Look! Look To Your Baptism!

We Christians like to tell people where and how to look. To those crushed under the weight of sin or guilt we say, “Look to the cross! Look to the cross and see God’s justice for your sin being satisfied in his Son.” To those wearied by sorrow and suffering we say, “Look forward! God has promised that this light and momentary affliction will soon give way to an eternal weight of glory.” To those who are being persecuted we …

What’s the Purpose of … Baptism?

There is little doubt that the Bible commands Christians to baptize. Yet exactly who should be baptized and under what circumstances is a matter of no little debate. As we progress through this series about things we as Christians often take for granted, we need to ask: What’s the purpose of baptism? It is important to note that to this point in the series, we have been covering topics for which there is substantial agreement among the majority of Protestants. …

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Letters to the Editor #24 (Baptism vs Baptism)

It comes as no surprise that an article about my position on baptism generated quite a number of letters to the editor. What surprised and delighted me was that they came from all over the world. Not only that, but many of them added nicely to the conversation. Here are a few representative samples. Comments on Why I Am Not Paedobaptist I, too, have gone back and forth on this issue. I was raised in a credobaptist tradition and was …

Why I Am Not Paedobaptist

For the past few weeks I have been taking a day a week to tell how I have arrived at my various theological convictions. I’ve done this by telling you why I am not what I am not: I am not atheist, Roman Catholic, liberal, or Arminian. Today I want to tell you why I am not paedobaptist. But first, of course, definitions are in order. While all Protestants affirm the necessity of baptism, there are two broad understandings of …

Should I Get Re-Baptized?

What should I do if I become convinced that I might have been born again after my baptism? That can be a tricky question (for baptists, at least). There are a lot of people who end up being baptized two, three or four times. The Gospel Coalition recently shared two answers to the question, one from a credobaptist (a person who holds that baptism should follow conversion) and one from a paedobaptist (who holds that infants should be baptized). Recently I …