Tag: Baptism

Understanding the Land Promise: Part 4

~ fundyreformed ~ 12 Comments

–continuing from part 3.

Here is a fourth, and most definitive basis for “spiritualizing” the land promise….

4) The connection between land and rest

To start, read these verses in Hebrews 4.

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath,’They shall not enter my rest,” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.” Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice,do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. (Heb. 4:1-11)

The bolded section points out that the rest offered to the Israelites is experienced by us who believe. And the quote in that section, is taken from Ps. 95:

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.” (Ps. 95:7b-11)

So again, it is clear, that the quote “They shall not enter my rest” is taken from Ps. 95 and quoted in Heb. 4. but now, notice Numbers 14. Keep in mind that even in Ps. 95 that phrase is in quotation marks. Ps. 95 is reminding us of what God said back in Numbers 14:

But truly, as I live… none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it…. “As I live, declares the LORD,… not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. (Num. 14:21a, 22-23, 28b, 30)

And a summary of this passage is mentioned in Deut. 1 where it is specified that God “swore” and in anger made this pronouncement:

And the LORD heard your words and was angered, and he swore, “Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the LORD!” (Deut. 1:34-35)

In the above two passages, I hope you see that God is saying these people won’t enter the land. Yet in Ps. 95 and Hebrews 4, it is quoted that God said they won’t enter His rest. There is an explicit connection between the land, and the concept of rest. See also this quote below:

…for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you. But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety,… (Deut 12:9-10)

Here again, the rest, the inheritance, is living in the land God gives to Israel. Entering the land, is entering rest.

Now since Heb. 3 and 4 clearly make the rest a spiritual reality, the land becomes spiritual too. Entering the rest is something believers have done, and the unbelieving Israelites did not do. If we are experiencing spiritual rest, a spiritual “Sabbath rest”, we are enjoying the spiritual reality the land pointed to. All believers, Gentile or Jew, experience the reality the land pointed to — namely, fellowship with God and enjoyment of His blessings.

Ultimately, Jew and Gentile will live with God on the New Earth, the New Promised Land. With this thought, let’s jump one step further.

Keeping the Promised Land in Perspective

The promised land of Canaan, has to be kept in perspective with other Biblical lands: namely the paradise that was lost, and the future paradise that’s coming. Eden was a place of fellowship with God and enjoyment of His many blessings. The New Earth, and the New Jerusalem, will be as well. In Eden, man was to obey God and fulfill a special calling, in Canaan, Israel was to do the same. Today, each believer enjoys special fellowship with the Holy Spirit and longs for the future fulfillment of all God’s promises in the New Paradise where communion with God and obedience to His calling will be eternally experienced.

Just as Canaan was to be entered by faith, the “Sabbath rest” experienced by believers must be entered by faith as well. And entrance into God’s future kingdom of eternal rest and joy in the New Earth is only entered by faith. The road to Canaan started with Passover and crossing the Red Sea. And interestingly, Passover is a clear parallel with Christ’s death and our salvation, and 1 Cor. 10:1-4 connects the crossing of the Red Sea with baptism. Then the wilderness wanderings required faith and endurance, and the many trials and tribulations that await believers require the same. Those same wanderings included a partaking of a miraculous food and drink, and again 1 Cor. 10-11 would indicate that the Lord’s Supper parallels that experience. Ultimately, the Jordan was crossed by faith, and God’s rest was entered. One day, we’ll cross the Jordan and enter Heaven’s bliss.

Do any old-time hymns sound appropriate right about now? Believers of old have long compared the Promised Land with Heaven, and there is adequate Scriptural basis for this comparison.

In the next (and final) post in this series, I hope to show some ramifications of understanding the promise of the land from this redemptive-historical perspective.

We Believe (#12): Christ’s Church and Her Ordinances

~ fundyreformed ~ 8 Comments

Part 12 in a series of Sunday posts celebrating the glorious Truth we believe as Christians. The readings are quoted from the Elder Affirmation of Faith, of my church, Bethlehem Baptist (Pastor John Piper). I’m doing this because every few weeks our congregational reading is an excerpt from this document, and every time we all read aloud the truths we confess, my soul rejoices. I pray these posts will aid you in worshiping our Lord on His day.

Christ’s Church and Her Ordinances

We believe in the one universal Church, composed of all those, in every time and place, who are chosen in Christ and united to Him through faith by the Spirit in one Body, with Christ Himself as the all-supplying, all-sustaining, all-supreme, and all-authoritative Head. We believe that the ultimate purpose of the Church is to glorify God in the everlasting and ever-increasing gladness of worship.

