest craft which we abominate. Amen. We are not the dispensers of salvation. Or is salvation found in our person?

47:11 That's right. But people come as little children to Christ for salvation. Not to the servants of Christ but to Christ. And that would be totally to distort the symbolism which Jesus intended in that action.

47:24 Yes. You see in that passage Jesus said except you become like these little children you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven. He said don't forbid them to come to me for of such is the kingdom of God. To me.

47:37 That was a picture of salvation. Yes. And we can't say I'm not Christ. Exactly.

47:44 Little children coming to me is not a picture of spiritual little children coming to Christ. Right. And you see that doesn't destroy the fact that all Christian men and women and in particularly the servants of God ought to be the friends of children. I mean I believe I can say I actually handled a hundred little kids every Lord's Day in this place.

48:06 I kiss at least fifty to seventy-five of them. I do. You see them at the door. We're physical.

48:14 They know we love them. Our hearts are toward them. So it's not that we're see people build up all this emotional argument. When those hard-hearted Baptists they have no love for children they won't dedicate them to Christ.

48:24 That's a lot of emotional smoke. You won't find a place where kids are loved more than here. I've seen little kids out in the street down the sidewalk they're crying because I was driving off and I found out they were crying because they didn't get their kiss from the pastor today. There are parents here who bear witness.

48:42 That's true. And in that sense I hope we reflect the likeness of Christ who was a lover of all people and a lover of children. But that's entirely different from a ritual in which we think some grace will somehow be more certainly conveyed if the reverend holds the children in his arms and prays for them at a service. That we will not do.

49:07 And if you're hurt about that I'm sorry. Just go home and ask the pastor to ask Christ to mortify your superstition because you cannot justify such a ritual from the word of God and it leaves you vulnerable to these very evils. All right, David we've got time for you we didn't forget you.

Q&A: Inconsistencies in Paedobaptist Covenant Theology

49:45 Yeah.

50:21 Yeah.

50:24 He'll be able to touch on that and here again this is not being cheeky. An intelligent Presbyterian would say because the New Testament shows that the New Testament covenantal sign is to be applied to females as well as males and the circumstances allow it. I know it isn't. I know it isn't my brother and that's what's so tragic because what they're saying is we'll let New Testament data fracture the consistency of Old Testament parallels and inferences and they'll do it with regard to the matter of the Lord's Supper.

51:00 Infants partook of the Passover in the Old Testament. Why not let them partake of the Lord's Supper in the New? They say because New Testament data forbids it. Let a man examine so let him eat.

51:12 And we say why do you get upset with us when we say New Testament data forbids baptizing any other than disciples? And we have not one passage we've got dozens. They say no. You can't let New Testament data regulate the framework of covenantal administration from the Old Testament.

51:33 I say that's what's made me a Baptist. When I try I'm serious. I didn't mean that to be funny because I was trying to become a Peter Baptist and I saw those inconsistencies and the flip-flop that they do again and again and again on issue after issue like this. And it's tragic.

51:52 It really is. It's not a laughing matter. It's tragic that good men can be so hopelessly inconsistent in their handling of the Word of God on just such matters as these. One New Testament passage fractures the parallel between every circumcised Israelite could come to the Passover as an infant.

52:12 We see a relationship between circumcision, baptism, Passover, Lord's Supper.

52:19 But most Peter Baptists, not all, there's a real movement abroad in some circles now pressing for infant communion because they see the inconsistency. And a book has just been written seeking to defend infant communion. But the average Peter Baptist when you say why not let your kid take communion? They said no.

52:36 First Corinthians 11 sets up a requirement. Let a man examine himself. So let him eat. First Corinthians 11.

52:43 Let him examine. Let him eat. And I say to them you mean one New Testament text that puts a requirement before communion can fracture that beautiful parallel between the Passover and communion? They say yes.

52:57 A clear New Testament text. I say well what about all the clear New Testament texts that say repent and be baptized. Believe and be baptized. Become a disciple and be baptized.

53:09 They say no that data means nothing. The promise is circumcision. The God to thee and to thy seed and thy soul. How can I reason and argue with a man who's going to do that?

53:20 And often I just give up and say what can I do? What can I do? It's a frustrating thing. It's a frustrating thing.

53:28 But your observation and your wife's observation are very accurate, David.

53:35 Want to add? Oh, time's gone. Can't add. Yeah, we've got one word to say.

53:38 One thing that ought to be said in the list of these reasons is that perhaps you've mentioned this at the beginning and I wasn't here but I think that from my own experience there are some people who believe in infant sprinkling and practice it because they sincerely believe it's taught in the scriptures no matter how misguided they may be in their understanding. Yeah. So we said that that though there is no explicit warrant they believe by a process of inference and deduction that scripture actually warrants it. Yeah.

Closing Prayer and Legacy of Suffering for Truth

54:13 So we made it plain that these were dealing with those who would to some degree acknowledge that they really don't see clear warrant or couldn't give a good biblical polemic for it and yet continue to practice it. Yeah. Well, our time is gone. Let's pray that the Lord will help us in our understanding and then in the manner and spirit with which we hold to the truth of God.

54:40 Our Father, we acknowledge that the best of your children and your servants is full of much ignorance and we would confess individually and corporately our own ignorance that there is so much we need yet to learn of you and of your ways but we do believe you have brought us to some degree of accuracy of understanding with respect to this sacred ordinance of baptism this watery ritual by which men and women voluntarily declare that they have been brought by grace to embrace your Son and to be a part of your life. And Lord, our hearts are grieved when we think of the hopeless confusion that has come through the years of the mingling of church and state, the deception, the presumption that has been perpetrated by the practice of infant sprinkling. And we pray, we would be bold to pray that even in our generation you would cause your truth to triumph over tradition and over all the thoughts of men that the church may once again be the church that not only has one Lord and one faith but one baptism. O Lord, for the sake of your Son answer the cry of our hearts. Help us to hold whatever truth and light you have given to us with graciousness and yet with boldness and a willingness to suffer for that truth.

56:10 We think of some of our spiritual forefathers who literally paid with their own life's blood because they refused to sprinkle their infants and they were put to the stake. Others drowned and others suffering cruel torture because they refused to submit to a ritual for which they saw no warrant in the word of God. O Lord, help us that we shall be those worthy of such a legacy in our determination to be obedient to the word. We ask in Jesus' name.

56:45 Amen.