Belgic Confession Article 22: Baptism

We affirm that Baptism is the institution of the Lord, and the bath of regeneration which the Lord presents to his elect, as a visible sign through the ministry of the church (as has been explained above).

With this holy bath we shall therefore bathe our infants, since it is wrong to reject those born of us (who are the Lord’s people) from the fellowship of God’s people, so long as they have not been designated reprobate by the voice of God, especially since it is to be presumed that their election is pious.

Daniel Penny being found not guilty is a small measure of justice. Thank God.

Baptism, therefore, includes these 3 things:

1. The sign, which is water, and the ceremony which is connected with it.

2. The things which are signified thereby, which include the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, the mortification of the old man, and the quickening of the new man.

3. The command and promise of Christ, from which the sign obtains its authority and power to confirm.
 
Obj. 1. Baptism is called an external washing with water. Therefore it is nothing more than a mere sign.

Ans. This objection separates things which ought not to be disjoined; for when we say that baptism is an external sign, we connect with it the thing signified. Hence we do not add the exclusive particle only.

-- Zacharias Ursinus, Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism

What kind of insurance company hater are you?

The chief end of baptism is, the confirmation of our faith, or a solemn declaration by which Christ testifies that he washes us with his blood and Spirit, and confers upon us remission of sins, and the Holy Ghost, who regenerates and sanctifies us unto eternal life. Or it is a sealing of the promise of grace, that is, of our justification and regeneration, and a declaration of the will of God, to this effect, that he here grants these gifts to those who are baptized, and that he will for ever grant them. For he himself baptizes us by the hand of the minister, and declares to us this his will.

-- Zacharias Ursinus, Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism

I hear there's a new Statement floating around trying to be slightly less gay than the Antioch Declaration. My response?

Didn't read; Christ is King.

That baptism is a declaration and confirmation of the will of God concerning our salvation which he promises to effect, and grant is evident… From other passages of Scripture in which baptism is spoken of as a saving ordinance. (Acts 22:16. Rom. 6:3. Col. 2:11. Titus 3:5.)

-- Zacharias Ursinus, Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism

"Hello? Yes, this is the Based Department speaking. We just came out with a new declaration and we're calling all anons to sign."

https://ehuddeclaration.com/

We will outpopulate the left quickly. We need to stop sending our kids to be raised by spiteful leftist women daycare workers and teachers. If we can do that, we can win in a single generation.

4. The fourth aspect of revelation determinative of the study of Biblical Theology consists in its practical adaptability God's self revelation to us was not made for a primarily intellectual purpose. It is not to be overlooked, of course, that the truly pious mind may through an intellectual contemplation of the divine perfections glorify God. This would be just as truly religious as the intensest occupation of the will in the service of God. But it would not be the full orbed religion at which, as a whole, revelation aims. It is true, the Gospel teaches that to know God is life eternal. But the concept of 'knowledge' here is not to be understood in its Hellenic sense, but in the Shemitic sense. According to the former, 'to know' means to mirror the reality of a thing in one's consciousness. The Shemitic and Biblical idea is to have the reality of something practically interwoven with the inner experience of life. Hence 'to know' can stand in the Biblical idiom for 'to love', 'to single out in love'. Because God desires to be known after this fashion, He has caused His revelation to take place in the milieu of the historical life of a people. The circle of revelation is not a school, but a 'covenant'. To speak of revelation as an 'education' of humanity is a rationalistic and utterly unscriptural way of speaking. All that God disclosed of Himself has come in response to the practical religious needs of His people as these emerged in the course of history.

Hyperborean St. Nicholas slapping the African heretic Arius c. 325 A.D.

"A total of 44,042 new Army recruits were categorized by the service as white in 2018, but that number has fallen consistently each year to a low of 25,070 in 2023, with a 6% dip from 2022 to 2023 being the most significant drop. No other demographic group has seen such a precipitous decline, though there have been ups and downs from year to year."

