A contemporary, Presbyterian theologian has written that the baptism issue has basically been settled by Presbyterians and it is up to Baptists to provide a response. The ball is in their corner. (Please excuse me for not naming and quoting this individual - my personal library is in storage at this time) Well . . . Believer's Baptism has tossed the ball back to Presbyterians! And it has done so in such a way that our brothers must not resort to the Westminster Confession but must demonstrate from Scripture why infant baptism is a norm for the New Covenant community.

By the way, I love my Presbyterians brothers! Our disagreement on this issue comes down to a matter of scriptural interpretation, and I believe this book demonstrates the Baptist position to be more exegetically sound. However, that is not the only reason I recommend this book to you. Below are the two large insights I gained.

1. Thorough critique of the Presbyterian model of baptism.

• (A) Essays in this volume dissected every NT text that speaks of baptism and resolutely concluded that infant baptism is not practiced, endorsed, alluded to, or commanded in the NT! Indeed, to practice infant baptism would be to directly undermine the New Covenant Community in which EVERY member is a believer by a change of heart. The Presbyterian model allows unbelievers to be members of "the covenant community" who have never expressed personal faith in Christ. The NT model is a community of believers who are all included in the New Covenant. The Church is the New Covenant community!
• (B) "Covenant of Grace" is a theological construct that is essential to a covenant theology model. However, the Bible does not speak of the covenants in the same manner as covenant theology speaks of them. The Bible speaks of the covenants as separate modes of God's work with His people, not as one covenant with many expressions. It is more biblically accurate then to speak of God working through covenants. The covenant we are under today is the New Covenant. It is entirely different from the Mosaic Covenant. The Mosaic Covenant identified God's People in terms of ethnicity. The people of Israel were to bring a blessing for all nations. That blessing has come! So now the New Covenant identifies those who are in Christ, no matter what their ethnicity may be.
• (C) Equating baptism with circumcision fails to appreciate the discontinuity between the two covenants. For sure there are continuities, but the "covenant of grace" underpinning forces too much continuity and does not fully express the discontinuity realized in the NC. The book of Hebrews stresses the newness and difference of the NC! Also, one of the hallmark texts to defend NT baptism as the equivalent of OT circumcision is Romans 4. If you would note, however, baptism is not even mentioned in this text! The only way to arrive at the Presbyterian model from Romans 4 is to read covenant theology into the text. What you get out of the text is Paul stressing that Abraham is father of all who believe, whether circumcised or not.

2. A Major Correction to the Baptist Understanding and Practice of Baptism.

• (A) Baptists have pushed baptism so far beneath regeneration that it is mere obedience to Scripture and purely symbolic. The writers of Believer's Baptism do a fantastic job of revealing the NT's appreciation and emphasis upon baptism. It is our profession of faith in Christ. Walking the aisle and joining the church is not NT profession of faith in Christ! Baptism is!
• (B) Baptism is also part of the 5-fold process of becoming a Christian. NOTE: not becoming a believer, but becoming KNOWN as a Christian. There is faith, repentance, confession, receiving the Spirit, and baptism! See "Baptism in Luke-Acts."
• (C) Baptism is our identification with Christ as being in Him, in His death and resurrection.
• (D) Baptism's role in our salvation. The NT never separates the symbol (baptism) from the thing symbolized (washing away of sins)! While baptism symbolizes spiritual cleansing, spiritual cleansing is never complete without it! The act does not cleanse, but cleansing takes place in the act by the Spirit. See "Stone-Cambell Restoration Movement."

Baptists desperately need to return to a robust, full understanding and practice of baptism, especially in light of some of these recent "spontaneous baptisms!" I hope this volume helps bring that change about!

Also, the question has resurfaced lately if Baptists, through their requirement of believer's baptism for membership, are in effect making the door to the local church narrower than the door to the universal church. If the writers of Believer's Baptism are accurate, these two doors are the same! Believer's baptism is so central to what it means to be a member of the NC that it cannot be severed from it. This is something for us to ponder with great weight and alacrity.