Friday, June 16, 2006

on baptism

This weekend, I saw two baptisms. Orthodox and Nominalist.

The first was of an adult Russian before the Sunday liturgy for the great and final day, Pentecost. He entered into the Church of Christ and was washed of all his sins. He died, was buried, and was resurrected in union with Christ, and then he was sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit. He was justified, illumined, illuminated, sanctified, washed clean, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In the afternoon, the parents' protestant gathering was having a picnic. My mother was going to be at opera rehearsal and my father was going to be in the dunk tank [missions fundraising], so, since my grandmother was in town, my brother and I had to come along and keep her company. There was also, of course, going to be like seven baptisms or something. The pastor explained that the baptism was not efficacious in any way, no grace was imparted by God through it. It was, rather, only a declaration to the world on the part of those being baptized of what God had done for them, that they were called by Jesus Christ to follow Him and they freely chose to follow. At least four of them had been baptized before as infants. And then they were baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I know my father leans Calvinist [there's a brochure for R.C. Sproul products on this table beneath my open Nestle-Aland], so I sort of wonder how he deals with the discrepancy between what Scripture teaches, what Calvin teaches, and what his pastor teaches about baptism. But that, perhaps, is for another day.

6 comments:

Eric said...

My guess is that, for him as was for me, there is no discrepancy, because interpretation of the Bible is left to the individual who can read it any way he or she wishes, whether it be like a Calvinist, a Baptist, or an Cathabapticostle as I myself was at one point.

Mr. G. Z. T. said...

On the matter of Scripture and that, yes, but there is a clear difference between what Calvinists believe and what the pastor teachs, and the man has some Calvinist leanings. Though I suppose that isn't so important.

G Sanchez said...

I believe Protestant interpretations of Scripture are a little more refined than Eric is letting on (at least at the denominational level). Obviously, Protestant X and Protestant Y who have very different readings on their mind tend to fall back on their respective "traditions" to support such a reading. The problem isn't always so simple as hyper-subjectivity so much as it is the fact all of their "traditions" originate--at best--1,500 years after the Church was established.

A Calvinist certainly believes his understanding of Baptism to be orthodox over-and-against those who teach otherwise. The problem is, none of them have a final court of appeal. It's like watching two courts without jurisdiction opine on a controversy; the rhetoric and logic may be outstanding, but neither has competence to deterime the issue.

Mr. G. Z. T. said...

of course, but this is the lowest of low low church sorts, an independent non-denominational church where, while there is no final authority one can appeal to, they don't care so much. as long as they agree reasonably well with the pastor on most of the stuff, it doesn't matter as long as they all love Jesus. while on matters which seem important [defining themselves as not being Catholic], it is important to be unified, but on matters which aren't "clear" "in Scripture" [like baptism], they agree to disagree because of their unity on the important issues [not being Catholic].

and i suppose this sort of idea isn't so new to the Reformed, despite the modern prevailing Calvinism, since Zwingli, Calvin, and Bullinger had grave disagreements about many matters.

Anonymous said...

I'm Pentecostal, and I agree that "grace" i.e. the remittance of sins occurs at a person's baptism. There are no two ways areound the Bible's declaration in Acts 2: 38 that sins are REMITTED. I don'tunderstand how we got to such a watered down place in this world that we can't see that, we being the greater Body of Christ.

Anonymous said...

I'm Pentecostal, and I agree that "grace" i.e. the remittance of sins occurs at a person's baptism. There are no two ways areound the Bible's declaration in Acts 2: 38 that sins are REMITTED. I don'tunderstand how we got to such a watered down place in this world that we can't see that, we being the greater Body of Christ.