Bookish Quote of the Week #11

"A room without books is like a body without a soul." ~Cicero

My Mom is the Bomb

My mother is the best.

She's one of my best friends. I can talk to her about the book I'm reading. I can spazz out about how awesome such-and-such character from a movie or book is. I can tell her about any problems I'm having, and she understands because she's an introvert like me. And, one of my favorites, I can discuss theology with her.

She's my teacher. She's homeschooled me all of my life and I guess I've turned out all right so far, haha. That's a credit to her and my dad for raising me up in the way I should go. And she worked through all those math problems and memory verses and history lessons and science labs and essays with me. Even now, I give my papers to her to edit before I turn them in.

She's my encourager. All my life, no matter what I've been doing (save all the bad things, of course), be it sports, music, photography, school assignments, she's told me "Great job" and kept me going, even when I might not have wanted to. And, if I messed up, she'd tell me what I did wrong and how to make it better.

I could keep talking/writing/whatever, but the list might never end. So I'll end with this: my mother is awesome. (And see my earlier post on "Le Mot Juste." I really mean it.) I do love thee so very much, Momma.

You're the bomb. :)

A Sacramental Disquisition

I wrote this for my Omnibus class. It's a brief (well, about 1500 words) comparison/contrast of my beliefs, Calvin's beliefs, and my pastor's beliefs on the sacrament of baptism. 

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Reformed theologian John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion was one of the most influential books of Western Culture. In this work, Calvin challenges many of the theological views of his contemporaries, including Luther, the Anabaptists, and the Roman Catholics. In Book 4 of his Institutes, Calvin deals with many issues, including the organization of the Church, civil government, and the Sacraments. 

Calvin defines a sacrament as “a testimony of the divine favor toward us, confirmed by an external sign, with a corresponding attestation of our faith towards Him.”[1] To Calvin, and to all Protestants, there are two sacraments: the Lord’s Supper and baptism. While most Protestants would agree with this definition of sacraments, many would disagree with Calvin’s view of baptism itself: its definition and purpose, who should baptize, and who should be baptized.

Calvin says, “Baptism is the initiatory sign by which we are admitted to the fellowship of the Church, that being ingrafted into Christ we may be accounted children of God.”[2] He doesn’t mean that baptism saves us—that he clarifies in the next paragraph. “[T]he only purification which baptism promises is by means of the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, who is figured by water from the resemblance to cleansing and washing.”[3] In other words, baptism is a picture of what Christ has done for us.

I recently interviewed my pastor, Kirt Dauphin, about Calvin’s ideas on baptism. He said that he disagreed with Calvin’s definition because, he said, “It is salvation that admits us into the Church, not baptism.” I would agree with Pastor Kirt. As soon as someone accepts Christ as Lord and Savior of his life, that person is “ingrafted into Christ.” He is not excluded from the Church until after he is baptized. Although it is a symbol of your salvation, baptism is not necessary for salvation, nor is it necessary for Church membership.

In the first few paragraphs of Institutes 4.15, Calvin outlines what he believes are the three purposes of baptism: 1) to be a sign and evidence of our purification, 2) to show us our death in Christ and new life in him, and 3) to assure us that we are united with Christ to be partakers of all his blessings. My pastor and I agree with Calvin on the first two points, that baptism is a sign of our purification and of our death to our old selves and new life. When a believer is baptized in our church, the phrase used is “Buried in the likeness of Christ’s death, raised to walk in newness of life.”

On the third point, however, Pastor Kirt slightly differed with Calvin. As it is possible to be baptized but not a Christian, he said, you cannot say that baptism assures us of unity with Christ. I would add that our assurance of salvation does not come through baptism, but through faith and the work of Christ. “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.”[4]

On the question of who could baptize, Calvin was very firm in his belief that it was only proper for ordained clergy to baptize. “It is improper for private individuals to take upon themselves the administration of baptism; for it… is part of the ministerial office.”[5] Because Christ didn’t command ordinary men and women to baptize, only the eleven disciples (Matthew 28:16-20), Calvin believed that the power to baptize passed through them to their successors, the ordained ministers of the Church. If a layman baptized, it would be a usurpation of the ministerial office’s duty.

Now, Calvin did not mean that ministers could baptize because they were holier than “normal” Christians. On the contrary, he says that the efficacy of baptism does not depend on the righteousness of the baptizer. Because it is really Christ who performs the baptism through the minister, and Christ is righteous, it matters not if the minister is unrighteous. Calvin uses the example of a messenger: “[W]hen a letter has been sent, if the hand and seal is recognized, it is not of the least consequence who or what the messenger was; so it ought to be sufficient for us to recognize the hand and seal of our Lord in his sacraments.”[6] Calvin’s objection to baptism by laymen was, as stated above, more to do with the fact that he believed Christ had given that task to the clergy alone. Like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, after giving the allegory of the body of Christ, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you’” (v. 21). In other words, each member has his own job, and it is improper for the eye to feel, or the head to walk.

