It has been around eleven years since I heard the word “Reformed” in the context of Christian tradition or theology for the first time. I had read about the Reformation as I had to learn it as part of international history in school. And I used to hear it once in a while after I got saved though I was attending a Charismatic church. However, I never knew of the existence of the “Reformed” branch of the Christian faith. One reason maybe because of the fact that I considered all other branches of Christianity, to be on the wrong side.
However, I became a believer of Reformed theological positions (especially the five solae and TULIP) during the period from 2014 to 2017. And around the year 2018, a dear friend of mine and a brother in Christ, who was a Reformed Presbyterian, the same person who sort of introduced me to Reformed Theology, told me during a conversation that he, in his personal studies, felt that the arguments for paedo-baptism were quite compelling.
From the time I got saved, in 2007, to then, I had considered paedo-baptism to be “wrong doctrine” and a “Catholic thing”, and I, at that time, simply could not fathom myself considering the practice to be Biblical.
When this brother talked about paedo-baptism to be, potentially, Biblical, I was surprised. However, I did not give it much thought then; as I was struggling, during that period, to find answers to questions regarding other issues such as, the cessation of certain gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the assurance of salvation. I also was a bachelor at that time and I did not have a child, so I decided to investigate the issue later as the issue did not appeal to me as something urgent to resolve. Therefore, I never espoused paedo-baptism.
And then, in the year 2020, the unexpected happened.
I heard from my Reformed Presbyterian friend that he became disbelieving of Calvinism while he was studying for his master’s degree at a Reformed Presbyterian seminary in the United States. It was quite challenging for me to accept that he changed his position; given the amount of learning he had done on the same, and the amount of literature he had produced online regarding Reformed Christianity. He was (and still is) an influential figure in my life, especially when it came to Theology.
However, I was not really shaken. I was, at that time, slowly getting tired of “academic Christianity”. Anything that had to do with over-complicating the Faith using high sounding words was annoying me. I had realised by that time that the Christian Faith ought to be lived out first, then “studied” and that the Christian Faith that is only “studied” and not lived out is really not the true Christian walk the Bible demanded of people in Christ (1 John 2:6).
So, when I heard that the brother, who helped me in affirming some Reformed beliefs and exit the Charismatic church I was attending (another brother helped too), changed his theological position, I did not feel the ground beneath me shaking. Neither did the earth shatter. I knew my own failings in my daily walk with the Lord. So, I wanted to resolve those issues first. And I was not even tempted to condemn this brother in any manner.
Of course, he was not the only person involved in my change in my Theological dispositions. For example, it was an older man in the Faith who introduced me to the idea of the perseverance of the saints. And it was another brother who gave me a book on the five points of Calvinism to read. And I had a professor of Theology who’s classes I audited during 2015-2016 who answered a lot of my initial questions. It’s just that the brother I mentioned above was the largest contributor of knowledge to me. In no way would I charge him as the cause of my changes or my exit from my Charismatic church. I alone bear the responsibility of those.
After that, time simply went by; my wife gave birth to our son (we briefly thought of investigating paedo-baptism then); I changed my career; we moved to a different city; and attended different churches. However, I continued as a credo-baptist (we are obsessed with labels, aren’t we?).
In the month of January of the year 2023, my wife, and I, with our, then almost two-year old, son, started attending a Reformed Presbyterian church. Our son is four years old now. And the “issue” of paedo-baptism has started knocking on our doors again.
We hear of paedo-baptism almost on a weekly basis now, in one form or the other. We hear about it during sermons, Bible studies, and small fellowships; we hear about it during dinner table, and sofa conversations.
Yet, can I say that the Reformed Presbyterian church is fixated on this topic/practice? I don’t have any empirical or statistical data to prove whether paedo-baptism is indeed the subject most spoken of or preached about in Reformed Presbyterian congregations. I have felt that it may be my bias on the subject or my sinfulness which is making me take notice of the subject every time it is touched upon in public settings; making me falsely assume that it is given unnecessary importance.
Yet, we as a family have started feeling a “pressure” to consider its veracity. And there are also now friends, in the church that we are members of, who, out of genuine love and concern for us, want my wife and I to believe, at least eventually, in paedo-baptism.
What I am trying to convey here, is that, I am surrounded by conversations or references about infant baptism quite regularly. And all of these things have pushed me to think that it may be high time that I investigate the matter and arrive at a conclusion.
There is one more reason, why I wish to investigate paedo-baptism now. I have come to the realisation that I have, sub-consciously ignored studying some basic truths about some of the topics involved in or revolving around baptism, covenants, and the Church. I wish I will gain clarity and understanding of the above subjects during my investigation of paedo-baptism.
I am not investigating paedo-baptism out of any new doubt about credo-baptism. It is primarily an attempt to confirm my belief that credo-baptism is what the Bible mandates and that paedo-baptism is false.
Yes, I see the potential for bias here.
And my guard against bias is my realisation that my position on credo-baptism is actually not a position that I arrived at after considerable amount of study or deliberation. I was saved while I was attending a Charismatic church (which was my first church), which considered paedo-baptism to be wrong doctrine. That was it. There was no Catechism classes; nor Sunday school that I could attend to learn all this from my first church.
So, my investigation of paedo-baptism is also an investigation of credo-baptism.
And I don’t think, any theological position should be brushed aside by simply saying, “how can you believe in such a thing?” It is indeed a Christian thing to hear all sides of the argument, measure it against Scriptural truths, use discernment, and arrive at a conclusion.
I was formerly a Charismatic who actively practised speaking in “tongues”; believed in prophecies, healing, and other such so-called “spiritual gifts”. Even before I joined my Charismatic church, I had been told by one of my teachers that credo-baptism is the correct way (he did not present it as a subject of debate that existed in Christendom though). So, I had been leaning towards a credo-baptist understanding since 2007.
I may not harbouring a lot of theological mindsets causing bias; but I may have mental ones (and also sinful ones), which, apart from causing bias, may hinder me from humbling myself to submit to the Biblical sense of baptism; especially if I learn that I had been wrong all along. My guard against these is only prayer. So, I am entering this journey with bent knees.
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