Glenn+
I'm not sure I'd refine it very much.
But I do have a question: Are you trying to convince me of baptismal
regeneration since I defended Drew's+ remarks about the prospective promise
of baptism? If you are, please remember that I only said that historically,
there has been a branch in the Church who has held that the promise in
baptism is a prospective promise wherein one is presumed regenerate until
proven otherwise (contra the Baptists who presume one is not regenerate
until proven otherwise). I didn't say that that was the position that I
held.
But I do understand the implications of the argument both ways. If baptism
always "works," then Joseph Stalin (who, I believe, was at one time a
seminary student) would be enjoying the Beatific Vision right now. And I
don't think that any of us believes that. So, one must either hold that one
can lose the grace of baptism (a sort of semi-Pelagianism argument that says
that man's fallen will can over-ride God's transforming grace and is,
therefore, greater than that transforming grace -- but an argument that also
flies in the face of all the "eternal security" passages in the Bible), or
one must believe that not all who are baptized are a true and persevering
part of God's Church (Augustine's very thorny position).
Either way, at least as regards the question of apostasy, both positions
lead to the same place: loss of eternal salvation in the end.
MLW+
-----Original Message-----
From: GMSpencer@... [mailto:GMSpencer@...]
Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2005 10:36 PM
To: faithandlife@...
Subject: [FaithandLife] the meaning of the new birth
Dear Fr. Mike:
I have gone through the Baptismal service of the 1928 BCP and isolated 33
statements that refer in some sense to the effect and benefit of Holy
Baptism. I
have grouped the statements into eight general categories and color coded
them. If you don't pick up the color I have assigned a number to the
category.
There are two numbers at the end of each citation. The first number is the
number
assigned to the category and the second number is the order of appearance in
the BCP of that categorical statement. For example the eleventh citation has
the numbers 1 (category) and 1 (order of appearance in the BCP).
1. "that which by nature he cannot have" 3 (1)
2. "baptized with Water and the Holy Ghost" 7 (1)
3. "received into Christ's holy Church" 4 (1)
4. "be made a living member of the same" 4 (2)
5. "remission of sin" 274 8 (1)
6. "spiritual regeneration" 3 (2)
7. "the everlasting benediction of they heavenly washing" 2 (1)
8. "Give thy Holy Spirit to this Child" 7 (2)
9. "That he may be born again" 3 (3)
10. "made an heir of everlasting salvation" 5 (1)
11. "die to sin and rise to newness of life" 278 1 (1)
12. "sinful affections may die in him" 1 (2)
13. "all things belonging to the Spirit may live and grow in him" 2 (2)
14. "power and strength to...triumph, against the devil, the world, and the
flesh." 1 (3)
15. "dedicated to thee" 2 (3)
16. "endued with heavenly virtues" 2 (4)
17. "everlastingly rewarded" 6 (1)
18. "mystical washing away of sin" 8 (4)
19. "receive the fulness of grace" 2 (5)
20. "ever remain in the number of they faithful children" 5 (2)
21. "We receive this Child into the Congregation of Christ's flock" 4 (3)
22. "sign him with the sign of the Cross" (a soldier of Christ) 1 (4)
23. "this Child is regenerate" 3 (4)
24. "grafted into the body of Christ's Church" 4 (4)
25. "this beginning" 3 (5)
26. "that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this Child with thy Holy
Spirit"
3 (6)
27. "to receive him for thine own Child" 5 (3)
28. "to incorporate him into they holy Church" 4 (5)
29. "being dead to sin" 1 (5)
30. "live unto righteousness" 2 (6)
31. "buried with Christ in his death" 281 1 (6)
32. "may be partaker of his resurrection" 6 (2)
33. "he may be an inheritor of thine everlasting kingdom" 6 (3)
Eight Categories of Meaning
1. There are six statements that refer to breaking sin's hold on the
baptized
person. Yellow
2. There are six statements that refer to the positive righteousness in the
baptized. Turquoise
3. There are six statements that refer to spiritual regeneration or the New
Birth. Duke Blue
4. There are five statements that refer to the reception of the baptized
into
the Church of God. Red
5. There are three statements that refer to the baptized as being made a
Child of God. Peach
6. There are three eschatological references vis-à-vis the baptized child.
Periwinkle
7. There are two (three counting #26) statements that refer to the reception
of the Holy Spirit. Lime 8. There are two statements that refer to
remission or forgiveness of sin. Green
Conclusion: Baptism is the New Birth by which is meant Adoption as Sons of
God, the reordering, through the supernatural action of the Holy Spirit upon
the
soul of the baptized by which the faculties of the soul that were wounded in
the Fall are enlivened, renewed, and reoriented toward God, such that, we
may
be forgiven our sins, but further that sin's hold upon the soul is broken
and
we are free not only to resist sin, but positively, truly to grow into the
image and likeness of God not merely through imputation, but now, by the
grace of
God, by real participation in the life of God. The true home of the baptized
is the Church of God who administered the life-giving sacrament by Christ's
commandment and this Church abides in three states, Militant, Expectant,
Triumphant, in whose fellowship we pray by God's grace to continue to our
life's end.
This could use some refinement.
Glenn+
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