Subject: Unbaptized children |
Bible Note: Hey Tim, Good to hear from you. Thanks for your heart to want to look into this with me. I certainly have a lot of scriptures to share, but I believe that this discussion could go on for some time. I’ve studied a lot about the opposition to baptism and I have found that there is much bias on the doctrine of belief that shuts off the doctrine of obedience. I believe in both. My stance is that you need to start with belief in Christ (Heb. 11:6 ) and obey his teachings (1 John 2:3). John 8:31-32 is a great scripture to prove this. Jesus here was talking to the Jews who had “believed in him”. He told them that they would know the truth if they held to his teachings. Heb. 11 is a good chapter to study. These people obeyed God because they believed in Him. Gods example of Naaman in 2 Kings 5 is another great scripture on combining belief with action. So about baptism. Jesus commanded it. Matt 28:18-20; Mark 16:16;John 3:5(which is a debate within itself);Peter commands it. Acts 2:38. Paul talks about it throughout his letters. Rom. 6:1-9; 1 Cor. 1:13; Gal. 3:26-27;Eph. 4:4-6 (note: “one baptism”); Col 2:12 The book of Acts has many great examples. 2:41;8:36-38;22:16. Again, I know that there are a lot of scriptures that will give a good argument against baptism, which in length I believe we can come to agreement on, but where does that leave all these scriptures and many others I didn’t get a chance to look up? Look forward to hearing from you Tim. Kin |