I don’t necessarily disagree with Calvin, but I would extend the term “ordained minister” to include fathers, at least in this case. For, are not the fathers responsible for the spiritual well-being of their family (see Deuteronomy 6:1-9, 20-25)? Like a pastor is the shepherd of his congregation, a father is (or, at least, is called to be) the shepherd of his family. But I would not go so far as to say that any father can baptize his children. As my pastor said in our interview, baptism should be done by someone who is recognized as a mature believer in the community or congregation. Therefore, as long as a father is doing his duty in regards to shepherding his family, I would say that it would be wholly proper for him to baptize his children.

Speaking of the baptism of children, Calvin was a staunch Paedobaptist. It was his opinion that, just like circumcision was a sign of the old covenant, baptism is a sign of the new covenant. And, as the Jews in the Old Testament circumcised their children, Christians should baptize their infant children.

When I asked my pastor about this, he brought up Romans 4:9-11: “Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.” Abraham’s circumcision set him apart from those around him; it showed that he was different. In the same way, baptism shows those around us that we are now different—a new creation. But circumcision was not given to Abraham until after he was credited righteous by faith. For this reason, I believe baptism should not be given until after a confession of faith has been made.

One may very well challenge this by saying that Abraham circumcised his children, even though they were not “counted as righteous,” so we should do the same to our children. I would respond to this by saying that  in the Old Testament, the infants had to be circumcised by others, because it is impossible for them to physically circumcise themselves. Under the new covenant, however, “circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter.”[7] A parent cannot “circumcise” the heart of their child; the Spirit must work in the child and renew his heart.

Calvin does give a counterargument in his Institutes. When Credobaptists deny paedobaptism on the grounds that it is never explicitly mentioned in the Bible, Calvin comes back and says that neither does the Bible explicitly give an account of women partaking of the Lord’s Supper. By the same reasoning, he says, ought not women be prohibited from taking Communion?

Though this may seem sound reasoning at first, it really is not. When the Bible says that entire households were baptized (Acts 16:33), it may very well have meant only the consenting adults. Or, there may not have been any infants at all in the household. On the other hand, there are very clearly women in the church of Corinth. In 1 Corinthians, Paul admonishes the Corinthians multiple times regarding the Lord’s Supper (see 1 Corinthians 11:17-34). In addition, he gives them several guidelines concerning women, including marriage and head coverings, showing that there were indeed women in the Corinthian church and, by association, they participated in the Lord’s Supper.

The topic of baptism has always been one of heavy debate among Christians, and I believe it will continue to be until Christ returns. Though we may disagree with some of John Calvin’s beliefs, we should not completely disregard his work, for it is still full of biblical truth. Without a doubt, Calvin is one of the greatest Christian theologians, and his Institutes of the Christian Religion is one of the greatest works of Christian theology ever written.

Works Cited

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL, 2001.

Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. 26 April 2013. PDF file.

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[1] Institutes, 4.14.1

[2] Institutes, 4.15.1

[3] Institutes, 4.15.2

[4] Hebrews 10:19-22

[5] Institutes, 4.15.20

[6] Institutes, 4.15.16

[7] Romans 2:29

Bookish Quote of the Week #10

"I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library." ~ Jane Austen

Bookish Quote of the Week #9

"There is no friend as loyal as a book." ~Ernest Hemingway

Prodigal

A month or so ago my church did a series on the Prodigal Son, and a few weeks ago I discovered this video. The guy who does these videos is incredibly talented, and I'd definitely suggest going to his YouTube channel and checking out some of his other videos. The link'll be below. :)

You can find those other videos here:
actionJones' YouTube channel

A Random Announcement

Halloo! Just a random service announcement here. As you probably noticed, the ol' blob got an update. I think it's pretty neat. Click on the thumbnail for each post to enlarge it and see the entire article. Then, there's forward and back buttons to go to the next or previous post, and you close it out with the "X" at the top. All the little gadgets that used to be on the side (other blog links, subscribe button, blog archive, etc.) are still on the side, but only visible if you hover over the black bar on the right side of the screen. If it's confusing or hard to navigate, let me know and I'll change it back. :)

*Update: You can also change the layout by going to where it says "Magazine" in the green bar at the top and click on one of the other options in the dropbox.

Also, from now on I'll put this: (g) in the caption of all pictures I get from Google Images, just to save myself from confusion and plagiarism issues, should those ever arise.

That is all! :) Have a blessed day.

No, that's a lame post. How 'bout we try out this new system? Sure, why not.

(g)

So just like este^. The above is a double exposure picture, something I would love to try and learn.

Anyway, now I'm done. Ciao!