Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Baptism - Forbid Them Not?

Here's another perspective on the baptism issue which I ran across at Justin Taylor's blog. The post is entitled, Forbid Them Not, and Taylor recommends the booklet written by Ted Christman, Forbid Them Not: Rethinking the Baptism and Church Membership of Children and Young People.

Here's a quote from the booklet:
In short, [disallowing the baptism of children] regrettably "forbids the children" who are truly converted to obey the Great Commission. It forbids them membership in the church. It forbids them the Lord's Table. It forbids them the pastoral oversight that rightfully belongs to all members of the church. It forbids them the sense of belonging to the family of God, even though they do in fact belong to God.
Your thoughts?

1 comment:

Pastor Randy said...

I think this is a valid point. I am torn between this and the point that Justin C. brought up about being a responsible member. What exactly does that mean? While I find it important that every member are able to help the church function, does that mean they have to understand everything? I have a hard time denying someone baptism who is converted. I do think that we baptize too quickly sometimes, but there are some legitimate cases of young boys and girls coming to Christ. I have thought about this issue a lot lately, and I am still torn. Thanks for the post Jim, and I hope we all take this issue seriously.