tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366621735995057721.post3936603109873597279..comments2024-03-17T09:17:01.454+00:00Comments on Vic the Vicar!: Anabaptism - A source of disunity?Vic Van Den Berghhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09581156515370131898noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366621735995057721.post-53963504743865306932013-02-28T21:01:06.230+00:002013-02-28T21:01:06.230+00:00Aye, and, having long been aware (and vocal about)...Aye, and, having long been aware (and vocal about) the curse, I am currently being taught some of the blessings, though the humility is taking some hammering in....DrJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366621735995057721.post-55612119053535367542013-02-28T14:03:42.234+00:002013-02-28T14:03:42.234+00:00Excellent response and you have quite correctly ad...Excellent response and you have quite correctly addressed my quite tongue-in-cheek comment about backsliders from the other side of the coin too!<br /><br />A colleague was trying to make a point that those who underwent 'believer's baptism' didn't fall away 'like you Anglucans' - no one has monopoly on keeping people in, or losing them from, a faith life.<br /><br />Sadly, they have chosen to to respond (though I know they've read).<br /><br />Sprinkled and nominal members are indeed a source of blessing and curse .<br /><br />PaxVic Van Den Berghhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09581156515370131898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366621735995057721.post-37906896096487381562013-02-28T12:44:45.951+00:002013-02-28T12:44:45.951+00:00I was also baptised in a Baptist church, and later...I was also baptised in a Baptist church, and later a deacon at another one, but now, after quite a break, am attending an Anglican church (one of the reasons I feel at home in that church is that when I say "I am not really an Anglican", many other people say "neither am I, I just feel at home here.")<br /><br />But I would still argue that you have your ordering of the commission wrong. The first step is not baptising disciples, the first step is making the disciple in the first place, the baptising comes after that.<br /><br />As for rebaptising, I reckon it is up to the individual believer. I have never liked the Strict Baptist attitude, having been put off that approach by the ever-increasing subdivisions of the Brethren! Acts records new believers receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit before receiving a water baptism, so I cannot accept that water baptism is in any way essential (nor was it for a certain condemned man on a cross). But I also know a Baptist church which lent its baptismal to the neighbouring Anglicans to baptise an adult convert who felt the need to make an adult profession of faith despite having been baptised as an infant. AS far as I know, it was an occasion of joy and of increasing unity, rather than disunity.<br /><br />And I am afraid that, though I don't want to get into a battle counting proportions of backsliders (especially having been one myself for a decade), I cannot let your last paragraph go without comment. I am afraid that I regard the "CofE I suppose" brigade, especially those who think that their infant baptism grants them rights to influence a church they have no intention of attending or following its precepts, as immensely damaging to the credibility of the church in Britain. I sometimes wonder if I am the only Christian who is actually relieved by the census data which reports fewer people identifying themselves as Christian, as even with the reduced percentages, I see precious little evidence of faith in anything like that proportion of people. Remember, the Bible also talks a lot about pruning as a good thing.DrJnoreply@blogger.com