The Spiritual Condition Of Infants

What is the spiritual condition of infants? According to the Augustinian-Calvinist view, all people inherit from the first Adam both a sinful nature and his guilt. The result is that all infants are subject to the judgment of God against their nature before they knowingly commit any sinful actions. But is this the clear teaching of Scripture? In The Spiritual Condition of Infants, Adam Harwood examines ten relevant biblical texts and the writings of sixteen theologians in order to clarify the spiritual condition of infants. Although no passage explicitly states the spiritual condition of infants, each text makes contributions by addressing the doctrines of man, sin, the church, and salvation. If this biblical-historical analysis exposes the traditional Augustinian-Calvinist view to be inadequate, then is it possible to construct an alternate view of the spiritual condition of infants? Such a view should remain faithful to the biblical emphasis on humankind's connection to Adam and his sin but also recognize the guilt and condemnation of an individual only in the manner and time that God does in Scripture. That is the aim of this book.

What is the spiritual condition of infants? According to the Augustinian-Calvinist view, all people inherit from the first Adam both a sinful nature and his guilt. The result is that all infants are subject to the judgment of God against their nature before they knowingly commit any sinful actions. But is this the clear teaching of Scripture? In The Spiritual Condition of Infants, Adam Harwood examines ten relevant biblical texts and the writings of sixteen theologians in order to clarify the spiritual condition of infants. Although no passage explicitly states the spiritual condition of infants, each text makes contributions by addressing the doctrines of man, sin, the church, and salvation. If this biblical-historical analysis exposes the traditional Augustinian-Calvinist view to be inadequate, then is it possible to construct an alternate view of the spiritual condition of infants? Such a view should remain faithful to the biblical emphasis on humankind's connection to Adam and his sin but also recognize the guilt and condemnation of an individual only in the manner and time that God does in Scripture. That is the aim of this book.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1874 edition. Excerpt: ...And it is of the same prac: tical importance, as a symbolic rite, in the one case as in the other. But this "rite," to he of any practical importance to the child, must be explained to him, and its significance shown, together with the advantages of Church-membership, into which the "rite" inducts him. The Church of God has ever been one; and as infant Church-membership existed under the old dispensation, and has never been abolished under the new, it must still exist. And as infants were admitted to membership in the Jewish Church by the "rite of circumcision," so they are admitted into the Church of the New Testament by the "rite of Christian baptism." "Baptism" takes the place of the former "seal;" and as that seal was applied to the children of Abraham, baptism, as the New Testament seal, is applied to our infant children. Baptized children are members of Christ's Church; not because " tradition" has so regarded them; not because the theory of the Church has pronounced them such; but because Christ has constituted them such by his commandment, and because the apostles recognized them as such. The difference between the Jewish child and the heathen child only respected their relative privileges in reference to the instrumental means of enlightenment. The Jewish child was in the Church, and had a right to religious culture, while the heathen child was out in the darkness of ignorance, and without the "light of revealed truth." They were both equally dear to God, and equally the subjects of redemption by the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Precisely so is the difference between the "baptized" and the wibaptized child: the...

a young Southern Baptist scholar challenges an historic Reformed doctrine

The integrative theme of this collection of essays is change and transformation explored in the context of diverse expressions within the context of Anglican Church history. It addresses some central themes--notably the sacraments, liturgy, biblical interpretation, theological education, the relationship of church and state, governance and authority, and Christian education. The volume traces Anglican Church history chronologically. It includes a comparative study of penance in the thought of John Wyclif and Thomas Cranmer. The book also treats the dispersal of authority evident in the development of the Book of Common Prayer and the King James Bible, consensus in eucharistic theology in the seventeenth century, and developments in biblical interpretation in the early eighteenth century. This book also discusses a vision for the Christian education of children, change in theological education in the 1830s, the metanarrative of continuity developed by High Church historians in the late nineteenth century, increasing self-government in the Church at the outset of the twentieth century, and models of governance at the outset of the twenty-first. While this collection highlights aspects of change and transformation as an integrative theme, it is not its premise that change was normative or pervasive, perpetual or constant, within Anglicanism. Nevertheless, these essays raise some new lines of inquiry, make some suggestive interpretations, or propose revision of accepted views.