Reformed Christian Studies

By Rev. Aaron Dunlop - Posted at Sermon Audio: Details: Part one of two. It is ironic that what Erasmus tried to prove with his pen in 'The Freedom of the Will' he disproved in his life; i.e. the bondage of the will. Link: https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=102908152522

By Rev. Aaron Dunlop - Posted at Sermon Audio : Link: https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=42608025290 Description: Since Protestantism took root and spread through Europe and across the western world it is difficult to imagine that it ever was in a worse state than it presently finds itself. In many respects Protestant Christendom is on the road back to Medieval Romanism. The Charismatic Movement has abandoned the protestant principle of Sola Scriptura for the less than satisfactory ‘personal experience.' Modern evangelicalism has forsaken the Protestant principle of Solo Christo for a psychological conversion in place of the sound evangelical conversion called for in the Protestant Reformation. Modern methods of evangelism and the subsequent easy-believism has left the evangelical church with a Christless gospel and the only support available is a glut of pseudo-Christian self-help books. The ecumenical movement has encouraged a unity within Christendom

CONCLUSION In conclusion, as we have our babies baptized, let us realize that it is not a matter of magic. As parents, what we do is to covenant with God to be faithful toward the child. It is the parents' work to train the child. It is the parents' privilege in many cases to lead the child to Christ. Christian parents should not depend upon the church's evangelistic services when the child becomes an adolescent, or even a full-grown adult, to lead him to Christ. The little child should learn of Jesus Christ from his parents from his earliest childhood, and in many cases when he is yet a child he should be led to a personal acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior by his father or his mother. Take advantage of this God-given privilege of infant baptism. The Christian parent's heart, moved and guided by the indwelling Holy Spirit, has a natural urge to bring his child to God. This is so strong that even those who are Baptistic have come to the place

Al-Maghtas ruins on the Jordanian  side of the Jordan River are the location for the Baptism of Jesus and the ministry of John the Baptist . - Wikipedia Baptistic Arguments Let us look at the usual Baptistic arguments against infant baptism. a) "Believe and be baptized." Notice that the same thing was said in effect to Abraham concerning circumcision, "Believe and afterward be circumcised," but that it is altogether clear that the sign of his personal faith was to be applied also to his child. Further, in the case of the first days of the Christian era, everyone who believed was of necessity baptized an adult, because, the new Testament teaching being new, no one would have been previously baptized as an infant. The same thing is true on any new mission field of any day. There are no baptized infants until there are some Christian parents. b) Often those who are Baptistic ask why we baptize both boys and girls, when only males were circumcised in t

New Testament Practice These questions would be further aggravated by what this saved Jew himself would have heard taught in the New Testament time. For example, he would have heard Peter in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost, Acts 2: 38, 39: "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."  Remember, Peter said this to Jews, Jews who were used to having the outward sign of their faith applied to their children. With all these things in his mind, he would expect his child to be baptized. If it were refused, what would you have done in his place? You would have asked the Apostles the reason why. So would the thousands of Christian Jews in that day. The question would have been asked in a hundred meetings; and Peter, John,

The Outward Sign This Christian Jew would also remember that the spiritual promise in the Old Testament days was sealed with a physical sign. Romans 4:10, 1 la: "How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith, and that after he was justified, circumcision was given as a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised." This passage says that Abraham was justified by faith, and that after he was justified, circumcision was given as a seal of the righteousness which was his by faith before he was circumcised. The Old Testament and the New Testament alike also remind us that the circumcision of the flesh was to be an outward sign of the true circumcision of the heart. In other words, that true circumcision was a spiritual thing. Deuteronomy 10:16 reads: "Circumcise therefore the f

We do not believe that those who are Baptistic have any more Biblical grounds for teaching adult baptism only than they have for teaching immersion only. As we begin our thinking on this subject, let us place ourselves in the position of a Jew who has been saved in the early Christian era. He is a Jew, and now he has put his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. His mind has not changed overnight, and certain great truths which his people have known and believed for two thousand years are much in his thinking. Salvation by Faith Alone First of all, a Jew saved in the early Christian era would realize that even as he had been justified by faith alone, so also Abraham had been justified by faith alone two thousand years before. Romans 4:1-a makes this abundantly clear: "What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory'; but not before God. For what saith the scriptures? Ab

Catacombs of San Callisto : baptism in a 3rd-century painting - Wikipedia First, in regard to immersion, let me say that, personally, I will immerse if the individual desires this mode of baptism. Second, it is well to remember that the Greek Catholic Church and certain groups of Brethren have immersed babies as well as adults, and hence there is no necessary link between the mode of baptism used and the question of the baptism of infants. I have never immersed an infant, but I would not refuse to do so. As a matter of fact, from evidence from the Catacombs before 200, it would seem probable that effusion, pouring, could have been the most common mode of baptism in the early church. That is, they stood in water and then had water poured on their head. Our position as to the mode of baptism is that immersion is not the only mode. The words baptizo and bapto in the classical Greek are used with great latitude. Neither of these words can be said always to mean immerse. In th