We believe it is God’s will that the universal Church find expression in local churches in which believers agree together to hear the Word of God proclaimed, to engage in corporate worship, to practice the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, to build each other’s faith through the manifold ministries of love, to hold each other accountable in the obedience of faith through Biblical discipline, and to engage in local and world evangelization. The Church is a body in which each member should find a suitable ministry for His gifts; it is the household of God in which the Spirit dwells; it is the pillar and bulwark of God’s truth in a truth-denying world; and it is a city set on a hill so that men may see the light of its good deeds — especially to the poor — and give glory to the Father in heaven.

We believe that baptism is an ordinance of the Lord by which those who have repented and come to faith express their union with Christ in His death and resurrection, by being immersed in water in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is a sign of belonging to the new people of God, the true Israel, and an emblem of burial and cleansing, signifying death to the old life of unbelief, and purification from the pollution of sin.

We believe that the Lord’s Supper is an ordinance of the Lord in which gathered believers eat bread, signifying Christ’s body given for His people, and drink the cup of the Lord, signifying the New Covenant in Christ’s blood. We do this in remembrance of the Lord, and thus proclaim His death until He comes. Those who eat and drink in a worthy manner partake of Christ’s body and blood, not physically, but spiritually, in that, by faith, they are nourished with the benefits He obtained through His death, and thus grow in grace.

We believe that each local church should recognize and affirm the divine calling of spiritually qualified men to give leadership to the church through the role of pastor-elder in the ministry of the Word and prayer. Women are not to fill the role of pastor-elder in the local church, but are encouraged to use their gifts in appropriate roles that edify the body of Christ and spread the gospel.

*Taken from the Bethlehem Baptist Church Elder Affirmation of Faith, paragraphs 12.1 – 12.5. You are free to download the entire affirmation [pdf] complete with Scriptural proofs for the above statements.

Baptism & Young Children

~ fundyreformed ~ 4 Comments

A quick update here. Grudem responded to Piper’s rebuttal of Grudem’s change of his position on baptism and church membership. (That sentence is a mouthful!)

Then Justin Taylor followed that up by highlighting two helpful articles by Vern Poythress. The first one is called “Indifferentism and Rigorism in the Church: With Implications for Baptizing Small Children“, and explores two attitudes to church membership and the nature of faith in little children (ages 2 and up). What Poythress says concerning the church in that paper is worth thinking through irrespective of the baptism position altogether — especially for us fundamentalist types.

The second paper is more overtly connected to paedobaptism (Vern Poythress is paedo), and is entitled “Linking Small Children with Infants in the Theology of Baptizing“. It explores the implications of Jesus’ reception of the little children and the nature of our experiencing Jesus in the company of the saints every time we gather in corporate worship.

Both of the articles by Poythress are well worth your time. He is very humble and brings up some excellent points. What he says can also be taken to heart even without opening membership to those of the opposite baptismal position. I’d be interested to hear any of your thoughts on the articles!

Baptism and Church Membership

~ fundyreformed ~ 21 Comments

In the past, I’ve explored the baptism debate on my blog. A friend of mine, Nathan Pitchford, has 4 excellent articles covering almost all sides of the debate. He started out defending Baptism from a Reformed, Covenantal perspective, but went on to retract his position and affirm a paedobaptistic view. I summarized that view as clearly as possible in an attempt to hone in on the real areas of dispute.

Many a Baptist would roll his eyes at my attempts to understand the other side. What’s the point? I’m sure that would have been my view, back when I was a dyed-in-the-wool strict fundamentalist. Of course our view is right, its historical (think Trail of Blood, here)!

Even after coming to leave strict fundamentalism and embrace Calvinism, I still had much skepticism over any non-Baptist view. So I wasn’t prepared for the dramatic results of entering the debate. I quickly learned that the Reformed paedobaptistic view has a lot of Biblical support. This is apparent when you understand the view from their perspective. I also learned that much of my “unshakable” arguments were actually irrelevant. Paedobaptists affirm the need for adult converts to be baptized, the question surrounds what to do with the children of believers. Pointing out NT examples of adult conversions does nothing to address the debate.

Through the whole exchange I gained an appreciation and respect for Bible-believing, thoughtful paedobaptist brothers. And I was prepared all the more to agree with my pastor, John Piper’s contention that baptism should not be an issue to divide Christ’s church over. It should be a big deal to refuse someone membership into the local church. Church isn’t about being on the same team or membership in a club — its about recognition of membership in the Body of Christ. My friend Nathan has some strong arguments that an even more dramatic unity should be pursued, than that for which John Piper was calling for. And I do agree that believers in today’s specialized world take for granted the full array of choices for the Western church-shopper.

