05-19-2008, 03:57 AM
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 | Puritanboard Doctor | | Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Mandeville, LA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by North Jersey Baptist  Quote:
Originally Posted by Pilgrim Quote:
Originally Posted by North Jersey Baptist
I concur. Chris, while I am personally thrilled to have you on the credo side of the issue, Rich makes a salient point. If you haven't already done so, spend some time with the 1689 London Baptist Confession and its rationale behind credo baptism. The passage in Acts may be the fulcrum in which your conviction changed, but allow your change to be grounded on scriptural and historical grounds. I am not saying this is the case, but you if you arrived at a credo position separate from the accepted Baptist confession, that would concern me. You would be out on your own and subject to further changes in your baptismal position. This could lead to needless angst.
I'll keep you in prayer over the next few days as your decision begins to maturate.
| Thanks, Bill. My understanding, based on my reading of A String of Pearls Unstrung is that Fred Malone returned to being a Baptist for reasons that are largely similar to mine, although it was a different text that initially caused him to reconsider his position. I have long been familiar with the arguments on both sides of this issue and have gone back and forth on it since at least 2003. I had come to paedo convictions at just about the same time as I joined this board in Sept. 2005. | Regarding "A String of Pearls", Malone makes this statement which I found most profound: Quote: |
As I look back to those days as a sincere and searching seminary student I often wonder if I was as honestly searching for the truth as I thought I was. For in the hard crucible of sometimes bitter rejection by my Baptist friends over the doctrines of sovereign grace, and in the warm fellowship of my like-minded paedobaptist brethren, it is more than possible that I allowed subjective feelings to influence my interpretation of the objective truth about baptism. I do not believe that I am the only Baptist who became a Presbyterian under these circumstances. In fact, I believe many Baptists, frustrated with doctrinal shallowness, have left Baptist churches to find a theologically comfortable home in sound Presbyterian churches. However, the sacraments are never minor issues of doctrine, and it is my hope that this pamphlet will persuade many to stay in, help reform, and build more sound Baptist churches.
| Having experienced the same shallow depth in Baptist circles, Malone's comments resonate with me. | I can totally identify although of course I am not a pastor and have not been to seminary.
__________________
Chris
Member at Grace Community Baptist Church
Mandeville, LA
"Faith alone saves, but it is a faith that works." - S. Lewis Johnson
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