There’s a really good blog by Gavin Ortlund at the Gospel Coalition titled, “Why I Changed My Mind About Baptism.” Ortlund lays out why he went from being an evangelical paedobaptist, affiliated with Presbyterians, to becoming a credobaptist. It’s quite fantastic because it raises the same issues I find in regards to continuity and discontinuity between the Old Covenant and the New. There are areas of continuity, but advocates of paedobaptism do not, in my opinion, handle the discontinuity well. You’d do well to read his blog.
Luke is a pastor-theologian living in northern California, serving as a co-lead pastor with his life, Dawn, at the Red Bluff Vineyard. Father of five amazing kids, when Luke isn’t hanging with his family, reading or writing theology, he moonlights as a fly fishing guide for Confluence Outfitters. He blogs regularly at LukeGeraty.com and regularly contributes to his YouTube channel.
Here we go with baptism again…
When I read this article it struck me that these are more practical concerns than anything else. Credobaptists have to deal with such issues as well like having to decide what age its appropriate to baptize a child.
Practical concerns generally flow out of theological assumptions though… which is why they are both important, IMO.
The age appropriate thing has been an issue in some circles of Credobaptists… but for me it’s not that big of an issue and I think has gotten a lot more debate than need be. The whole “age of accountability” thing is kind of ridiculous, actually. Ha ha. Kids are all different, so it’s hard to pin down a specific age, you know?
Of course, and that’s true for both camps. Although, I have to admit although as a paedobaptist, I’m not so well schooled in the whole Reformed perspective on paedobaptism.
Yeah, when some credobaptists speak about children who are under the “age of accountability” they make it sound as if they are automatically saved. So, in that case, it becomes sort of an age-related universalism.