Baptism

Evangelism, Baptism and Evaluating Church Health

Brian Tallman
Feb 27, 2017
If I've heard it once I have heard it a thousand times: Christians who are members in Reformed Churches tripping over themselves to apologize about how poorly the Reformed Church does evangelism. Related to this is the tried and true self-deprecation: "We need to see more adult baptisms." What...

Don’t Be Silly

Patrick Ramsey
Jan 25, 2017
S tephen Marshall (1594-1655) argued that infants of believers should be baptized because 1) they are within the covenant of grace and belong to the kingdom of Christ, 2) they are made partakers of the inward grace of baptism. In a previous article , I attempted to explain his second argument but...

Parental Comfort

Patrick Ramsey
Jan 10, 2017
I n the previous two articles (see 1 , 2 ), we have considered one argument for and one objection to infant baptism from the writings of Stephen Marshall (1594-1655). We are now going to turn our attention to a benefit of infant baptism. There are several avenues we could explore in this regard,...

Calvin on the Sacraments

Sinclair Ferguson
Dec 30, 2016
For some, John Calvin seems to be at his most feisty when he writes on the sacraments. Against those who complain that infant baptism is a travesty of the Gospel, in the Institutes he stoutly insists, "these darts are aimed more at God than at us!" But a little reflection reveals he is also at his...

Apples & Oranges

Patrick Ramsey
Dec 13, 2016
I n my previous article , I discussed one of Stephen Marshall’s arguments for infant baptism: infants of believers (covenant children) should be baptized because they partake of the spiritual realities signified and sealed by baptism. This is not to say that all covenant children partake of the...

A God Thing

David Garner
Nov 15, 2016
Exuberant over an experience, an oh-so-sweet manifestation of divine providence, you delightedly seek to give God praise in telling your story. “It was such a ‘God thing’,” you proclaim. As you see it, God wove together an otherwise inexplicable combination of events to deliver a wonderful—even...

Membership Has Its Privileges

Patrick Ramsey
Nov 9, 2016
I f you were to travel back in time and ask the members of the Westminster Assembly for some helpful resources on the subject of infant baptism they would probably have directed you to the recent publications of one of their own, Stephen Marshall. Marshall’s lecture on this topic was published in...

Zachary Crofton (1626-1672) and the Baptismal Burden of Proof

Bob McKelvey
Oct 13, 2016
G od wants Christians to baptize their infant children. It took me a while to make such a claim. I was converted at 21 and spiritually raised in Arminian Baptist circles. Eventually, I embraced the “doctrines of grace” and joined a Reformed Baptist church where I started to struggle with my...

Calvin and Baptism: Baptismal Regeneration or the Duplex Loquendi Modus?

Jim Cassidy
Aug 22, 2016
I. Introduction "What is the relation between baptism and salvation in the thought of John Calvin?" This is a timely question, given that there has been much discussion over this very subject of late. On the one hand, there are those who claim that Calvin taught "baptismal regeneration" - at least...

Calvin and Baptism: Baptismal Regeneration or the Duplex Loquendi Modus?

Jim Cassidy
Aug 22, 2016
I. Introduction "What is the relation between baptism and salvation in the thought of John Calvin?" This is a timely question, given that there has been much discussion over this very subject of late. On the one hand, there are those who claim that Calvin taught "baptismal regeneration" - at least...