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Originally Posted by Archlute  Your writing is a little unclear, so I am not sure how you find the conclusion faulty. You didn't really do anything more than to make a bare assertion with that one. As well, I did not say that LSJ had a presbyterian bent, I said that it was not intended as an ecclesiastical document at all, so again, your writing is a little unclear to me.
As to your false hope that some sort of "believers only" baptismal concept will clear up all of the woes from your past - brother, I hate to break it to you, but you are going to be sadly disappointed. I must tell you with all honesty that I have met far more false professors in the credobaptist congregations that I had attended than I have in conservative Reformed churches.
One of the things that drew me to the Reformed in the first place was the stark difference in seriousness and holy profession/act that I observed there, which was completely lacking from any baptistic fellowship that I had ever attended. To this day, some of the worse cases of hypocrisy and apostasy that I have witnessed and had the sorrow to engage against have been in credobaptists congregations. The practice of the administration will not change the reality of unregenerates coming into the church. I have seen some of the most "sincere" and vigorous adult testimonies be followed in later years by the most vicious denials of Christ, the most devastating cases of habitual adultery against spouse and children, deception and theft within church leadership, etc. You cannot hide from it by changing the application of baptism - sinners are sinners!
As for your father, and please don't take this too hard as I have said the same thing regarding my own father who also hides and sulks in his sin under the pretense of having been hurt by the church, I would tell him that he needs to grow up and get over it. If he had any love of Christ at all in his heart, he would realize that a) Christian love covers a multitude of sins, b) worshipping God among sinners is more important than rejecting God until you find the "perfect church" that will never hurt you, and c) he is a sinner just like the rest, and every sinner saved by grace was once a hypocrite also -maybe even a hypocrite who was saved while sitting in a church service!
The Anabaptists attempted to purify the church by overturning what they held to be a false application of baptism, and there was far more craziness going on in their circles than practically anywhere else during the reformation. It is not a "proper view of baptism" that will save any church from itself - it is only the work of the Holy Spirit among God's people.
Btw, I will assume that your "Children of Satan" statement was directed at the true hypocrites in the church and not the baptized children. If it was also directed at all baptized children, it just goes to confirm that which Rich has been stating on several recent threads, namely, that the baptist view of baptism does serious harm against the nurture and discipleship of the children of believing families. I have seen as much when baptists refuse to let their children pray, because they are (as I have heard several put it) "little pagans". That view is a sin against the Church, and is certainly not the view of either Christ or his apostles. They are rather seen as blessed and holy to God. |
Concerning the Lexicons, please check your original posting with the latest statement as inconsistencies exist and possibly improved writing style in the original posting might be needed for better clarity.
As for the breaking of bad news of who has the more unregenerate members, I can attest to the contrary. Being involved with CHBC and now planting a church, and also witnessing ARBCA churches, I can say that the greatest and sweetest joy has been being involved and seeing first-hand the fruits of practicing Regenerate Church Membership.
As for your father, I can't comment on how you relate and respond to your father.
As for the Anabaptists, I'm not sure how they came into the picture here. We've been comparing Reformed Baptists (with general reference to the wider Baptist churches) to the Presbyterians. So I'm not sure what the purpose was that you brought them up.
As for the giving false assurance to baptized children of believers facilitating better nurture and discipline than teaching the children that their assurance of salvation rests on their own profession of Christ and not on any baptism of grace is the most dangerous deceit that the Presbyterians must shake out of. The danger with the Presbyterian concept of Covenant of Grace baptism is giving false assurance to children of believers when none was granted to them from the beginning. Election is not hereditary, nor is election granted through baptismal regeneration. Yet while Presbyterians profess to deny baptismal regeneration, in practice they are. I spoke with Ligon Duncan about this once, and he admits that that is a growing concern that he has to constantly debate and warn his fellow Presbyterian brothers about. And he admits that he is in the minority on this issue. The wider Presbyterian circle appears to practice and believe in baptismal regeneration of infants while professing with the mouth that they deny that doctrine. This is the greater danger to the children. A friend of mine (a former OPC elder who graduated from Greenville Presbyterian Seminary with a MDiv and Knox Presbyterian Seminary with a MA Missiology, and is currently a Reformed Baptist missionary) shared with me that that was one among many reasons he chose to leave Presbyterianism and join the Reformed Baptist - the issue that he had seen first hand the hypocrisy and duplicity that exists where one on hand, the OPC denies baptismal regeneration, but on the other hand, they encourage their children that they have been saved through the covenant of grace through baptism.