Why Baptizing Your Child Matters: Understanding the Benefits of Covenant Baptism

By Robert H. Orner

This book is written for young families. It avoids the baptism debate while graciously presenting the story of God's faithful provision, protection, and promise of deliverance for His people given through the sign of the covenant. Beginning with Adam and continuing through Abraham--where the covenant is ratified and developed in the forming of the nation of Israel--it traces through the Scripture 1) God's common grace for all people, 2) His covenant grace for believers and their children received through the sign of the covenant, and 3) His saving grace applied through faith. The reader is shown how the same levels of grace are given in a deeper and fuller way upon the finished work of Jesus Christ. The themes of provision, protection, and deliverance are applied to our present day. The book concludes by taking the reader through five questions commonly asked of parents and congregations during the baptism ceremony.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Release date: Jan 13, 2014
• ISBN: 9781630872526

Robert H. Orner

Robert H. Orner is the Dean of Students and a Guest Lecturer of Practical Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary Orlando. He is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and has served churches in the United States for over a quarter century.

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Why Baptizing
Your Child Matters

Understanding the Benefits of Covenant Baptism

Robert H. Orner

Why Baptizing Your Child Matters

Understanding the Benefits of Covenant Baptism

Copyright © 2014 Robert H. Orner. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

Wipf & Stock

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

Eugene, OR 97401

www.wipfandstock.com

isbn 13: 978-1-62564-399-5

eisbn 13: 978-1-63087-252-6

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

All Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version®.

ESV®. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles

To my wife and companion in the parenting adventure, Chris, whose faithful love, prayer, and care for her boys has changed our lives.

Introduction

I lift up my eyes to the hills.

From where does my help come?

My help comes from the Lord,

who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved;

he who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, he who keeps Israel

will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper;

the Lord is your shade on your right hand.

The sun shall not strike you by day,

nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all evil;

he will keep your life.

The Lord will keep

your going out and your coming in

from this time forth and forevermore.

(Psalm

121

)

I recently commented to a colleague that I was working on a resource on the topic of infant baptism, or covenant baptism. Not surprisingly, he responded, Why? Aren’t there enough materials already out there on that subject? In fact, he is absolutely correct in his observation of the amount that has been written down through the centuries on infant baptism. This subject has been thoroughly studied and argued from every imaginable perspective. What, then, would motivate me to write one more resource?

First, I am not motivated at this point to enter into a scholarly debate over the subject. Though I do desire to further develop these theological thoughts, my intent is to approach this as a pastor providing a tool for parents who want to better understand the subject and for fellow pastors to enhance their administration of it.

Second, my approach to this subject comes out of my personal story. I was not raised a paedobaptist, being fully immersed in the baptismal font at East White Oak Bible Church at the age of eleven. I eagerly sought that baptism, as I desired to make a public profession of my faith and dedication to Christ. Even now I clearly recall the details of that day and the earnestness of my desire to follow Jesus Christ with all I had.

Having grown up in East Africa, I recall the baptism of new converts along the shore of Lake Victoria. These men and women gave their lives to Christ, and in this public declaration of their faith, they shed the animistic names given to them at birth and took on new names selected from the Bible. I have fond memories of Daudi (David), MaMa Rhoda, Simeon and others who played a key role in my life.

In Africa we also faced scores of men and women who claimed to be Christian because at one point in their lives an itinerant priest had passed through their region, baptizing them and leaving them with a cross to hang around there neck. Many of these men and women had been baptized as infants or children and told that this baptism had saved them. Needless to say, this erroneous practice placed in me a powerful distrust of anything other than believer’s baptism. Thus, my embracing of infant baptism was no small undertaking, in fact being a long, arduous process.

Third, though there is a large quantity of material on this subject written from a Western perspective to a Western world, very little is available that communicates to our brothers and sisters in Christ scattered around the world. I hope that