Featured Open Baptists & Paedobaptism

That is an odd construction of the Regulative Principle as I have always understood it, and at odds with the way you defined it as well:

Or perhaps I am misunderstanding what you mean by “any practice”?

I have not heard that terminology, but in recent years Steve M. Schlissel of Messiah’s Covenant Community Church in Brooklyn has promoted what he calls the Informed Principle of Worship. It seems like a compromise between the Normative Principle and the Regulative Principle. Someone explained it this way:

• If the Bible commands it, should we do it? Yes!
• If the Bible forbids it, should we do it? No!
• If the Bible neither commands or forbids it, should we do it? It depends …

Might come out similarly to what you suggest.

 

I don't. Please explain it succinctly with scriptures.

 

Think that many who are now saved by the Lord will desire to obey Him and follow now in believers baptism! We do not require it to be done to get saved, but to be a member need to be believers baptized...

 

It is highly debatable that the passages you referenced are even discussing water baptism.

 

Here's the rub. A person who is drawn to faith at any age, but was baptized as an infant can honestly say they have been baptized and they are a believer. Have they fulfilled the command to be baptized?

 

You are starting from a false premis. The infants which the paedobaptists believe have been baptised, have not been baptised. Therefore there is no "re-baptising" of anyone.

Therefore the question really is "Should someone who hasn't been baptised be allowed to join membership of a Baptist church?"

 

Right. It is a covenant view that Reformed Baptists also hold. We just do a baby dedication and wait to see about baptism. The question becomes: Which practice is more biblically sound?

 

I see no reason not to. See Acts of the Apostles 10:34-48. They received the Holy Spirit and not yet being baptized with water. Water baptism is not part of the gospel, 1 Corinthians 1:17. Only comes with the gospel.

Only immersion is "baptism." And only immersion with one's profession of the faith is Christian baptism. A religious rite called "baptism" does not make it baptism.

 

Thank you.
As a Baptist, I will never die on the hill of paedobaptism. I am simply pointing out that the person seeking membership has been baptized into the covenant as a child and now has confirmed his faith. Does God require a second baptism in order to be obedient to the ordinance of baptism? I don't see any scripture that would make such an argument for a second baptism. I also don't find an explicit argument for infant baptism. So, it seems that both sides are arguing from a normative procedure rather than a regulative position.

 

That's a odd thing for a Baptist to say. This is what Baptists believe.

"But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptised, both men and women." - Acts 8:12

"Peter replied, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." - Acts 2:38

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" - Matthew 28:19 (are the unregenerate disciples?)

"For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." - Galations 3:27 (are the unregenerate in Christ?)


Belief/Faith then baptism.

 

Funny; I'm having a discussion with a "regenerational Baptist" on the CARM site. That person tried to tell me that, because I had to wait to be baptized for several months due to weather(Our church has no natatorium & baptizes in a creek) that I was not saved til then. I asked him when he acquired JESUS' authority to say when one was saved. I knew what I felt at the time & I was eager to be baptized, but had I died before I was baptized, I would've been just-as-saved as I am now.

My $0.02 is that the result of baptizing an unsaved person is a wet sinner, regardless of age. And every new Christian should be baptized ASAP. That includes those who were baptized before their salvations.

And they WERE baptized. Remember, "baptize" means "to immerse in water", regardless of purpose.

 

Baptists. i don't like baby dedications, it seems like a modern invention. Theology within baptist church (and others) is terrible.

 

No one is arguing the narrative of people who were baptized in the Bible.
Is there a prescriptive requirement that only someone who confesses salvation can be baptized? Do any of the verses you quoted make that prescription? You imply this, but is it specifically prescriptive?
I say that we must extend grace in this matter. If a person exhibits genuine salvation and was genuinely baptized, even as an infant, that person has fulfilled the ordinance of our King. I would admit that person into membership in the local church without hesitation.

 

thats nonsense. if you take it that way then every time i go swimming im being Baptised, as i'm immersed in water.

 

Well, to my knowledge, the thief on the cross was never baptized. He entered heaven because God said he could come.