More Than Just Water: But How Much Water do we Need? A Presbyterian View of Baptism
It seems an ongoing topic of banter amongst the various denominations about how much water is used in baptism. Obviously we don’t need too much if we baptise a baby! Here at St George’s we have a font rather than an immersion pool, which highlights one of the differences in how baptism is performed. That’s not to say that Presbyterians don’t perform full immersion baptisms although maybe we are a bit more frugal with our water use.
So, we’re diving a little deeper into the world of baptism! Last week, we explored the meaning of baptism, and this Sunday, we're tackling a big one: infant baptism. Actually ‘tackling’ is probably too optimistic a word, it’s unlikely that the various theological positions will be resolved any time soon. So why do Presbyterians and some other denominations baptise babies? It's a question that has sparked debate for centuries, and we're ready to at least summarise the reformed Presbyterian position.
Firstly, let me reiterate a key concept from our previous discussions: for Reformed Presbyterians, baptism is an outward symbol of an inner reality - the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Generally in the reformed camp, it’s not the act of baptism itself that saves, but the spiritual transformation that it signifies, it is at it’s heart a proclamation of our identity as people who profess that Christ is Lord of our hearts, and that above the Jesus of scripture as our authority, there is no other. But what does that mean for babies or children who are unable to make that profession with any real understanding of their baptism as it’s administered?
We as Reformed Presbyterians believe that the children of believers are part of God's covenant community. This isn't a new idea as we recognise this in scripture with Abraham in the Old Testament. The idea or concept of a covenant community is important to understand when we consider the children of believers. So, we’ll explore what it means for families to be set apart by God and how that shapes our understanding of baptism.
If we ‘tackle’ anything, we’ll at least tackle some of these initial questions about baptism that was posed a couple of weeks ago with answers from a reformed perspective.
Blessings
Josh
