http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=18625#.Uwu6WsKYZjo
FAITH AND THE FONT: Baptism and Regeneration
By Roger Salter
Special to Virtueonline.org www.virtueonline.org
February 22, 2014
There are two versions within the Christian Church of the nature of regeneration: the strictly sacramental and the advocacy of the sufficiency of the immediate secret stirrings of the Holy Spirit in the individual soul without external instrumentality.
The debate entails the question as to whether the outward sign of saving grace is necessarily tied to the inward gift, or whether sacraments are symbolic of the action of the Holy Spirit which is not tied to a specific moment in time and especially to the point of human administration.
There is no doubt that the dominical sacraments are of the utmost importance. They are preceptively necessary and normally essential for growth in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are his personal gifts to his people not to be despised or neglected but highly prized. He is present in them as he is in the Word, for they address to our senses, so poignantly, the essence of his gospel and the fruits of his energy within us. They are the material means he has provided that enable us to touch him as nearly as possible in our present physical form. They are designed to strengthen and confirm our actual contact with him spiritually through faith. Faith is our real attachment to Jesus, invisible but more firm and effective than any link established by any earthly substance, invention of the mind, or ritual performed by men. Faith is a supernatural phenomenon and can only be derived from a supernatural source as a divine donation.
Faith has no cause outside the combined operation of Word and Spirit. The sacraments attest to this fact to persons of "living faith" when the elements of water, wine, and bread are enlivened by Word and Spirit, and in themselves they do not usurp the twinned roles of Word and Spirit in the souls of the elect. The observation can be readily made where there are lives subjected to divine ordinances that are manifestly not influenced by either the Word of God or the Spirit of God, and there are many instances of persons renovated by grace either well before, sometime after, or without the administration of the sacraments at all (though not in culpable repudiation of tokens of the Lord's will or favor).
What God commands for us is not an obligation for him, as Scripture so clearly proves. There is a variation in the ways that human hearts are touched and transformed by him and Scripture is replete with proofs of this, if it is read in its natural sense. All the way through, in both testaments, it is obvious that those chosen to believe may do so, and in an instant they attain the status of children of God. They could not truly repent or sincerely believe apart from prior regeneration. The grace of God is gloriously free in its action and offer. Human religiosity and works-bound thinking, theology, and ritualism tie-up the seekers of salvation in complicated knots. Sacerdotalism and sacramentalism are barriers to salvation, which does not tie us down with stultifying rules but releases us into a place of the widest possible freedom and joy in Christ who draws us powerfully to himself, at divinely ordained moments, to meet in mutual embrace with God-enabled alacrity.
The Roman Church, as in institution, there are numerous personal exceptions, puffs itself up with pride in its control over earnest and perhaps fearful souls, and perpetrates the bluff that it is the true expression of the Catholic faith. Even some Protestants seem to concede to this claim and clamor for the approval of the papacy.
For Anglicans it has to be said that we march to the beat of Holy Scripture. None of us are in perfect step. But our Articles of Faith reveal how we understand the Word of God, for all to examine, and these Articles as a Confession of Faith, determine how our use of sacramental language is to be applied and interpreted. Doctrinal language defines the convictions of the intellect, not drily, but enraptured by the truth of God. Sacramental language is relational among believers and therefore generously suppositional in accounting their Christian profession as authentic (unless there is overruling evidence that determines a refusal to do so). In nurturing folk toward sacramental observance the ministry, ordained or lay, seeks to ensure that the sacraments are rightly administered and received and that the promise of the gospel, on the part of preparers and respondents, is duly honored through personal grasp and affirmation.
When all the indications suggest that a sacrament may be administered with godly propriety the full symbolic value of the ordinance is announced over the candidate with faith in the Lord and trust in the human testimony as to sincere belief. Without this wholehearted identification of sign with experience the ordinance would be nullified by lack of faith and mutual love. Sacramental language is allowed to take this license, leaving the reality of the matter to the sovereignty of God from whose grace alone salvation comes.
