I rejoice to report the following:
My 6-year old son, Noah, is now professing faith in Christ and is asking for baptism.
This has been uncoached by us and we have actually taken a skeptical approach and have asked him to think hard and question everything.
However, Noah knows who Jesus is, he knows the basic doctrines of the Trinity, the God-Man-ness of Jesus and the bible doctrines of sin, atonement and salvation. He prays for forgiveness for his sins, tells us that he loves and believes in Jesus and says that our purpose in life is to love God and serve him. He knows and understands much of the catechisms. On one occasion when I asked him about how someone can know they are saved, he responded that we love Jesus because He first loved us and died for him (Noah) to suffer for his sins so that Noah would not have to, and that we love God and thus love others and ought to be ready even to die for others because Jesus died for us. In short, Noah seems to give some solid answers.
Noah now desires baptism. He is asking for it.
So, I need your counsel.
Here is my present situation:
At present I am away from my sending church and trying to plant a church among a remote tribal people.
I am ordained and sent out by my sending church with the commission to establish new churches among the unreached.
There are also several tribal youth whom we are checking in their understanding and might consider baptising 3 of them this next year... they also appear to believe.
However, among children and tribals it is hard to determine whether they are merely parroting back to you what they think you want to hear or if there is truly a work of grace going on in their hearts.
We thought of baptizing Noah here in the village, with me administrating. However, the only "church" here is my family and the Dani evangelists and a few possible tribal believers. No local church has been particularized and this does not really happen here anyway.
Also, a parent baptizing his child might sound nice, however, I might prefer someone else do it. For some reason it seems to lack as much legitimacy if a parent baptises their own child, though I am an official recognized church officer here. I might desire myself and Jimi Weyato, our most faithful evangelist officially sent by the indigenous church body with which I work, to baptize him simultanously, one on each side. Thoughts?
We also thought of waiting until 2014, when we come home on furlough and having the pastor of my home church baptize Noah. However, I am always leery of delaying baptism needlessly if Noah shows strong evidence of salvation now (although, on the other hand, I am also leery of premature baptism, which often happens here..a bunch of baptized pagans is what this province is full of...).
What would you advise about my 6 year old son Noah? What in general do you recommend when small children report faith in Christ?
Thanks,
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--
p.s. I am a reformed baptist, not paedo. Keep that in mind when answering. I welcome paedos to respond too, but my aim is not to debate baptism but to seek counsel given my present convictions as a credo.
My 6-year old son, Noah, is now professing faith in Christ and is asking for baptism.
This has been uncoached by us and we have actually taken a skeptical approach and have asked him to think hard and question everything.
However, Noah knows who Jesus is, he knows the basic doctrines of the Trinity, the God-Man-ness of Jesus and the bible doctrines of sin, atonement and salvation. He prays for forgiveness for his sins, tells us that he loves and believes in Jesus and says that our purpose in life is to love God and serve him. He knows and understands much of the catechisms. On one occasion when I asked him about how someone can know they are saved, he responded that we love Jesus because He first loved us and died for him (Noah) to suffer for his sins so that Noah would not have to, and that we love God and thus love others and ought to be ready even to die for others because Jesus died for us. In short, Noah seems to give some solid answers.
Noah now desires baptism. He is asking for it.
So, I need your counsel.
Here is my present situation:
At present I am away from my sending church and trying to plant a church among a remote tribal people.
I am ordained and sent out by my sending church with the commission to establish new churches among the unreached.
There are also several tribal youth whom we are checking in their understanding and might consider baptising 3 of them this next year... they also appear to believe.
However, among children and tribals it is hard to determine whether they are merely parroting back to you what they think you want to hear or if there is truly a work of grace going on in their hearts.
We thought of baptizing Noah here in the village, with me administrating. However, the only "church" here is my family and the Dani evangelists and a few possible tribal believers. No local church has been particularized and this does not really happen here anyway.
Also, a parent baptizing his child might sound nice, however, I might prefer someone else do it. For some reason it seems to lack as much legitimacy if a parent baptises their own child, though I am an official recognized church officer here. I might desire myself and Jimi Weyato, our most faithful evangelist officially sent by the indigenous church body with which I work, to baptize him simultanously, one on each side. Thoughts?
We also thought of waiting until 2014, when we come home on furlough and having the pastor of my home church baptize Noah. However, I am always leery of delaying baptism needlessly if Noah shows strong evidence of salvation now (although, on the other hand, I am also leery of premature baptism, which often happens here..a bunch of baptized pagans is what this province is full of...).
What would you advise about my 6 year old son Noah? What in general do you recommend when small children report faith in Christ?
Thanks,
--
--
p.s. I am a reformed baptist, not paedo. Keep that in mind when answering. I welcome paedos to respond too, but my aim is not to debate baptism but to seek counsel given my present convictions as a credo.