Say that you know about some infidel at college, living like the devil. He was baptized as an infant many years before, but that was a ritual that he doesn’t remember, he was never taught in terms of it, and consequently, he assigns no meaning to it. Now let us assume that one day he is radically and remarkably converted. The Lord gets a hold of him, and utterly transforms his life. He starts going to church and Bible studies, and one of the questions that pops into his mind is the question of whether he needs to be baptized. He cracks open his (very new) Bible, and looks up every use of the word baptism or baptize in the New Testament. In every instance, he sees that baptism follows conversion. He therefore concludes that it should follow conversion in his case also, and so he asks to be baptized. What could be simpler?
Now we have no objection to him studying the Bible to answer this question. That part of it was exactly right. In fact, our wish is that he had studied a little longer, and that he had looked up more words than those that were just a variant of baptism or baptize. We think he should have looked up *covenant,* and *olive tree,* and *circumcision,* and *Israel,* and *promises,* and *children,* along with quite a few more.
Infant Baptism
Reformed Basics #15
June 24, 2022 • Douglas Wilson
Atonement
July 22, 2022 • Toby Sumpter
The doctrine of the Atonement lies at the center of our salvation. Many true Christians know that Jesus took away their sins because like Christian in 'Pilgrim’s Progress' when they came to the cross, the heavy burden of their guilt and shame fell off their back and rolled away, never to be seen again. Many Christians know that this has happened, but many do not know exactly why. The doctrine of the atonement is the Christian teaching that explains how the death of Jesus actually takes away our sin and makes us right with God.
Sabbath Delight
May 10, 2022 • Toby Sumpter
When Christ saves a man, woman, or child, one of the fundamental gifts He gives is rest. Instead of striving on the treadmill of human performance, Christians are seated in Heavenly Places in Christ Jesus. They are seated at a great banqueting table full of bread and wine and every good thing, and they hear the words: eat, drink, and be merry, for your works have already been accepted. Far from being some Puritan anomaly or Pharisaical vestige of legalism, the Christian Sabbath is the great symbol of Christian rest. In the ancient world and in many impoverished societies, a day off is unheard off. Only the most wealthy, the nobility, royalty get days off, days of rest and leisure. But when Israel was set free from bondage in Egypt, God commanded them to live as free men and women. He called them His royal priesthood, His nobility. The sons and the daughters of the King gather with their Father weekly to feast at His table, to commune with the King, and to rest in His sovereign grace.
General Equity Theonomy
February 18, 2022 • Douglas Wilson
the law of God is not a static thing, suspended from a great celestial sky hook. God’s law is given to men, in time and history, and what happens in that history is relevant to the application of the law. The law of God is structured in such as to take history into account. This is not relativism. It is one of the law’s perfections. This includes the development of the law over the course of Old Testament history, and it of course includes the cosmic culmination of the law in the events of the Incarnation.