Such use of figurative language and manners of speech (refer John 3:5. The apostle was drenched with the symbolism of Ezekiel i.e. Ch. 36:25-27)) occur constantly in every day discourse and we do not tie it down to simple literalism but analyze its sense with discernment. The biblical principles of soteriology compounded in the doctrine of the nature and effects of faith, unravel the undue emphasis on sacraments forcing them into a service they were not meant to fulfill. They are confirmatory of grace, means of grace to faith, but not causes of sources of grace, always and inevitably efficacious.
The words at the center of the baptismal regeneration controversy (Seeing now, dearly beloved brethren, that this child is by Baptism regenerate) were suggested to Cranmer by the distinguished Italian Reformer Peter Martyr. A close survey of Martyr's theology demonstrates the fact that he in no way supported the Roman view of the sacrament and that he carefully avoided any hint of sacramentalism as such. Indeed there is evidence to suggest that in the mind of the Reformers the term "regeneration" was often meant to be the ingrafting of persons into the visible body of Christ - a change of ecclesiastical status rather than a certain change from sinful nature to sainthood.
Baptism in its covenantal sense is promissory, and in view of the organic unity of family and church, in the case of infants is prospective in its assertion of the promise to faith. The parents exercise the faith of prayer, nurturing, and hopefulness, and the candid himself/herself is urged to take up the promise as their own, as understanding develops.
The Book of Common Prayer is an ecumenical product. It is, in the main, derived from Scripture. It is at pains to retain the elements of genuine Catholicism purified from the erroneous accretions of bad Roman theology and practice. It is a manual of doctrine and devotion supplied by native Englishmen (Cranmer, Ridley) for their nation with guidance and contributions from Continental brethren such as Peter Martyr and Martin Bucer. In the not distant background there is evidence of the influence of other major Reformers such as Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin.
Some of these men reviewed the contents of our liturgy and confession carefully, and before we draw doctrinal conclusions form our threefold Anglican foundation, in what is now our single volume of constitutional documents, we ought to consider the convictions of those who consented to the finished project. Such an exercise, honestly enterprized, would help us to discern the nuances of classic Anglican thought.
The Rev. Roger Salter is an ordained Church of England minister where he had parishes in the dioceses of Bristol and Portsmouth before coming to Birmingham, Alabama to serve as Rector of St. Matthew's Anglican Church
FAITH AND THE FONT: Baptism and Regeneration
By Roger Salter
Special to Virtueonline.org www.virtueonline.org
February 22, 2014
There are two versions within the Christian Church of the nature of regeneration: the strictly sacramental and the advocacy of the sufficiency of the immediate secret stirrings of the Holy Spirit in the individual soul without external instrumentality. The debate entails the question as to whether the outward sign of saving grace is necessarily tied to the inward gift, or whether sacraments are symbolic of the action of the Holy Spirit which is not tied to a specific moment in time and especially to the point of human administration.
There is no doubt that the dominical sacraments are of the utmost importance. They are preceptively necessary and normally essential for growth in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are his personal gifts to his people not to be despised or neglected but highly prized. He is present in them as he is in the Word, for they address to our senses, so poignantly, the essence of his gospel and the fruits of his energy within us. They are the material means he has provided that enable us to touch him as nearly as possible in our present physical form. They are designed to strengthen and confirm our actual contact with him spiritually through faith. Faith is our real attachment to Jesus, invisible but more firm and effective than any link established by any earthly substance, invention of the mind, or ritual performed by men. Faith is a supernatural phenomenon and can only be derived from a supernatural source as a divine donation.
Faith has no cause outside the combined operation of Word and Spirit. The sacraments attest to this fact to persons of "living faith" when the elements of water, wine, and bread are enlivened by Word and Spirit, and in themselves they do not usurp the twinned roles of Word and Spirit in the souls of the elect. The observation can be readily made where there are lives subjected to divine ordinances that are manifestly not influenced by either the Word of God or the Spirit of God, and there are many instances of persons renovated by grace either well before, sometime after, or without the administration of the sacraments at all (though not in culpable repudiation of tokens of the Lord's will or favor).
