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Old 07-19-2008, 08:34 AM
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kceaster kceaster is offline.
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I came to the Reformed faith only about 7 years ago and the paedobaptism domino fell very early and without much pushing. To me, it does no harm to include infants just as they were included in the OT, and just as Jesus seemed to include them during His ministry. Either Jesus did a very "Arminian" thing by loving the sinner, but hating their sin, or He counted them as part of the church by virtue of their believing parents bringing them to Him. He didn't give the same latitude with others, that's for sure.

Now, to some opposed, paedobaptism seems to run contrary to other tenets like the regulative principal. This is the reason that the link between the OT and NT is crucial. If we see God give a positive command to include children in the OT, and we do not see that abrogated in the NT, then there is no reason to conclude that infant baptism is forbidden.

The other indicator is that there is no sanction against the eldership for baptizing anyone who is an unbeliever.

That, and household baptisms swung the gate around for me. But then, I did not have to decide the matter while having infants to be baptized.

In the end, it wasn't a struggle for me. I guess I'd rather defer to centuries of Christian practice and the good and necessary consequence of inference by my forebears.

In Christ,

KC
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Kevin C. Easterday
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