Image Source: bethinking.org In introduction, there are several things to emphasize as we begin this study. 1. We do not believe in Baptismal Regeneration. Let me remind you that it was over the question of the sacraments that Calvin and Luther differed during the Reformation Period. To Calvin, and those who have followed him, the important thing is the individual's coming directly to Christ for salvation. In regard to baptism, we who are Presbyterians, are interested primarily not in the water baptism but in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which takes place when the individual accepts Christ as his personal Saviour. Our Confession of Faith, Chapter 28 , Section 5, makes it very clear that our subordinate standards do not teach Baptismal Regeneration: "Although it be a great sin to condemn or neglect this ordinance, yet grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed unto it, as that no person can be regenerated or saved without it, or that all that are baptized are und

Westminster Larger Catechism Q. 165. What is baptism? A. Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, wherein Christ hath ordained the washing with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, [1058] to be a sign and seal of ingrafting into himself, [1059] of remission of sins by his blood, [1060] and regeneration by his Spirit; [1061] of adoption, [1062] and resurrection unto everlasting life; [1063] and whereby the parties baptized are solemnly admitted into the visible church, [1064] and enter into an open and professed engagement to be wholly and only the Lord's. [1065] Q. 166. Unto whom is baptism to be administered? A. Baptism is not to be administered to any that are out of the visible church, and so strangers from the covenant of promise, till they profess their faith in Christ, and obedience to him, [1066] but infants descending from parents, either both, or but one of them, professing faith in Christ, and obedience to him, are in t

By Dr. R. Scott Clark - Posted at The Heidelblog : The Reformed churches and Reformed theologians (i.e., those who confess and teach within the bounds of the Reformed confessions , e.g., the French Confession (1559), the Scots Confession (1560), the Belgic Confession (1561), the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), the Second Helvetic Confession (1566), the Canons of Dort (1619), the Westminster Standards (1646–48), speak about baptism and the Lord’s Supper as “holy sacraments” and as “signs” and “seals.” Recently HB reader Barrett wrote to ask for a brief, simple explanation of these terms. Sacrament The word sacrament is widely used by a variety of Christian traditions but for some evangelicals it is a word that is associated with Romanism and a false view of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Our English word sacrament is derived from the Latin military term, sacramentum , which was a military oath of loyalty. In the Latin translations of Scripture where the New Testament uses the t

By Dr. Mark Jones - Posted at The Calvinist International : Christians have not agreed on the proper mode of baptism. Many believe that the only proper way to baptize someone is by the full submersion of the body under water. They typically argue that baptizo means immerse and they also appeal to Romans 6 as a watertight (pardon the pun) argument proving the need for full immersion. In response, we may wish to ask whether we do our theology by etymology or by looking at the rich tapestry of symbolism in the Scriptures to come up with a theology of baptism that may cause us to realize the case is not nearly as obvious as some may think. One could do a study on Hebrews 9:11–22 and look up all of the Old Testament references that the author calls baptisms. The New Testament does not give us the precise manner in which baptism must be administered. As B.B. Warfield has noted, “We may search the New Testament in vain if we are seeking minute instructions how we are to perform bap

By Anthony W. Brooks - Posted at The Ancient Faith : Baptism is always a hot topic. In the Baptist church I was an avid opponent of Infant Baptism and saw it as part of a corrupt papist false gospel. So, what changed my mind? Well, Biblical consistency and covenant relationships helped… Also, the Biblical consistency of Covenant Theology. But I am also an advocate of historical theology as well. I believe that it doesn’t matter how much sense an argument makes, but if it isn’t believed in the first 500 years of the church, it shouldn’t be believed. One of the greatest arguments against paedobaptism is that there is no explicit command in scripture to baptize our children…. and this is true. But that would mean that many other doctrines that we believe to be true in scripture can’t be believed because they aren’t explicit (e.g. Trinity, Hypostatic Union, Sola Fide, etc…). So I will post a list of Early Church quotes that date back to 125 AD. ... Irenaeus “He [Jesus] came to save

Image Source: Wikipedia By Octavius Winslow - Posted at Grace Gems : "The Lord is my portion, says my soul." "Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain you."-- Psalm 55:22 Wonderful words! Their sense is magical, their sound is music, their very utterance is repose! It is one of those flowers culled from the Lord's garden, pencilled with beauty and laden with perfume, which defies all human art to heighten the loveliness of the one, or to increase the sweetness of the other. And yet, as most flowers are more fragrant when crushed, and as the grape yields its sweetest juice when pressed, a simple exposition of these precious words, however gentle the pressure, may prove a spiritual fragrance and refreshment to some sin or trial-burdened child of God, whose glance may fall upon these pages. The FITNESS of Jesus to be the Burden-Bearer of His people surely needs no proof to those who have studied His Word, and are in any measure acquainted with