A Brief Book Notice from Books At a Glance
Table of Contents
Introduction – Daniel Reid
1. Believers’ Baptism View – Bruce Ware
2. Infant Baptism View – Sinclair Ferguson
3. Dual-Practice Baptism View – Anthony Lane
Selected Quotes
- “All of the evidence taken together makes a compelling case for understanding the mode of baptism in the New Testament as done by immersion.” (Ware p. 23)
- “One area where most credobaptists and most paedobaptists agree is this: baptism is the sign and seal of the new covenant, inaugurated by Christ’s death and resurrection, signifying the promise for the one baptized that sins are forgiven, that new life in Christ is received, and that God gives the person a new heart and the indwelling Holy Spirit, by faith.” (Ware p. 41)
- “For the honor of Christ, for the obedience of his people, for the witness of Christ before a watching world, and for the health and purity of the church, let us commit ourselves to seek afresh to know and follow Scripture’s teaching on the nature and practice of baptism.” (Ware 50)
- “Foundational to a biblical theology of baptism is the recognition that baptism’s sign character positions it within an ongoing pattern of divine activity.” (Ferguson p. 85)
- “Baptism signifies all that is in Christ for us; it points us to all that he will do in us and all that we are to become in him.” (Ferguson p. 91)
- “Throughout the whole of our Christian lives our baptism points us to Christ and to all the blessings faith finds in him. It is a perpetual reminder of Christ’s grace and a summons to an entire life of trust and obedience.” (Ferguson p. 111)
- “…we find four things that repeatedly occur: repentance, faith, baptism and reception of the Holy Spirit. All four are not mentioned every time, but a clear fourfold pattern emerges…That all four things are not mentioned every time shows that Luke was not a pedant, not that all four things did not happen each time.” (Lane p. 141)
- “Does not acceptance of the authority of Scripture mean respecting the silences of Scripture as well as its positive statements? The silences are there to leave the church liberty to vary its practice to suit different circumstances. They sanction the variety of practice that we see in the early church.” (Lane p. 166)
- “The New Testament practice of baptism was converts’ baptism, the immediate baptism of those who come to faith as part of their initial response to the gospel. This needs to be modified for children born into a Christian home either into infant baptism or into baptism at a later date.” (Lane p. 171)