Piper advocated a compromise of sorts. Elders would need to affirm an explicitly Baptist confession of faith, but believers who conscientiously held to a Bible-based understanding that paedobaptism is valid, would be allowed into membership, and only after having submitted to a meeting with an elder who would try to convince them of the Baptist view. In this way, a Baptist church could affirm the salvation of fellow believers who differed over this point of what is a valid baptism. And a similar position was held by none other than John Bunyan, one of the most famous historic Baptists.

The proposal was rejected by our church, at least at this time. There is hope of its being revived and accepted in the future, perhaps. What I found interesting at the time, was reading Wayne Grudem in his Systematic Theology propose something very similar to what our church was considering. He also pointed to the Evangelical Free Church which has a similar compromise in place at a denominational level.

I am writing about all of this because Grudem recently revised his section on the Baptism question with regard to this issue, effectively taking back his previous proposal. Justin Taylor posted the reworded section on his blog recently. Today, John Piper responded with a rebuttal to Grudem’s reversal.

I think the issue is worth considering, and if you haven’t explored the issue you should. Baptists particularly have been extremely divisive on this issue and have probably been guilty of shameful ill-will toward fellow believers. But of course historically, the Baptists have been maligned and worse in years gone by!

If you are interested in understanding the paedobaptist position, you should really read Nathan’s articles. The comments are a virtual debate that for the most part stays very charitable, and extremely insightful. Also, I recently read an 11 part series on the Reformed view of Baptism which specifically interacts with the Baptist position by Drake Shelton of Post Tenebras Lux. His articles are actually a quick read, and the first few provide an excellent case for sprinkling/pouring as the Biblical understanding of baptizo. If you are rolling your eyes again, you better check them out — they really are quite convincing!

If you’re wondering, I am still a Baptist. But I view the issue as much less definitive, and have planned to do some serious reading on this issue in the future. For the sake of growing in your appreciation of other believers in Christ, I would urge you to consider the matter. We may not see eye-to-eye on some of the issues this brings up, and that’s okay! But I encourage you to study and perhaps enter a discussion in the comments below.

With that in mind, you might be interested in reading the Mark Dever’s thoughts on the matter (accessible here), at the conclusion of an address establishing John Bunyan’s open membership views.

UPDATE: I have a question: How far removed is the open membership question from the open communion question? The New Hampshire Baptist Confession of 1833 affirmed: “Christian Baptism is the immersion in water of a believer… that it is prerequisite to the privileges of a Church relation; and to the Lord’s Supper…” Is not the historic acceptance of open communion among Baptists not an historic support for an open membership view?

UPDATE #2: Grudem has responded to Piper’s rebuttal. (You may also be interested in the comments here on Justin Taylor’s blog).

Believer’s Baptism and the Debate

~ Bob Hayton ~ 24 Comments

Sign of the New Covenant in Christ, Click to orderRemember that debate we had around here on infant baptism vs. believer’s baptism? It was in Nov. and Dec. of 2005. (See this summary post on the debate.) Well there is a new book out which may prove helpful to anyone seriously considering the issue.

For most of my life I have just assumed believer’s baptism was correct, but when I began to seriously think and debate on the issue, I came to understand that the issue is not as hard and fast as I once thought. Part of this stems from my new understanding of Calvinism and Reformed doctrine. I am now much more open to the Reformed doctrine of infant baptism (which is not at all a baptismal regeneration view), but I remain Baptist still. However, I have determined I need to do more research in this area, and this book looks like it should be one I study.

There is an interesting interview of Tom Schreiner, one of the editors, on Justin Taylor’s blog which is worth reading if you are conversant with the debate (the comments are interesting as well). It also links to an interesting article written by Bob Stein on the subject as well.

I am going to list the chapters and contributors from the book below. Feel free to provide any feedback on the debate in general or this book in particular.

Author Preface

Foreword
Timothy George

Introduction
Thomas A. Schreiner and Shawn D. Wright

1. Baptism in the Gospels
Andreas J. Köstenberger

2. Baptism in Luke-Acts
Robert H. Stein

3. Baptism in the Epistles: An Initiation Rite for Believers
Thomas R. Schreiner

4. Baptism and the Relationship between the Covenants
Stephen J. Wellum

5. Baptism in the Patristic Writings
Steven A. McKinion

6. “Confessor Baptism” : The Baptismal Doctrine of the Early Anabaptists
Jonathan H. Rainbow

7. Baptism and the Logic of Reformed Paedobaptists
Shawn D. Wright

8. Meredith Kline on Suzerainty, Circumcision, and Baptism
Duane A. Garrett

9. Baptism in the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement
A. B. Caneday

10. Baptism in the Context of the Local Church
Mark E. Dever [HT: Justin Taylor]