Thursday, January 7, 2016

Paedo-Baptism: The Ontological Covenant Sign Argument

I hesitate to put such an unattractive title on this post, but for the sake of clarity and precision I feel obligated to do it. Ontology is the study of what a thing is, so calling it the Ontological Argument for paedo-baptism indicates that given what baptism is, paedo-baptism is the correct conclusion. For reference, the Inductive Argument for credo-baptism argues from the first five books of the New Testament that baptism is the swearing of an oath, the putting on of a uniform, the act of physical obedience that follows a profession of faith. The Continuity of Baptism argument works from the evidence in the Old Testament that baptism is a cleansing ritual which enables a man to serve God. This argument will be that because baptism is a covenant sign, and covenant signs are for the household of believers, baptism should be given to infants.

The paedo-baptist agrees that baptism is the swearing of an oath (that’s what the Latin word sacramentum means), but it’s an oath being sworn to us, not from us. Baptism is God pointing down to us, not us pointing up to God. It’s God’s covenant sign for us. What are covenant signs? They’re objective markers given to the members of the family after a covenant head enters into a relationship, given to denote the family’s new position.

P1: Covenant signs are objective markers of Christ’s righteousness that must be applied to the families of believers.
P2: Infants are members of a family.
C: The covenant sign of baptism should be applied to infants.


Seeing as the first premise requires a substantial amount of proof, and the second no proof at all, the conclusion rests on establishing that covenant signs are objective things owned by God and shared to us. 

So let's back up and start at the beginning by asking the question, "what’s a covenant?" We know from the Old Testament that a covenant is when one or both heads of a family promise to do good to the other. We also know that God uses covenants as a way of revealing the person and work of Jesus to us, which means covenants are not equivalent to salvation but are the framework for it. Putting those two ideas together means that covenant signs are objective markers of Christ’s saving work given to us to show His special favor on us. To really prove this however we’ll need to establish that all three major covenant signs in the Old Testament (the rainbow, the Sabbath, and circumcision) were all objective things that didn't point to an internal faith but to an external reality. Let’s take them in the order listed above.

After saving them from the flood God gave Noah and his family the sign of the rainbow, saying, “This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you… I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the Earth…It shall come to pass when I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow shall be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant… and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant” (Gen 9:12-14, 15a, 16a). Notice that the rainbow is not a reminder to men to trust His goodness when they look up and see the clouds forming, but a reminder for God to look down and not to flood the Earth. This sign includes all of Noah’s descendants (including us, and including us even when we were infants), but it’s principally from God, and for God, and does not involve us at all.

Secondly, after saving the children of Israel from slavery God gave them a sign to remind the people about how He rescued them without their help at all. “Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you” (Ex 31:12). Although God had mandated Israel keep the law (in order to find out that salvation by law keeping was impossible), what He was really driving at was the need for them to rest in the finished work of Christ. The Sabbath was the hint that righteousness isn’t through imperfect human effort but through patient waiting for deliverance. Just as everyone had been baptized into Moses (father, mother, children, infants, animals) everyone was to rest in Christ.

Lastly, after covenanting with Abraham, God gave him the sign of circumcision. “This is My covenant, which ye shall keep… every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt Me and you. And he who is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he who is born in the house, or bought with money from any stranger who is not of thy seed” (Gen 17:10a, 11-12). To head off the potential misunderstanding that circumcision represents a subjective faith possessed by Abraham God commanded it to be put on infants who could not profess faith. To prevent the misunderstanding that it was merely a physical marker for the lineage of Christ, strangers and those bought with money were also to receive the sign. Notice also what Paul says about this in Romans: Abraham received circumcision as a sign of the righteousness of God (Rom 4:11). It wasn’t a sign of his subjective faith, nor a sign that he was righteous, it was a sign of the objective righteousness of Christ. It’s not the sign that Abraham is righteous, but the sign that Christ is righteous.

Thus the rainbow shows Christ’s work as a cosmic reconciliation that cannot be altered by man and which satisfies the wrath of God, circumcision shows that Christ is righteous and this righteousness is counted to men when they believe, and the Sabbath shows that men must not attempt to earn righteousness for themselves but must wait for a provision from Christ. In all cases the signs indicate a truth outside the recipient. Likewise baptism is the sign of the New Covenant. And because it’s a covenant sign we know that it’s external to us, and that we’re to put it on our infants. That’s what a sign is. It’s something that points us to the trustworthiness and goodness of God. Children are under the covenant of the parent, therefore they should have the sign of it.

By baptizing infants we're saying that Jesus is our savior, but we're not saying that infants are automatically saved. The sign isn’t subjective. Baptism is not our vow to God, but the mark of His promise to us. By baptizing we’re proclaiming the objective truth that Jesus is our perfect savior, our priest, our mediator, our prophet, our King, and is both God Himself and God’s Son who washes away our sin. A covenant sign from God is first and foremost an objective declaration from God, and therefore belongs upon those children who are under the headship of the believer. Therefore baptism is for infants, and should not be withheld from them. God promised to be a God to us and our children, after all.


Next: the Mono-Covenantal Argument for Paedo-Baptism


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