Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Mar/76

Contributor - Will Kroon

Title - The Never Ending Search For More Experiences

Topic - Church In The World

STATING THE ISSUE

In the Pioneer of January 1976, the Rev. J. Opmeer dealt with various questions that have been on the minds of Christians for centuries: the time of baptism and the experience of belonging to the people of God. Both . of these points are directly or indirectly involved when he questions the completeness of the Sacrament of Infant Baptism. The following points were brought out in his article.

- Infant baptism lacks the fullness of N.T. baptism.

- The Holy Spirit is not received at Infant Baptism.

- Our Church does not put the emphasis on the experimental reception of the Holy Spirit.

- Infant Baptism is only a first instalment of baptism and has to be completed later on by personal confession.

- And the giving of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands.

I would like to deal with these points and try to look at them in such a way that we get a better understanding why we baptize infants of believing parents. Perhaps it may be helpful to add that an estimated 80% of all the world's Christians belong to denominations which practice infant baptism. However, infant baptism is only part of the issue. It seems to me that the greater issue is centered on experiencing God's indwelling Spirit. Many people 'long for a spiritual encounter with God. They want to feel something. What is more, they would like to have something visible by which others can see that they are. part of God's flock.

PLACES OF DERAILMENT

Perhaps the best and most honest way to point out why I find it hard to share Rev. Opmeer's view on infant baptism is to deal with those items where I feel he makes too hasty conclusions. These are the most important ones:

1. He used the Book of Acts as a major text book for his conclusions.

Bible scholars stress that the Book of Acts was not written for that purpose. It was written for the purpose of giving an historical account of how the Gospel started in Jerusalem and ended up at the city of Rome. Many accounts recorded in that book are unique. They were not repeated by the Church in the years to come. Take for instance the story of Pentecost. There is only one such a story in the whole Book of Acts even though the author covered a forty year period of Church History. Some aspects of the story of Pentecost happened again, but the story as recorded in Acts 2 is not to be repeated.

What I want to emphasize is that if we want to discover what the New Testament Church believed about infant baptism or about other issues we have to turn to the Epistles of Paul rather than to the Book of Acts. Paul was Luke's teacher and it was the latter who gave pastoral guidance to the Church.

2. Rev. Opmeer's examples are not very helpful for the formulation of the doctrine on Infant Baptism.

We are looking for examples in the Bible that deal with children of believers. The Book of Acts on the other hand, gives us examples of adult non-Christians, who are being converted to Christ. After their conversion they receive something which Luke calls a Spirit Baptism and sometimes also a water baptism, while for Paul these are combined. However, when we seek guidance about infant baptism we look for different examples. We are looking for information which helps us to decide what to do with children who are born to believing parents. Well, we believe that the N.T. clearly states that God's promises are indeed for the children of the faithful (Acts 2 :39). What I want to stress is that it is not right to use examples of adult conversions and then apply them to infant baptism, which is administered only to children born to believers.

3. I feel that the stress should first of all be on Christ and secondly on the Holy Spirit and not the other way around.

The Book of Acts tells us that things begin to happen when people accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Master. Then the believer comes to the conclusion that the Holy Spirit is at work. However there is always a tendency that people seek the Holy Spirit as an end in itself rather than as the Divine Power who enables us to accept Christ and to serve Him. To put it plainly I feel that the main stress ought to be on accepting Christ rather than on the reception of the Holy Spirit. Anyone who wants to serve Christ will receive as much spiritual power as he or she needs. Anyone who fails to do so will loose that power regardless how he or she is baptized.

4. Keep the baptism traditions apart.

I get the impression that Rev. Opmeer sums up the various baptism traditions given in Acts and says: This is New Testament baptism. Dr. G. De Ru in his book De Kinderdoop pg. 45 shows us the different traditions mentioned in Acts:

1. Christian baptism is a baptism with the Holy Spirit while the baptism of John is only a water baptism.

2. The baptism of John the Baptist is an inferior baptism and does not lead to the reception of the Holy Spirit. According to this tradition the Holy Spirit is received through baptism in the name of the Lord. Jesus Christ and the laying on of hands.

3. Baptism in the name of the Lord does not in itself bring the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is only received after prayer and the laying on of hands through the official apostles.

4. What we see in the Book of Acts is that there were various thoughts on the sacrament of baptism in the Early Church. In order to find out how the Early Church solved that matter one has to turn to the Epistles, especially to Paul's letter to the Romans.

5. A tendency to mix two ways of thinking.

We in the Reformed Church are a sacramental Church. We believe that the emphasis in baptism should be on the promises of God rather than on the experiences of men (although the latter should not be ignored). Rev. Opmeer is quite right when he says that we do not stress the experiential part involved in baptism. But we do that on purpose. Our stress is on God's promises to us.

