Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Handing the Child Over

Douglas Wilson
Blog & Mablog

Last week I saw a Facebook thread that had been kicked off with a comparison of abortion and infant baptism. Quite a discussion ensued, as you might expect. The initial point being made concerned things parents do that they have no warrant from God to do, and since I am writing here as a paedobaptist it is not surprising that I agreed with the pushback the post generated. There is an important difference between slaughtering your children and dedicating them to God.

At the same time, there is a sense in which I want to commend the instinctive wisdom of the initial observation — a wisdom that is often missing from the saints who practice infant baptism.  The meaning of baptism is death. The initiatory Christian rite is baptism (Matt. 28:18-20), and as Bonhoeffer observed, whenever Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 16

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC website.

Bible Text:
For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. —Acts 1:5

Devotional:
That is frivolous which some gather out of this place, namely that the baptism of John and the baptism of Christ were different. For he does not dispute concerning baptism in this place, but only makes a comparison between the person of John and the person of Christ.

When John says that he baptized with water only, he does not reason of what sort his baptism was; but what he himself was, lest he should claim that to himself which was proper to Christ. As also the ministers in these days ought not to speak otherwise of themselves; but they must acknowledge Christ to be the author of all those things which they prefigure in the outward baptism, and leave nothing to themselves except only the outward administration.

Cosmic Warfare, Part II

The Exhilaration and the Scandal

The early Christians understood they were involved in a cosmic battle between the forces of evil--forces which were personal, albeit finite, yet much more powerful than they--and the newly enthroned King of all kings, the Lord Jesus Christ.  They understood that when they were converted to Christ out of paganism both they and their households were delivered from captivity to Satan to a captivity to Christ.  But captivity to Christ meant untrammelled goodness and blessing; it meant abundant, eternal life. 

Modern Christians, deeply influenced by the prevailing secular materialism of the West, tend to gloss over expressions in Scripture which teach just such a cosmology of redemption.  David Bentley Hart summarises the biblical perspective of the cosmological battle:

Cosmic Warfare, Part I

Spitting at the Devil, Swearing Allegiance to Christ

The cosmic implications of baptism have been sadly occluded in our modern times.  This is a grave weakness in our contemporary understanding of the Christian faith.  Secularism has demoted and devalued the cosmic invisible realities in the mind of many Christians.  Even as the Bible speaks of the "powers of the air" and traces their demonic connections, we are more comfortable with material causes and effects. 

David Bentley Hart describes the ritual of baptism in the early Church--how it enacted the real cosmic battle and drama.

War of the Worlds

 Recovering Cosmic Christianity

Conversion and baptism were momentous events for early Christians.  Both involved a rejection of one earthly realm and an entering of another earthly realm that was now also a heavenly realm--the power of God and His Christ falling upon the earth, to establish His kingdom here.

Here is David Bentley Hart's description:

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Faith or Presumption in Child Rearing?

Marriage and Family - Some Hard Words for Fathers
Written by Douglas Wilson
Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Because of the condition of our sinful world, words from God's law are frequently "hard words." But, for the same reason, but in a different sense, words of gospel and promise are even harder.

In my books on family, I have often emphasized that the rearing of godly children is not accomplished "by works," but rather "by faith." And this leads, naturally, to the standard questions about the relationship between faith and works.

This presents a problem of practical theology. How are we to understand our need to believe such promises, and how can we do it without veering into presumption? Here is an example of one such promise: