[quote=PuritanCovenanter;376214]
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Originally Posted by greenbaggins  You are correct, by the way, in your interpretation of my sentence. There is no evidence in the NT that the place of children in the covenant has changed from having more privileges to having fewer privileges. If Christ said that the substance of the kingdom belongs to little children also, then why refuse them the sign of that kingdom? |
Thanks Pastor,
I will work my way backwards starting with the last question. When Jesus was making this statement it is assumed that their were infants in the crowd. I am not sure you can make that assumption. But that is neither here nor there. The main gist of the passage is that one must enter or receive the Kingdom as a little child. Childlike faith which cries Abba. In that I would say that this is a passage that does require that the children have some gnosis, reason, and faith. At least that is the gist of the passage if I am understanding it correctly.
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(Luk 18:16) But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.
(Luk 18:17) Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.
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Okay, let's look at Luke 18 very carefully. Verse 15 states that infants were brought to Jesus in order that Jesus might touch them. What is this word "infants?" The Greek word is "brephe." Every lexicon I checked says that it means "infant," not even "small child." In fact, the word is often used of fetuses. So, I am not sure how you can say that we shouldn't assume that infants were present. That is what the word means. Infants were brought to Jesus. Therefore, infants were present.
Secondly, the words "of such" in verse 16 are a genitive possessive. Literally translated, the passage would read: "The kingdom of God is of these such." It is by no means exclusive of the infants brought to Him in verse 15, but inclusive, as has been pointed out on this thread. The kingdom of God is possessed by such as these. To say that this should be spiritualized to mean "the faith of such as these" does not help the credo position, since even that statement assumes that these little children have faith which is to be imitated! However, it is best not to import the meaning of Matthew 18:2-3 into this passage. They do not say the same thing.