Part of the misunderstanding occurs when he mixes Pentecostal thinking into Reformed theology. This is like putting non-sacramental thinking into a sacramental framework or, to put it differently, it is like playing soccer with the rules of football. This leads to a different ball game.

THE EXAMPLES GIVEN IN ACTS ARE COMPLEX

The N.T. accounts on baptism are far more complex than Rev. Opmeer points out in his article. For instance: the baptism of the disciples. Did the disciples receive a baptism and the Holy Spirit in the way Rev. Opmeer describes it in his article? I believe it was different and that the New Testament Church at that time did not have a system as yet. How did the disciples receive baptism? Well, Jesus granted them the Holy Spirit already before Pentecost, according to John (John 20, 22). Yet, on Pentecost something greater happened. Luke describes this as a baptism with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1 : ). No laying on of hands was necessary and no water baptism was required. Were the 3000 mentioned in Acts 2 baptized in the same way? Many make that assumption for Luke does not mention how they were baptized, or who administered the baptism. They assume that their baptism was also a baptism as ascribed in Acts 1 :5. They believe that no water was used.

IMMERSION IN WATER

It is often assumed that the Ethiopian eunuch was baptized by immersion because John the Baptist was baptizing by immersion. However, this is only an assumption for the Bible only says that both men went down into the water. This may mean immersion or it may mean that the eunuch stood in the water and that water was poured upon his head.

Dr. A. G. Luiks, in his book Baptisterium points out that the African Church at that time did not put the stress on immersion but on baptizing in "living" or flowing water. He concludes from his findings that the normal mode of baptism was: the candidate standing in the baptistery and water being poured over his head. These complex situations should not be used as normative examples to be followed. That is the reason why we should base our teachings on baptism on the message of the Epistles rather than solely on the Book of Acts.

CONCLUSIONS

1. God's promise is complete. Since we base infant baptism on the promises of God and not on our reception of them, it is not right to assume that infant baptism is incomplete. There is nothing to be added to God's promises. They are complete!!

However, it is true that baptism is also a process of claiming God's promises. It is a process that goes on till our day of death regardless when we are baptized. The story of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) and Simon the magician (Acts 8) are clear examples that believer's baptism has the same limitations as infant baptism. Of course, we have to agree that the longer we wait with baptism the better we may understand what dying and rising with Christ means. Yet, we do not have to wait till later. We may tell our children that God's promises are for them now (Acts 2 : 39).

2. Infant baptism and the Holy Spirit.

Of course, the Holy Spirit, is present and is at work at infant baptism, even as with adult baptism. The Bible gives us the promises that children of believers are holy (I Cor. 7 :14); that they belong to the Kingdom of God (Mark 10. 14-16). Further more, the Bible reassures us that all Christians have received a gift from God (I Cor. 7 : 7; 1 Cor. 12 : 7 and others). What more do we want?

3. People want more.

They want experiences, assurances, signs. Here we touch on the real issue. The real issue is that people want unmistakable proof that they have the Holy Spirit, that they are part of God's people. People want to live by proof, rather than by faith. They want concrete signs such as speaking in tongues, prophecy or the ability to perform miracles of healing.

4. Part of the conflict arises from the fact that many people want to climb on the Mount of Transfiguration where they get heavenly experiences while Christ wants us to come down into the valleys of suffering. People crave charismatic highlights that can be seen, while God wants us to serve Him in faith and in hope. Both of these are unseen (Rom. 8: 24-25; Heb. 11 : 1). That means that God wants you to walk the road of life in faith and hope and follow the example of the people mentioned in Hebrews 11. If you want experiences pray for "hope" and "faith" experiences. When you have those experiences you will know what Abraham felt when he climbed on the mountain to offer his son, or what experiences Rahab had when she hid the spies.

5. Watch out when you play with fire!

" Men's desire for wanting more than they have received is a dangerous desire. They often get burned when they do not. control that desire. Adam and Eve fell, because they longed for, more; Satan tempted Christ by offering Him things He had not yet received (Matt. 4;) Ananias and Sapphira got, hurt when they wanted more and so did Simon the Magician (Acts 8). Many other danger signs are given, in the Scriptures. It warns us against the wrong desire for, or the misuse of spiritual gifts.

Even in a recent issue of Christianity Today (Jan. 2, '76) we read that a Nazarene historian challenged his Pentecostal brethren and urged them to abandon the use of tongues. He shocked his hearers by saying: that the "modern use of tongues is a 'mistaken bypass' on a misunderstanding of Scripture". This too is a sign that we need to go back to the simple faith in the crucified Lord. All other experiences are an extra.

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