{"id":5023,"date":"2020-11-25T07:46:40","date_gmt":"2020-11-25T11:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oldsandals.net\/?p=5023"},"modified":"2020-12-12T11:21:46","modified_gmt":"2020-12-12T15:21:46","slug":"baptismal-regeneration-an-anglican-nuance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.oldsandals.net\/?p=5023","title":{"rendered":"Baptismal regeneration – an Anglican nuanced position"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Anglicans the sacrament is only effectual in a worthy receiver i.e. one who possesses faith.
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J. C. Ryle writes: Every one the priest baptizes has faith or at least confesses that they do, even infants possess faith – the faith of their parents who act as their surety. Therefore the prayers are based upon a judgment of charity otherwise known as presumptive faith. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

John Stott writes: <\/span>The question may be asked why, if baptism does not by itself confer the graces it signifies (but rather a title to them), the Bible and Prayer Book sometimes speak as if they did? The answer is really quite simple. It is that neither the Bible nor the Prayer Book envisages <\/span>the baptism of an unbeliever; they assume that the recipient is a true believer. And since <\/span>\u2018baptism and faith are but the outside and the inside of the same thing\u2019 (James Denney), the <\/span>blessings of the New Covenant are ascribed to baptism which really belong to faith. Jesus had said \u2018he that believes and is baptized shall be saved\u2019, implying that faith would <\/span>precede baptism. So a profession of faith after hearing the gospel always preceded baptism in Acts. For instance, \u2018they that received the word were baptized\u2019 (2:41), \u2018they believed Philip preaching… and were baptized\u2019 (8:12), \u2018Lydia gave heed to what was said by Paul. And when she was baptized…\u2019 (16:14, 15), \u2018believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved…\u2019 (16:31-3). It is the same in the Prayer Book service. There is no baptism in the Church of England except the baptism of a professing believer, adult or infant. The adult candidate\u2019s declaration of repentance, faith and surrender is followed by baptism and the declaration of regeneration. The same is true of an infant in the 1662 service, where it is not the godparents who speak for the child so much as the child who is represented as speaking through his sponsors. The child declares his or her repentance, faith and surrender, and desire for baptism. The child is then baptized and declared regenerate. So he is regenerate, in the same sense as he is a repentant believer in Jesus Christ, namely in the language of anticipatory faith or of sacraments.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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It is in this sense too that we must understand the Catechism statement \u2018I was made a child of God\u2019. It is sacramental language. I was \u2018made\u2019 a child of God in baptism, because baptism gave me a title to this privilege, not because baptism conferred this status on me irrespective of whether I believed or not.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Anglicans the sacrament is only effectual in a worthy receiver i.e. one who possesses faith. J. C. Ryle writes: Every one the priest baptizes has faith or at least confesses that they do, even infants possess faith – the faith of their parents who act as their surety. Therefore the prayers are based upon … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Baptismal regeneration – an Anglican nuanced position”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oldsandals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5023"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oldsandals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oldsandals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oldsandals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oldsandals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5023"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.oldsandals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5033,"href":"http:\/\/www.oldsandals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5023\/revisions\/5033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oldsandals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oldsandals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oldsandals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}