What God commands for us is not an obligation for him, as Scripture so clearly proves. There is a variation in the ways that human hearts are touched and transformed by him and Scripture is replete with proofs of this, if it is read in its natural sense. All the way through, in both testaments, it is obvious that those chosen to believe may do so, and in an instant they attain the status of children of God. They could not truly repent or sincerely believe apart from prior regeneration. The grace of God is gloriously free in its action and offer. Human religiosity and works-bound thinking, theology, and ritualism tie-up the seekers of salvation in complicated knots. Sacerdotalism and sacramentalism are barriers to salvation, which does not tie us down with stultifying rules but releases us into a place of the widest possible freedom and joy in Christ who draws us powerfully to himself, at divinely ordained moments, to meet in mutual embrace with God-enabled alacrity.
The Roman Church, as in institution, there are numerous personal exceptions, puffs itself up with pride in its control over earnest and perhaps fearful souls, and perpetrates the bluff that it is the true expression of the Catholic faith. Even some Protestants seem to concede to this claim and clamor for the approval of the papacy.
For Anglicans it has to be said that we march to the beat of Holy Scripture. None of us are in perfect step. But our Articles of Faith reveal how we understand the Word of God, for all to examine, and these Articles as a Confession of Faith, determine how our use of sacramental language is to be applied and interpreted. Doctrinal language defines the convictions of the intellect, not drily, but enraptured by the truth of God. Sacramental language is relational among believers and therefore generously suppositional in accounting their Christian profession as authentic (unless there is overruling evidence that determines a refusal to do so). In nurturing folk toward sacramental observance the ministry, ordained or lay, seeks to ensure that the sacraments are rightly administered and received and that the promise of the gospel, on the part of preparers and respondents, is duly honored through personal grasp and affirmation.
When all the indications suggest that a sacrament may be administered with godly propriety the full symbolic value of the ordinance is announced over the candidate with faith in the Lord and trust in the human testimony as to sincere belief. Without this wholehearted identification of sign with experience the ordinance would be nullified by lack of faith and mutual love. Sacramental language is allowed to take this license, leaving the reality of the matter to the sovereignty of God from whose grace alone salvation comes.
Such use of figurative language and manners of speech (refer John 3:5. The apostle was drenched with the symbolism of Ezekiel i.e. Ch. 36:25-27)) occur constantly in every day discourse and we do not tie it down to simple literalism but analyze its sense with discernment. The biblical principles of soteriology compounded in the doctrine of the nature and effects of faith, unravel the undue emphasis on sacraments forcing them into a service they were not meant to fulfill. They are confirmatory of grace, means of grace to faith, but not causes of sources of grace, always and inevitably efficacious.
The words at the center of the baptismal regeneration controversy (Seeing now, dearly beloved brethren, that this child is by Baptism regenerate) were suggested to Cranmer by the distinguished Italian Reformer Peter Martyr. A close survey of Martyr's theology demonstrates the fact that he in no way supported the Roman view of the sacrament and that he carefully avoided any hint of sacramentalism as such. Indeed there is evidence to suggest that in the mind of the Reformers the term "regeneration" was often meant to be the ingrafting of persons into the visible body of Christ - a change of ecclesiastical status rather than a certain change from sinful nature to sainthood. Baptism in its covenantal sense is promissory, and in view of the organic unity of family and church, in the case of infants is prospective in its assertion of the promise to faith. The parents exercise the faith of prayer, nurturing, and hopefulness, and the candid himself/herself is urged to take up the promise as their own, as understanding develops.
The Book of Common Prayer is an ecumenical product. It is, in the main, derived from Scripture. It is at pains to retain the elements of genuine Catholicism purified from the erroneous accretions of bad Roman theology and practice. It is a manual of doctrine and devotion supplied by native Englishmen (Cranmer, Ridley) for their nation with guidance and contributions from Continental brethren such as Peter Martyr and Martin Bucer. In the not distant background there is evidence of the influence of other major Reformers such as Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin.
Some of these men reviewed the contents of our liturgy and confession carefully, and before we draw doctrinal conclusions form our threefold Anglican foundation, in what is now our single volume of constitutional documents, we ought to consider the convictions of those who consented to the finished project. Such an exercise, honestly enterprized, would help us to discern the nuances of classic Anglican thought.
The Rev. Roger Salter is an ordained Church of England minister where he had parishes in the dioceses of Bristol and Portsmouth before coming to Birmingham, Alabama to serve as Rector of St. Matthew's Anglican Church
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