Entries from July 2008 ↓

“Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations . . .” – Dueteronomy 7:9

My five-year-old daughter, Zoë, will be baptized in a couple of weeks.  Amy told her Grandma this the other day, and Grandma responded with “Is it one of those ‘infant’ baptisms, or is it a REAL baptism?”

After getting angry, calming down, and then thinking about it, I think that the answer is “yes”.

(Obviously, Zoë’s not an “infant” at five, but for the sake of this discussion, her upcoming baptism falls under what most people call “infant baptism” — that is, baptism given to the children of believers, usually soon after their birth.)

Baptism — whether it comes after someone has made a profession of faith or it comes after someone’s being born into a Christian home — is baptism.  The bifurcation between “infant” baptism and “believer’s” baptism is the creation of a false dichotomy.  Both are covenant baptism.

I think I’m going to pick up where I left off in the long-forgotten series of posts on Baptism to flesh this out.

Okay, so I lied. Heidelberg’s been sitting there at one post for three weeks now (along with the rest of the blog, really).  Truth be told, I’ve personally been a bit out of whack lately.  Stress has been unusually high and energy has been low for a multitude of reasons, and it appears that one way I deal with that is by closing off from others and being quiet.  (Blame my INFJ personality, perhaps.)  I’ve also noticed that those others who I tend to close off from include Jesus and my family, so this is unhealthy.

If you have a minute, pray for me. I’ll get back to blogging soon.