Monday, August 13, 2007

"Most Presbyterians . . . Do Not Understand Clearly Why They Baptize Their Infants"

Frank James, president and professor of history at RTS, writes:
If I may hazard a generality (a generality, however, based on years of training pastors for Presbyterian ministry), I am quite convinced most Presbyterians, whether in the pulpit or in the pew, do not understand clearly why they baptized their infants. If asked to explain why Presbyterian baptize infants, . . . I would expect that many Presbyterians would stumble and blunder the explanation."

F. A. James, "Introduction: The Covenantal Convictions of a Compassionate Calvinist," in L. B. Schenck, The Presbyterian Doctrine of Children in the Covenant: A Historical Study of the Significance of Infant Baptism in the Presbyterian Church (1940; reprint, P&R, 2003), xvi.
Presbyterian readers who have studied paedobaptism: do you agree?