Thoughts on Baptism...Paedo vs. Credo

Over the past year as I have studied the Bible more and more I have found myself rethinking my position on several things I have come to believe over the years. One such position I have come to rethink is on the topic of baptism and whether the Bible better supports the case for infant baptism (paedobaptism) or believer's baptism (credobaptism). I have spent the majority of my Christian life in southern baptist churches that strongly affirm believer's baptism. However, as the father of a 3 year old daughter and in about a week  the father of a son (Lord willing) I have found myself thinking through the role/position of children in the church and studying Covenant Theology with greater interest. As such I have grown interested more in understanding the biblical reasoning behind infant baptism in light of God's covenant with believers.

This past Lord's Day I visited a local Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) with my family and took home a copy of the below booklet to read over. This is a well organized little booklet that lays out a five-step explanation for infant baptism. In the booklet each step below is explained with supportive scripture passages and really presents a compelling case for infant baptism - though those who hold a dispensational view of scripture will perhaps automatically disagree.

1. The church of the O.T. and the church of the N.T. are, in essence, the same church
2. God regards the children of believers as members of this church
3. In the O.T. era, the children of believers were given the covenant sign of circumcision
4. In the N.T. era, God has taken the sign of circumcision and changed it to baptism
5. Therefore in the N.T. era, the children of believers are to be given the sign of baptism 

This booklet did a good job of piquing my interest in reading more about the biblical basis for infant baptism and I placed an order over at Reformation Heritage Books for the items below.

• Christian Baptism by John Murray
• The Case for Covenantal Infant Baptism by P&R Publishing
• Infant Baptism: Scriptural and Reasonable by Samuel Miller

As I slug my way through these books perhaps I'll post a succinct review to my blog. Until then...