I was raised in a Dispensational Anabaptist household and was well informed about Rapture charts, but not so much about Biblical study or WHY certain practices were performed. Baptism was merely an “outward response to an inward change” as we were told over and over. The Lord’s Supper was a “remembrance until He returns” and nothing more than that.
Both sacraments were reduced to playacting, and I instinctively thought that they weren’t being taken seriously. Even as an unbelieving teenager. Let that sink in. I was raised in the church and the concepts of the two primary means of grace outside the preaching of the word were assumed by the leadership to mean something, even as they said that it meant nothing. It felt like a LARP to me.
I was saved 20 years ago and looked for authors to read and learn all that I felt I should have known by then. Most of the authors then were reformed and I devoured them leading me to drop my Dispensational upbringing. I still was on board with the LARP but it made me uneasy. The Emergent Church (remember them?) also taught that the sacraments deserved more teaching than we were getting, but they were the liberals. That kept me from asking their questions along with them for over a decade.
Fast forward to today. COVID and certain other events led to my family being uprooted in our faith tradition. My wife and I visited several churches in the area, looking for one that is faithful. We ended up in a CRC church that practices infant baptism. That was my only hangup. So I decided to understand why they sprinkle babies. As an assumed Anabaptist, that is pretty huge.
My understanding as of today:
- Baptism is the sign of the covenant and ought to be administered to anyone in covenant with God.
- The obvious person in covenant is a new convert to Christianity, so adult baptism is entirely valid.
- The other person in covenant is the family member of the Christian.
1 Corinthians 7:14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. - It is proper to baptize anyone who God declares to be holy and set apart for Him.
It is improper for anyone to declare that one who God says is holy ought to be denied the sacrament of the covenant. - Baptism is not salvific. It does not regenerate. It is a sign of covenant. And God gets to declare who is set apart for Him.
- If this sounds off to you, remember that all of Israel was in covenant with God as they wandered through the desert. Only two of the original population made it to the promised land. Yet they were all in covenant.
- Therefore, all who are Christians are in covenant with God. Not everyone in covenant with God will become Christians, though they do have more opportunities to believe and be saved from their sins as they hear the gospel throughout their lives.
