B
Being_Brave
Guest
I was lucky enough to be raised in a Baptist community that did not spend its time degrading other denominations, so I was actually offended when I heard some Catholics begin telling horrible stories of how they converted even after hearing from their Baptist leaders how aweful and sinful the Catholic Church is. I passed it off as something I would never have to experience, but then I found this entire sermon by a popular Baptist preacher, and it blew me away! I’m still learning Catholicism, but this really made me raise an eyebrow. Read the whole sermon here.
Emphasis on the following quotes are mine:
“Let me explain for some of you who might not understand. There is a widespread belief in the Church that babies are to be baptized.…They are taken to the church and they are sprinkled with water on the head—a little bit of water is dripped on their head and that constitutes their “Christian” baptism. This is very widespread. This is all over the world, in fact. **This is the influence of the post-reformation European church **and it has spread wherever that influence has gone.”
"Now, there are only two ordinances the Lord gave us—just two. He gave us baptism and the Lord’s Table. And He said,** “Just do these two things. They are symbols.”** "
"Now, I would expect Roman Catholicism to engage in that practice because Roman Catholicism has two sources of authority. On the one hand, they have the Bible; on the other hand—and it’s as empty as my right hand—they have tradition. You see where the weight is. But, in the Catholic system, there is what is called “tradition.” It is known as “tradition” or the “magisterium.” It is the accumulation of materials outside the Bible that bear equal authority with the Scripture."
"In fact, the Roman Catholic Church asserts, that it is, the only recipient of revelation beyond the Bible…not only is it the only recipient of revelation, but it is the only and infallible interpreter of all revelation, both traditional and Biblical. So, when we know that Roman Catholics baptize babies, that fits into their magisterium, but when you come to Reformation people who say, “Scripture, only Scripture, only…” and **they had a Reformation and they basically dumped tradition and they dumped the magisterium **and they said, “It’s the Bible! It’s the Bible! It’s the Bible!” how come they hung onto infant baptism? It’s not there. It’s a relic of Popery. "
"If you don’t know what the Bible means, you don’t go to somebody who has infallible revelation as to it’s meaning; you dig into the text to discern it. God does not interpret Scripture through history. God does not interpret Scripture through tradition, through rights or ceremonies or doctrines that are true simply because some religious system says they’re true. Only an honest interpretation of Scripture in which you exegete the text itself can yield the meaning of that Scripture. "
"Another thing the baby-baptizers use for support is they try to go to Matthew 18, where Jesus said in verse 3, “Except you become as a little child, you can’t enter the kingdom.” Well, that’s not talking about babies; that’s talking about believers. You have to become like a little child to get into the kingdom. What does that mean? Well, if you’re going to come into God’s kingdom, you don’t come with the record of all your great achievements. You haven’t got any—a little child has no achievements, right? A little child has accomplished nothing, done nothing. They are not productive; have you noticed? They don’t do anything. They just have to have things done to them all the time. They don’t achieve anything, accomplish anything…they don’t make any contribution at all except just the sheer joy of their presence…[ref "let the children come to me:]They weren’t, necessarily, the children of believing parents—we don’t even know who their parents were! "
((I added most of the full paragraphs and not just my hilights to show the quotes in context))
Emphasis on the following quotes are mine:
“Let me explain for some of you who might not understand. There is a widespread belief in the Church that babies are to be baptized.…They are taken to the church and they are sprinkled with water on the head—a little bit of water is dripped on their head and that constitutes their “Christian” baptism. This is very widespread. This is all over the world, in fact. **This is the influence of the post-reformation European church **and it has spread wherever that influence has gone.”
"Now, there are only two ordinances the Lord gave us—just two. He gave us baptism and the Lord’s Table. And He said,** “Just do these two things. They are symbols.”** "
"Now, I would expect Roman Catholicism to engage in that practice because Roman Catholicism has two sources of authority. On the one hand, they have the Bible; on the other hand—and it’s as empty as my right hand—they have tradition. You see where the weight is. But, in the Catholic system, there is what is called “tradition.” It is known as “tradition” or the “magisterium.” It is the accumulation of materials outside the Bible that bear equal authority with the Scripture."
"In fact, the Roman Catholic Church asserts, that it is, the only recipient of revelation beyond the Bible…not only is it the only recipient of revelation, but it is the only and infallible interpreter of all revelation, both traditional and Biblical. So, when we know that Roman Catholics baptize babies, that fits into their magisterium, but when you come to Reformation people who say, “Scripture, only Scripture, only…” and **they had a Reformation and they basically dumped tradition and they dumped the magisterium **and they said, “It’s the Bible! It’s the Bible! It’s the Bible!” how come they hung onto infant baptism? It’s not there. It’s a relic of Popery. "
"If you don’t know what the Bible means, you don’t go to somebody who has infallible revelation as to it’s meaning; you dig into the text to discern it. God does not interpret Scripture through history. God does not interpret Scripture through tradition, through rights or ceremonies or doctrines that are true simply because some religious system says they’re true. Only an honest interpretation of Scripture in which you exegete the text itself can yield the meaning of that Scripture. "
"Another thing the baby-baptizers use for support is they try to go to Matthew 18, where Jesus said in verse 3, “Except you become as a little child, you can’t enter the kingdom.” Well, that’s not talking about babies; that’s talking about believers. You have to become like a little child to get into the kingdom. What does that mean? Well, if you’re going to come into God’s kingdom, you don’t come with the record of all your great achievements. You haven’t got any—a little child has no achievements, right? A little child has accomplished nothing, done nothing. They are not productive; have you noticed? They don’t do anything. They just have to have things done to them all the time. They don’t achieve anything, accomplish anything…they don’t make any contribution at all except just the sheer joy of their presence…[ref "let the children come to me:]They weren’t, necessarily, the children of believing parents—we don’t even know who their parents were! "
((I added most of the full paragraphs and not just my hilights to show the quotes in context))
