As a subscriber to many, many blogs I regularly skim read for something that seems interesting to me and then save them to read later. Which I may or may not end up doing. I currently have over 170 articles saved for future reading. Clearly my reading system has an excess of supply. Far more is being written than can ever be read. As I’m reducing this number slowly (it was over 200 a few weeks ago), I’m pulling together common threads and sharing those saved articles. They exist on my blog for future reference should I ever go looking for them and they may be useful to others too.
The theme of this post is baptism. I am an utterly convinced credobaptist and have probably more books on this subject than any other, so it is perhaps no surprise that I’ve saved a bunch of articles on this topic as people write them. But even though I am an utterly convinced credobaptist, not all the articles I read are by those similarly persuaded.
Going Under, Coming Up
When I was about 19 years old, after a year of unrepentant backsliding, God got hold of me and refused to let go. I found myself one late summer evening up on a hill overlooking a Christian youth festival. There alone on the hill feeling guilty, ashamed and overwhelmed, I had a picture of a badly built house. Roof leaking, walls leaning, windows draughty. Habitable but only barely. It was my soul, my life, the one I had built. What it needed was pulling down. This was not a redecorating job but a total renovation. Rebuilding even. I surrendered to God, again, and said build my life your way. I say that still. It was one of the most profound encounters with God of my life. I almost always include that moment when sharing my testimony.
A few years ago the writer Paul Kingsnorth was baptised into the Romanian Orthodox Church and what struck me as he describes his baptism was this paragraph:
When you invite Christ into your heart and ask him to get to work, he begins steadily and at his own pace, and you find that you are not a family home which needs a few superficial bits of work done – a bit of paint here, a new bath there – but a creaking old mansion whose very foundations need stabilising before the rest of the job can even be contemplated. A complete overhaul is required. This old thing doesn’t even have a damp course, and it turns out it was built on sand.
On Baptism
I enjoyed this piece by Tim Suffield because I think it helps make believer’s baptism better, richer, more meaningful.
Baptism is a sign—an act that points beyond itself—signifying that Jesus already has and will continue to change our lives (2 Corinthians 5, Philippians 1); a sacrament, a moment of God’s grace imparted to us which is unrepeatable (Romans 6, Galatians 3); and a seal, the Holy Spirit through the church confirming and agreeing our repentance, our regeneration, our newness of life, and our eternal hope of glory (Colossians 2, Acts 10, 1 Corinthians 12).
Baptism tells us a story: we couldn’t rescue ourselves but needed rescuing. We are welcomed into a people, and an ancient one. The Bible is our story too. Creation starts in watery chaos and tends to the order of the land of the living.
Other baptism related articles
- It Pictures Something and It Accomplishes Something. This by Tim Challies pulls on a similar thread to the one Suffield does above.
- Paedobaptists are Credobaptists. Mark Jones believes too often both sides pull their punches. So for a full on no punches pulled conviction about what is being said in infant baptism – look no further.
- A Refutation of Infant Baptism – this one does what it says on the tin. Although it doesn’t deal with Jones argument above that saving faith is present in the child being baptised, but it’s hard to disprove an argument that is essentially: ‘I have faith that there is faith’
- Non-SBC thoughts on Matthew Barrett’s move to Anglicanism. Last year theologian Matthew Barrett left a baptist denomination and became an Anglican. In this long post Stephen Kneale examines the move and about half-way down has some interesting observations about baptism, tradition and church history.
- Why Baptism Must Precede Membership and the Table – This link is a segue to tomorrow’s post, which will be related to communion!
Further Reading on Baptism
If this post sparked your interest, here are more articles from the archive:
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