why Don't Reformed/Covenant baptists Do Infant Water Baptism?

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Walter....Do you put Baptism at the same level as Grace?

Tom, with all due respect to you & your beliefs & traditions, my wifes mothers family are all reformed & of the Covenanter Scottish people of the old sod. The Anglicans shot them dead in front of their families for the effrontery of being Presbyterians.

 

[Dr. Walter]

Walter....Do you put Baptism at the same level as Grace?

Tom, with all due respect to you & your beliefs & traditions, my wifes mothers family are all reformed & of the Covenanter Scottish people of the old sod. The Anglicans shot them dead in front of their families for the effrontery of being Presbyterians.

Sacramentalism is what places baptism at the same level of grace. Baptist require evidence of grace before they will baptize you. Since baptism is not required to be essential to salvation then what is baptism essential for? It is the very first step of SERVICE and the local congregation is concerned with that very thing - teaching them to OBSERVE ALL THINGS whatsoever I have commanded. Not only does Christ place baptism previous to this assembled instruction but the apostles understood it is the FIRST step and membership in a local congregation is the SECOND step - "as many as received the word were baptized AND added to them.."

 

[JesusFan]

Walter....Do you put Baptism at the same level as Grace?

Isn't Baptism an "outward sign of an inward work?"

Tom, with all due respect to you & your beliefs & traditions, my wifes mothers family are all reformed & of the Covenanter Scottish people of the old sod. The Anglicans shot them dead in front of their families for the effrontery of being Presbyterians.

Is water baptism actually stated in the NT as being a requirement before one could become member of a local church body?

believe that the church used it as the sign that one has passed from death to life, but was it needed to be a member?

Wouldn't faith in Messiah, coming of the HS in/on a person qualify them to be in a church, and that once taught, baptim could iniate at a later time?

I can actually see both sides on this running discussion concerning water baptism in the local church, but always found it starnge that One can be a member in the Church/body of Christ, yet not of a local church?

 

[Jeremiah2911]

Sacramentalism is what places baptism at the same level of grace. Baptist require evidence of grace before they will baptize you. Since baptism is not required to be essential to salvation then what is baptism essential for? It is the very first step of SERVICE and the local congregation is concerned with that very thing - teaching them to OBSERVE ALL THINGS whatsoever I have commanded. Not only does Christ place baptism previous to this assembled instruction but the apostles understood it is the FIRST step and membership in a local congregation is the SECOND step - "as many as received the word were baptized AND added to them.."

I've just read through all these posts and I have found yours very helpful and insightful...Thanks!

I had heard some sects in years past, such as the Puritans, baptized their infants because they wanted them to be Puritans [baptized into the Church so they can't make a "mistake" later in life]; however, we know we can't make people become Christians and about the 3rd generation[?] of Puritans we have the bunch that oversaw the witch trials.....for me infant baptism means nothing