Peairtach
Puritan Board Doctor
What do baptists think about all the promises in the Bible respecting children born to believers?
Do they
(a) Spiritualise them, so that they refer only to those "children" of ours that have been converted through our influence e.g. Paul calling Timothy his "son".
(b) Believe that they are no longer relevant, because they were just for Old Covenant believing parents.
(c) Believe they are relevant, but somehow these promises are non-Covenantal or outside the Covenant.
(d) Believe they are relevant and Covenantal, but that just because some Covenantal promises refer to the children of believers, and that they are in that sense Covenant Children, that doesn't mean we should baptise them.
Option (d) would be closest to Presbyterianism, although it's true that among Presbyterians these promises aren't sometimes emphasised in the way they should be.
Do they
(a) Spiritualise them, so that they refer only to those "children" of ours that have been converted through our influence e.g. Paul calling Timothy his "son".
(b) Believe that they are no longer relevant, because they were just for Old Covenant believing parents.
(c) Believe they are relevant, but somehow these promises are non-Covenantal or outside the Covenant.
(d) Believe they are relevant and Covenantal, but that just because some Covenantal promises refer to the children of believers, and that they are in that sense Covenant Children, that doesn't mean we should baptise them.
Option (d) would be closest to Presbyterianism, although it's true that among Presbyterians these promises aren't sometimes emphasised in the way they should be.