“Regeneration means becoming the seed of another — ultimately, starting with one family tree and then acquiring a different one. My father used to be Adam and now he is the second Adam. My father used to be the devil and now he is Abraham . . . Rebirth entails having been in existence already, with another father” (Against the Church, p. 115).
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Write to the Editor
As always, I appreciate your focus on the new birth, but why is it that the Federal Vision insists on conflating earthly fathers with the heavenly Father, the type with the antitype, the flesh with the Spirit? The father of the Pharisees was still Abraham, but only according to the flesh. According to the Spirit, their father was the devil. They were the seed of the serpent, a nest of vipers (and I guess they really hatched after Pentecost). But Jesus — and Paul — make it clear that the earthly genealogy was no longer important, since the circumcision was… Read more »
This is an excellent quote. I wrote a blog the other day very similar to this after watching a documentary called “Hitler’s Children.” I wish I had seen this quote first so that I could have included it in my write up. It fundamentally gets at the gospel and the removal of guilt of our ancestor, Adam.
It seems that the only “efficacious” baptism for the credo (or regenerate-sure)-baptist is one for which man can guarantee the effectiveness thereof. That is, we’re going to ensure that God keeps his promise that “they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest” and “none shall stumble,” etc. by making sure that none who might stumble be let in. It seems that this construction does a number on the meaning of “efficaciousness.”
Mike Bull asks: “why is it that the Federal Vision insists on conflating earthly fathers with the heavenly Father, the type with the antitype, the flesh with the Spirit?” and “But Jesus — and Paul — make it clear that the earthly genealogy was no longer important, since the circumcision was coming to an end. So why then, in paedobaptism, is one’s earthly lineage given spiritual import?” These are fair and important questions, but I think they reveal a basic misunderstanding of the paedobaptist (let alone the FV) position. Paedobaptists (at least of the CREC variety) are not suggesting that… Read more »
Rich and Katecho, I do understand FV paedobaptism. Above I have only cut one leg off the chair, and you gents are relying on the others. You can see those cut off on my blog. a) baptism isn’t about putting anyone into the Covenant because all nations are now under it, and being offered the Gospel b) part of the wisdom of the Spirit is the discernment of hearts, which is where church discipline comes in. So claiming that credo efficaciousness is merely human is beside the point. It is paedobaptism that is entirely the invention of men. And because… Read more »
Also, if one more paedobaptist quotes Acts 2:39, a sentence from a sermon preached to the last generation of the Circumcision before Judaism was wiped out forever, I will scream, and you will hear it in America. Now you have a two-legged chair, which isn’t much good for anything except firewood.