Saturday, May 26, 2012

Peds and Creeds Part 4

I hope this is the last installment in this series.  I expected it to be the most painful one, because I had originally intended to go through the Biblical examples of baptism and just what Scripture says it does, as well as early church father statements and then make a conclusion based on that.

Very quickly, however, I realized that is *way* out of my league.  I'm not a theologian or an Hebrew/Greek scholar.  (Yet.)

I just finished this book.  It started off mediocre, but got better by the end.  A lot of it was framed with Reformed Covenant theology and the Heidelberg Catechism; to be expected given it's from Westminster Press, but I was hoping to get a relatively unbiased view.  It did go through the majority of what I had intended this post to be - and reaffirmed that it was out of my league. 

I also read a book on early church history, and that was actually even more helpful, despite its coverage of many topics other than baptism. It really opened my eyes as to how much theology was unspecified very early on, and how some pretty smart Spirit-led people tried to hash things out.  And maybe got some things wrong along the way and got corrected later. (For example, Augustine had some really nasty things to say about women.)  As someone who comes from a background of perfectionism, to be confronted with the fact that a lot of scripture isn't clear, uses metaphorical language, and doesn't lay out all the rules as neatly as my rational culture demands is a lot disconcerting.

Suffice to say that there are several episodes in Acts of entire households being baptized when the head of the household converts.  Were there babies involved?  Highly likely.  It doesn't say there were, but there's no reason to think there weren't - birth control didn't exist then.  Babies happened all the time.  Even more interesting - adult servants who were part of the household and maybe didn't really have a choice got baptized.  I think that's even more striking than the possibility of infant baptism.  Nobody says at the time or later that baptizing either the children or the possibly non-compliant servants was a bad idea or shouldn't be done.

In Colossians, baptism in the New Covenant seems to be presented as the replacement for circumcision from the Old, and the Reformed crowd especially pushes that. Comparing baptism to circumcision makes a lot of sense about what it means, what it does, and whether one should do it.

And then there's the confusing passages on baptism - the ones I'm allowing myself to just read for their face value instead of mentally rewriting what they say.  Like the end of I Peter 3 - it clearly says "baptism saves you [...] through the resurrection of Jesus Christ."  And Mark 16 says, "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned."  Peter in Acts 2 says, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins".   Acts 22 has Saul (Paul) being told to "Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name."

These are strange statements to me. Some of them I can make sense of, but not all.  The context isn't as helpful as I would like.  Are some of these statements partially in response to ideas of the day I don't know about?  What's the original Greek say?   This is why I'm a little lost right now. 

Overall, I've read some fascinating eye-opening things.  And they keep leading me to thinking I need to get my kid baptized.

This is going to get interesting real quick.

9 comments:

  1. Interesting topic. My brother and sister-in-law are members of a PCA church and we have attended both my niece's baptisms. I still am pretty "baptist" in my views but I liked their baptisms. I found it to be similar to a baby dedication but more solemn. I guess you could say it seemed to mean more. I truly haven't done much research on it. It seems, though, that both sides have to make some assumptions.

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    1. What assumptions do you think both sides are making, SJ?

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  2. I sometimes attend a Methodist church, and the infant baptisms are, like you said, similar to a baby dedication. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what I've observed, but it seems like the baptism's purpose is more for the parents and the church than the kid because the parents and church body commit to partner together in raising the kid for God. Or something like that, lol. I dont really understand how that correlates with an adult baptism and why one would chose one over the other. But either way, there is something uniquely special about an infant baptism that a dedication service just doesn't seem to cover for some reason.
    -Erika

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    1. The baby dedications in my old church were exactly as you say, Erika - the parents and church body committing to partner together in raising the kid for God. It seems that baptism is a little more than that in the Episcopal church at least, but it probably depends on who you talk to.

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  3. IMHO Baptism is simply saying "Yes!" to God, who has already said yes to you, or your infant or your 12 year old. Lots of people get baptized today but don't bother to darken the door of a church for years. Or bother to pray. But then some get baptized and become deeply faithful. Baptism is not a guarantee, I'm pretty sure. It is a statement of faith and intent. Hate to say it, but the world won't come to an end either way....

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    1. You're right. The world won't end either way. :) Like I said earlier, it seems like a lot of denominations way overthink this.

      Thanks for your comment, it is helpful.

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  4. I tend to agree with Anonymous/June 4th. We are new to the Episcopal church. We've been visiting since the first Sunday of Advent back in Nov. I too, grew up in fundamentalism and graduated from BJU. This is all new, and very different in so many ways.

    My husband grew up Lutheran. When we decided we wanted to join this church, his Lutheran church membership from many years ago was transferred, and he was received into the church. It's so funny to me that he was baptized by immersion as an adult, since our Baptist church didn't acknowledge his infant baptism. I was baptized by immersion around age 12. Since my family will not understand this, and since things are very tense between myself, my dad, and my sister (both of whom live in Greenville), I did not want to contact the church of my childhood, since word would *most assuredly* get back to them. My alternative was to be "provisionally baptized." I just went for it. Even though it was just really quick and informal, attended only by one of our deacons, her daughter, one of my daughters, and the priest, it felt very special. Palm Sunday was the day we were received/confirmed.

    My 15 yo daughter attended confirmation classes. She, as well as our brain injured son, were confirmed at the end of August. During confirmation we all renew our baptismal vows. It is all so beautiful and so simple. If I had the choice, I would most definitely have my babies baptized. Honestly, I do not believe God will find fault with you if you do. I understand about family, however. Your blog is fabulous, and I have read every entry. I share your love of the Eucharist! It is so much more powerful than the plastic cups and tiny wafers passed around on trays. It encourages me deeply every single week.

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    1. Thank you for your kind comments, Lily.

      Yes, baptism can get tricky - and I also learned that joining an Episcopal church from a Fundamentalist background can be tricky too. I don't blame you for not wanting your old church to know. It was pretty painful for us, and I have a blog post in the works about it once we finally get some resolution. I'm really hesitant to talk about it because I know a few people from my old church read this blog, but it's a part of the journey and I can't shrink from it just because I might make a few people upset. I'm already a big fat coward blogging relatively anonymously. :)

      My hubby also has a little PTSD about baptism. He was baptized by immersion in a lake in front of a group of christian and non/christian friends by the layperson who led him to Christ. (Which to me seems to be about as biblical as you can get.) When he later joined the independent fundamentalist baptist church I was attending, he was pressured to be baptized again because that first one wasn't "done right". He rightly fought it for a while, but then finally gave in to make peace. I think he regrets that a little. I know I certainly regret not waking up to Fundamentalism then and standing with him against that nonsense. So he understandably gets a little twitchy talking about baptism controversies.

      Anyway, I'm glad to hear about your experience. Thank you for sharing.

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  5. Actually, coming out of fundamentalism into the reformed faith, I think baptism is more important than we think sometimes. I was thinking about this yesterday. I'm to the point where I believe in the importance of baptizing infants.

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