Required reading
Systematic Theology by Charles Hodge (Vol 3) (Available from Amazon or free here) - Continue Chapter 20 by reading up to the subheading '12. Efficacy of baptism'.
My summary
This week Hodges teaches us whose children are entitled to baptism.
He looks at the:
(i) Jewish implications (circumcision was for the state);
(ii) Roman Catholic church (who baptises all children presented, regardless of parentage);
(iii) Protestants (who baptise all children);
(iv) Puritans (who restricted the visible church to the regenerate);
(v) Reformed Churches (who baptise only the children of believing parents while holding that the visible church is not for believers only).
What grabbed me
Today's reading illustrates one of the dangers of infant baptism - it forces theologians to draw strange conclusions.
For example, Hodge says: 'The attempt to make the visible Church consist exclusively of true believers must not only inevitably fail of success, but it must also be productive of evil.'
And: 'Experience proves that it is a great evil to make the Church consist only of communicants and to cast out into the world, without any of that watch and care which God intended for them, all those together with their children, who do not see their way clear to come to the Lord's table.'
Is it really evil to seek purity in our churches? Doesn't the New Testament encourage rigorous church discipline of the 'visible' church?
Next week's reading
Continue Chapter 20 by reading up to the subheading '13. Lutheran doctrine of baptism'.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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