How Do My Unbaptized Children Relate to the New-Covenant Promises?

00:00:05.000 | Ian in Greensboro, North Carolina asks this, "Pastor John, as I've explored

00:00:09.000 | Reformed theology over the past couple of years, I've learned quite a bit about

00:00:12.000 | the practices of infant baptism and believers baptism, and why genuine

00:00:16.000 | Christians differ theologically here. While I'm an advocate of believers

00:00:21.000 | baptism, one accusation I've found troubling is that because we Baptists

00:00:25.000 | don't consider our unconverted children as official participants in the New

00:00:29.000 | Covenant, we are therefore treating them like pagan children, excluded from the

00:00:34.000 | Covenant community. As a Baptist, how do you respond to this charge? And further,

00:00:39.000 | how should yet unsaved children of believers be viewed by the Church?"

00:00:45.000 | Before I say something positive about the way we should view our children, "we"

00:00:50.000 | meaning we Baptists, let's make sure that we realize that both Baptists and

00:00:58.000 | Reformed pedobaptists—and I'm not talking here about those who believe in

00:01:03.000 | baptismal regeneration, but just those who are Reformed pedobaptists or others

00:01:10.000 | who don't believe in baptismal new birth—we all have the same basic problem

00:01:20.000 | in how to think about our children, and the difference lies in terminology. Now

00:01:26.000 | they may not like it when I say this, but I'll say it anyway. In order for Reformed

00:01:32.000 | pedobaptists—baptized babies—to say that children are members of the Covenant

00:01:39.000 | community, they must define "Covenant community" so as not to necessarily mean

00:01:49.000 | only the elect, called, regenerate, heaven-bound saints. They have to define

00:01:57.000 | "Covenant community" so as to allow for the possibility in that Covenant

00:02:04.000 | community members who are not elect, not born again. Now it's just as impossible

00:02:12.000 | therefore for a pedobaptist parent to be sure that his child is elect as it is

00:02:20.000 | for a Baptist parent. Pedobaptists may feel better about themselves by labeling

00:02:28.000 | the child a Covenant member, but those children have no better standing before

00:02:35.000 | God than the children of Baptists. Which brings me now to say something

00:02:41.000 | positive about what really does make a difference—not labels, but does make a

00:02:48.000 | difference—in how children stand before God in both groups. I can imagine a

00:02:55.000 | pedobaptist parent feeling good that his child is a member of the Covenant with

00:03:03.000 | God, but at the same time neglecting to pray for the child, neglecting to feed

00:03:09.000 | the child morning, noon, and night on the Word of God, neglecting to model before

00:03:14.000 | the child the joy of the Lord. In other words, there's no necessary correlation

00:03:18.000 | between calling a child a Covenant member and giving a child what the child

00:03:23.000 | needs to become a Covenant member.