[@] Baptism and fellowship (5a)

In the interest of fairness to both Brad and my own position, I am going to outline my own argument, and then address the argument Brad has listed as he has listed it.

I would label this argument "Why credobaptists ought to acept baptism as defined by the WCF as valid baptism":

(1) Baptism is commanded by Christ in the NT as an act which defines his disciples (cf. Mt 28).

(2) Baptism is not an optional part of the Christian faith; it is an esssential practice of the faith as it is closely associated with the proclamation of the Gospel.

(3) The credobaptist position claims an exclusive dictate that only the believer be baptized (cf. LBCF XXIX).

(4) There is some warrant to this claim implicit in Scripture, but no explicit exhortation of this claim.

(5) The credobaptist position claims an exclusive dictate that baptism can only be by immersion (cf. LBCF XXIX).

(6) There is some warrant to this claim implicit in Scripture, but no explicit exhortation of this claim.

(7) The WCF offers a competing definition of baptism. (cf. WCF XXVIII)

(8) The WCF's definition does not affirm a different view of the effect of baptism.

(9) The WCF's definition does offer a different method or mode of baptism; that is, it affirms that baptism can be through pouring/sprinkling, and can be offered to the children of believing parents. (cf. WCF XXVIII)

(10) The points of conflict between these two definitions as expressed by these confessions are not matters of explicit teachings of Scripture: they are matters of what one may percieve through implicit teachings of Scripture.

(11) We ought not to judge each other harshly over matters of implicit doctrine.

(12) We ought to behave in fellowship and grace toward those with whom we have doctrinal disagreements because of implicit matters.

(13) The ground for excluding the paedobaptized from credobaptist fellowships is one of those situations.

That explicit demonstration of my point in these posts probably brings up more questions than it answers, and may, in the end, expose the real problems with this position. However, we're going to keep working this out as others challenge the matter.

If you have something to add to this, this woiuld be a good place to do it.