At this rate of decline, the army would see 0 White recruits by 2032.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/01/10/army-sees-sharp-decline-white-recruits.html

> Be Roman Catholic
> Have no Protestant Work Ethic
> Take 3 hour siesta every day
> Have more holidays via the church calendar than they know what to do with
> Still complain you aren't paid a "just wage"

The "Christmas is Pagan" lie is a demoralization tactic. Reject it.

The early church settled on December 25th as an attempt to calculate the actual date of his birth, either by reckoning from the Crucifixion or from the Annunciation. The best calculations back up six months (Lk. 1:26) from John the Baptist's birth (historically celebrated as June 24th by the Roman Catholic church), which is itself calculated as 9 months following Zechariah's temple rotation, which ended ~September 22nd. An ancient tradition also reckoned Christ's conception as occurring on roughly the same day as his crucifixion.

December 25th was noted by ante-Nicene Fathers such as Hippolytus in 204 A.D., and Tertullian (c. 200 A.D.) as being the date of Christ's birth, and this appears to be well-established by the time of post-Nicene Fathers such as Chrysostom, Ambrose, and Augustine who view December 25th as a given.

This date does not line up with the oft-cited Roman pagan Saturnalia celebrations, which were on December 17th, later expanded through the 23rd. And while Saturnalia did predate Christmas, there is precisely zero record of Christians intending to borrow from pagan celebrations, and aside from the date, the only other characteristic supposedly borrowed is gift-giving. Most modern scholars admit our modern tradition derives from the lore of St. Nicholas, and the Saturnalia gifts were generally small gag gifts and wax figurines.

December 25th was earmarked by Christians before Emperor Aurelian estabalished the "birth of Sol Invictus" (the central celebration of the new Sun-god cult) as December 25th in 274 A.D. Additionally, December 25th was selected since it was the date of the winter solstice on the Roman calendar. No contemporary sources (Christian or otherwise) suggested the church lifted Dec. 25th from Sol Invictus. The first person to do so was an obscure Syriac Christian writer in the 12th century.

Finally, it ought not surprise us that God should providentially select a date so near the winter solstice, as the sun's hours begin to lengthen, to give us a savior. The final Messianic promise of the Old Testament is that "the Sun of Righteousness shall rise with healing in his wings," (Mal. 4:2).

Merry Christmas to you and yours, and keep smacking down pagans, heretics, and liberals.

Since bishop positions in the Mormon "church" are unpaid, they can only functionally be held by independently wealthy men. This selects for successful men (think Mitt Romney, who was a bishop before going into politics).

I'm not arguing churches do the same, but it is worth noting that raising barriers to enter the ministry is synonymous with raising the standard for ministers.

We should want men like St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, who demonstrated competency in secular vocations first before their ministry.

Trump will be remembered as the greatest US president in history if he can accomplish 5 simple things:

1) Mass deportations of all illegal aliens
2) Stop inflation by raising interest rates like Paul Volcker did in the 1980s
3) Seal the border and stop the drug cartels
4) Make Big Pharma liable again
5) Expand school choice such that parents have more alternatives to the child camps

It's unclear to me why James White and others are chimping out over the rejection of the term "Judeo-Christian." It's very obviously an astroturfed neologism meant to tie those who rejected and killed Christ with those who accept and would die for Christ. It's a term meant to blur the friend enemy distinction. It's an appeal to dispensational and universalist tendencies.

In short, it belongs in the dumpster along with the rest of the PWC.

It is time for the German people, and Europeans writ large, to kick the invaders out of our nations. And a strongman head of state will be needed to do so.

No more terrorist Muslim Arabs.
No more smelly Hindu Indians.
No more parastic Jews and Israelis.
No more nepotistic corrupt Asians.
No more welfare seeking Hispanics.
No more criminal and obnoxious Africans.

They all have to go. No exceptions.