Q: I’m almost finished reading your
Jewish Roots of Christianity book. I’ve appreciated learning so much history
that I never knew, but it makes me sad to think that people who have called
themselves by the name of Christ have acted so horrendously… It helps me to
understand a little better the anti-Semitism that we saw (and were SHOCKED by)
in Ukraine.
I’m meditating on the thought that you bring forth in the book that Messianic
Jews still need to follow the law… What do you do then with Paul’s remarks in
Galatians 2:11-14, where Paul calls Peter on the carpet for reverting back to
following the laws when the circumcision party shows up in Antioch? Paul
certainly talks here, and in other places, like he is not following the dietary
laws at least…
Infant Baptism? (Q&A)
Q: [In
response to our teaching, “The Washing of Water with the Word”:] I'm going to get into trouble here, but here
goes anyway....please notice that the verse you mention says that the Messiah
does the cleansing by the washing of water with the word. We
don't do it. Therefore it is a gift, just like our name from our
parents. So there is no need for someone to wait until they are
"ready" for baptism. It is a gift that we cannot by our own
power or will do anything to be "ready" to receive. Moral of my
story is --get your kids baptized and don't wait another day. –Stephanie
K.
A: Thanks for your enthusiasm in defending
infant baptism--a long-held and widely practiced tradition of the Church.
But this tradition ignores a key component of the original idea of baptism: that receiving the word of God—being “cleansed...by his word” (Eph. 5:26)—requires
being able to understand that word. Traditional churches themselves
admit to the inadequacy of infant baptism by their practice of confirmation, a
rite mentioned nowhere in the Bible. Having teenagers confirm
or accept their baptisms is a recognition that infant
baptism is incomplete without the conscious and believing
participation of the one being baptized. And that's exactly the
point. Baptism is the outward, public response to an inner faith:
the sign of a conscious repentance of sin and a decision to follow Jesus.
This decision brings an inner cleansing (Acts 15:9), while baptism completes
the process with an outer washing: “the
outward sign of an inward grace,” as Augustine of Hippo put it. There
is just no other way to make sense of the Biblical description of this rite as
a "baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins," unless there
is an actual repentance on the part of the person being baptized (Mark 1:4, Luke 3:3, Acts 13:24, 19:4). This requires a conscious appeal to God (1
Pet. 3:21 ) by faith (Col.
2:12). Infants are completely incapable of doing these things.
The Meaning of Psalm 23
“A psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing” (Psa. 23:1).
The original historical context
of Psalm 23 is the ancient Kingdom of Israel, in which sheep were a major part
of the economy. We’re talking about huge
flocks of sheep running into the thousands in some cases. King David, probably the most famous king of
Israel, worked as a shepherd when he was a boy, just as many other boys did at
the time. This Psalm, which is
associated with his name, likely reflects his own experience as a shepherd as he
reflects on God as the shepherd of his own life.
The sheep-grazing areas
in Israel are mostly dry, rocky, semi-desert areas, where the sheep are often taken
far away from the agricultural land near town, especially in the spring and
summer. This is an area of steep and
dangerous cliffs and canyons. Even a
sure-footed sheep or goat is in real danger of falling to its death. In fact, I’ve
seen a couple of them nearly fall myself out in this area.