Bookworm
Puritan Board Freshman
I've recently been reading Paul King Jewett's book, 'Infant Baptism and the Covenant of Grace' and David Kingdon's book, 'Children of Abraham' in order to familiarise myself more thoroughly with the authors' covenantal arguments for believer's baptism (or 'believer baptism' as Jewett would have it). In many ways, Kingdon's book seems to be a popularisation of Jewett's more scholarly treatise.
Both authors concede much to the Paedobaptist position, in terms of the covenantal hermeneutic, the unity of the testaments, and the circumcision-baptism analogy. They basically acknowledge that Abraham's seed are to receive the covenant sign and seal. However, the point at which the authors part company with their Paedobaptist brethren, if I've understood them correctly, is in their identification of 'Abraham's seed'. Citing Galatians 3:29 and other texts, Jewett and Kingdon identify Abraham's seed in the NT with those professing faith in Christ (i.e. true believers). Therefore they conclude that baptism is exclusively for believers in the NT.
However, this leaves me with a question to which I'd appreciate responses from credo- and paedo-baptists on this forum. I understand that the NT seed of Abraham are those that possess genuine saving faith. But I'm left confused as to how can that be an argument for only applying the covenant sign to believers, when the same distinction between the natural and spiritual seed of Abraham was equally true in the OT? As Paul says in Romans 9:6, "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel." Yet we know that in the OT the covenant sign was applied to all the male children regardless.
What step in the argument am I missing here?
Both authors concede much to the Paedobaptist position, in terms of the covenantal hermeneutic, the unity of the testaments, and the circumcision-baptism analogy. They basically acknowledge that Abraham's seed are to receive the covenant sign and seal. However, the point at which the authors part company with their Paedobaptist brethren, if I've understood them correctly, is in their identification of 'Abraham's seed'. Citing Galatians 3:29 and other texts, Jewett and Kingdon identify Abraham's seed in the NT with those professing faith in Christ (i.e. true believers). Therefore they conclude that baptism is exclusively for believers in the NT.
However, this leaves me with a question to which I'd appreciate responses from credo- and paedo-baptists on this forum. I understand that the NT seed of Abraham are those that possess genuine saving faith. But I'm left confused as to how can that be an argument for only applying the covenant sign to believers, when the same distinction between the natural and spiritual seed of Abraham was equally true in the OT? As Paul says in Romans 9:6, "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel." Yet we know that in the OT the covenant sign was applied to all the male children regardless.
What step in the argument am I missing here?