Thursday, July 30, 2009

I got a chuckle out of this

I was reading about something else and followed a link to the webpage of the Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics, which is a useful webpage and one I have book marked. The link led to an electronic book of sorts called The Anabaptists and their Stepchildren, I assume that was intended as a clever play on on the title of Leonard Verduin's book "The Reformers and their Stepchildren". I didn't read much of it, but I did read the final chapter: (Ana)Baptists of all countries -- repent!. I laughed out loud at this gem....

Karl Marx, himself a stepchild of the communistic Anabaptists, loved to enjoin: "Workers of the world -- unite!"But, standing upon Scripture, Christian Calvinists now say to all such stepchildren: "Anabaptists of all countries -- repent!"

We therefore call upon all of the various stepchildren of the Anabaptists -- including justified Baptists; heretical Seventh-day Adventists; apostate "Jehovah witnesses"; polytheistic Mormons; and atheistic Communists -- to repent of their great sin of antipaidobaptism (and of all their other sins).

Standing upon Scripture -- Matthew 28:18f and Revelation 7:2f & 9:4 & 12:17 & 14:1 & 21:2,24 & 22:3f -- we now call upon them all to repent of their antipaidobaptism. We call upon them: to bring their babies and their other children to that great King of men and divine Leader of angels, the mighty Archangel Jesus; to get them all baptized on their foreheads with the seal of the Triune God; and then to urge them life-long to improve that baptism.

I think the guy is serious. I have seen a lot of misrepresentations of Biblical, i.e. believers, baptism but I am not sure I have ever seen "antipaidobaptism" linked with Karl Marx, mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and atheistic Communists before.

2 comments:

Abigail said...

Arthur,
Been a long time.. Have had some health issues keeping me away but am glad to be back and enjoying your posts.
I too got a chuckle out of this one. Even being a fully persuaded paedobaptist couldn't put me in agreement with this guy. I have read many folks that have tried to link communism and/or communal living with Anabaptism. Frankly, I am suprised that you have never come across it before. The groups like the Moravians, and Mennonites, that developed common communities are supposed to be the fore-runners of ideological communism and since they were by and large anabaptist and the fact that anabaptist doctrine calls for communal living in many areas of daily life,( see The Martyr's Mirror) they lay the charge at all 'baptist' feet. The flow of logic, or rather lack of it was what I really enjoyed about the poor representation of my view on this subject. As for the plea to baptize your children, I would drop all that Archangel stuff and the whole 'spooky' routine and just appeal to the example of moses and the 'bloody husband' incident. I know that you still disagree with my position and I respect that, I just wish that there weren't so many chuckle- heads in the world to cloud what could be a profitable discussion. The CRTA would do well to pull that link, or at least run a little stronger disclaimer.
Glad to be catching up, Bob

Arthur Sido said...

The archangel thing was a little weird. I have actually seen a few people make the anabaptist-communism connection before, but always misunderstanding the difference between voluntarily sharing all things in common and Marxist communism where all things are shared by force.

Sorry to hear about your health issues but glad you are feeling better.