Quote:
Originally Posted by armourbearer  Anthony, As you have noted, the difference in interpretation is really a matter of different ecclesiology. From the regenerate church membership POV, Perkins' statement would be unacceptable. But even from this POV there are those who profess faith and are baptised who are regarded as "elect," but who afterwards demonstrate signs of reprobation. The Presbyterian mixed congregation POV consistently maintains that we cannot know the hearts of men, but treat them according to what they profess. Blessings! |
This is the false dilemna posed by many Baptists who face the same problem as the Presbyterians.
I think the fundamental difference going forward is that Presbyterians acknowledge the obvious distinction between visible and invisible up front in their theology. They don't pretend as if the Church has knowledge of the invisible in the administration of means.
Seriously, all Baptists do is move the ball down the field a bit and try to convince themselves that, by profession, they have somehow avoided the dilemna of a mixed Body. I think the fact that they view their process as "tighter" than the Presbyterians allows them to focus too much on criticizing another's view of the visible/invisible distinction rather than realistically assessing whether or not they've gained what they believe they have gained by making profession the gold standard.
In my estimation, if a perfectly regenerate visible Church is the goal in the administration of the CoG then both Baptists and Presbyterians fail. Presbyterians don't set that goal and I don't believe the Scriptures do either. We can agree all day long on the necessity of God's election before the foundation of the world that a man would receive Evangelical faith but that still doesn't get us beyond the fact that the Church acts in history and doesn't act according to the hidden things of God.
When push comes to shove, every Baptist ends up agreeing with and acting exactly like Perkins' quote above except they make the basis of that judgement of charity the profession of a man. Ishmael wasn't an infant when he was circumcised.