Objection: Baptism doesn't save; faith saves.

Evangelicals often raise this objection, though they rarely object to statements that we are saved through the word of God (1 Pet. 1:23). But the sacraments are just visible words, and the Heidelberg Catechism similarly says (Q. 67) that both Word and Sacrament convey the same grace to us. Hence, to the extent we can say the Word saves, we can say the Sacraments save us.

The reason there is no conflict is that bare, isolated faith doesn't save on its own; faith in Christ and His promises as presented to us in Word and Sacrament is what saves.

Objection: Regeration is an immediate act of God, not through instruments.

But St. Peter tells us (1 Pet. 1:23) we were "born again... through the living and abiding Word of God." But if God acts via the instrument of His Word, and the Word and Sacrament convey the same grace, then what is the difficulty with saying we are regenerated via the instrument of baptism?

If your children do not know the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, and the 10 Commandments by heart from a young age, you've utterly failed as a parent.

The first point clearly taught on this subject in the Symbols of the Reformed Church is that the sacraments are real means of grace, that is, means appointed and employed by Christ for conveying the benefits of his redemption to his people. They are not, as Romanists teach, the exclusive channels; but they are channels.

-- Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology 3.20.4

Collect for the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost

Almighty and everlasting God, who in Christ hast revealed thy glory among the nations: Preserve the works of thy mercy, that thy Church throughout the world may persevere with steadfast faith in the confession of thy Name; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

J.D. Vance: "That's right, Jesus *is* King!"

Basedbasedbasedbasedbased

Christianity is just as much a set of rites, practices, and behaviors as it is a set of beliefs, doctrines, and principles.

But by defining Christianity entirely in terms of the latter, it has morphed into a semi-gnostic religion.

Attempting to cordon off Christ into the etheral realm as a set of abstractions is the first step to liberalism.

Not satire. The costs of leftism have been temporarily masked by the post WW2 economic boom and the tech revolution. The regime is very quickly running out of those benefits and running into the costs of operating against natural law.

As usual, the ordinary man is feeling the effect first (i.e., will I ever be able to afford a house, college, kids, etc.). Pray God mercifully ends this madness swiftly and painlessly because it never ends so on its own.

If not God's law, then what law?

If we reject the civil law of God, we will have to invent some cheap counterfeit or watered down substitute.

The civil law is simply the outworking, application, and enforcement of the moral law. To reject the civil law is to reject the moral law, which is to reject God's holy nature.

Whether the person baptized is to be wholly immersed, and that whether once or thrice, or whether he is only to be sprinkled with water, is not of the least consequence: churches should be at liberty to adopt either according to the diversity of climates, although it is evident that the term baptize means to immerse, and that this was the form used by the primitive Church.

-- John Calvin, Institutes 4.16.19

Subscribers, I know many of you have your own Telegram channels, blogs, and resources. Please plug them in the comments for everyone to see!

Keep courting Lady Wisdom, fellas

The Bible teaches that God sanctifies and saves men through the truth; that the Spirit works with and by the truth in conveying to me the benefits of redemption. It matters not whether that truth be brought before the mind by hearing or reading it, or in the use of significant divinely appointed emblems. The fact and the method of the deliverance of the children of Israel from their bondage in Egypt, were as clearly taught in the sacrament of the Passover, as in the written words of Moses. So the fundamental truths just mentioned are as clearly and impressively taught in the sacrament of baptism, as in the discourses of our blessed Lord himself.

-- Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, 3.20.12

I'm not a huge fan of RZ, but this is an excellent video. The John Gerstner clip alone is worth the price of admission.

https://youtu.be/ilL4MEnD_A8?si=RRfuIY99O8XWq6Ab

So then we must ever come to this point, that the sacraments are effectual and that they be no trifling signs which vanish away in the air, but that the truth is always matched with them, because that God who is faithful, showed that he had no ordained anything in vain. And by is the cause why in baptism we receive truly the forgiveness of our sins, we be washed and cleansed with the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, we be renewed by operation of his holy spirit. And how so? Had a little water such power when it is cast upon head of a child? No, but because it is the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, the water should be a visible sign of his blood and of the holy Ghost, therefore baptism had by virtue and whatsoever is there set forth to the eye, is forth with accomplished in every deed. 

-- John Calvin, Sermons on Deuteronomy, Sermon No. 200 on Ch. 34

How I roll up late to work, PSL in hand