Grosey's Messages

'In the missionary context of the early church, the rebirth signified by baptism was a momentous and life-changing event for the believer. It required a complete break with eitherJudaism or paganism and was an act of joining a poor, marginalized, and unsophisticated church of Christ. Christians felt themselves to be a unique, chosen people, a new kind of people, new creatures, who in Christ had obtained communion with God and a new and authentic life. The work of salvation was confined on God's part to his calling, and when people on their part listened to that call, repented, and believed, they received in baptism the forgiveness of all their past sins. Baptism was the great turning point, the radical change, the decisive passage from a sinful past into the holy present.

Moving beyond this context, as the church gained its members more from its own children than by conversion and baptized infants and children, she had to modify her understanding of the connection between baptism and regeneration.'

He goes on to show how Reformed theologians wrestled with understanding of the connection between baptism and regeneration, 'but found no solution satisfactory to everyone when it came to grounds for baptising the children of believers.'

But being Christocentric and evangelistically oriented should minimise friction between both credobaptists and "paedobaptist-onlys"

perhaps the issue in our sessions is a lack of passion for the gospel itself.
Bavinck again "Let the heart's passion come to the word, and eloquence will be born. And what could not touch our hearts? Do we, along with the whole creation, not feel? Are we not connected to all things? Do we not belong at once to both heaven and earth? Our heart is the melting pot in which all things come together; it is the mirror whereupon all things are reflected. Impressions, perceptions, and emotions come at us from every side. We can be reached by the melodies of angels and the howl of demons, by creation's song and creature's sigh. … And if our heart becomes so affected, so touched … and thus is awoken in passion, regardless of which one (love, hate, sorrow, compassion, indignation, shock, fear, angst, terror), if our conscience is touched and the waves of the life of the soul are set heaving, if our spirit is driven, and is set in motion and delight, then the real source of eloquence is unlocked within us. Deep, inner feeling is the principle of oratory; it is the soul's sensitivity to be jarred and aghast."

And typically when folk are less Christocentric or gospel evangelistically oriented there will be a tendency to magnify differences:
whether on days or foods: such as SDA's -think Romans 14, or either believers baptism as some baptists who reject evangelicals in paedobaptist denominations, or some Anglicans or Others who reject baptists as evangelicals over the issue of baptism.
How nuts is that?
Let's just be passionate about the gospel itself.

Andrew Millsom
Although, as Herman Bavinck notes, when a church and pastor concentrate outwardly on evangelism their baptisms will usually be baptisms of new converts (and their children by a inference), and when a church concentrates on maintaining the status quo, it will pretty much only do infant baptisms), nevertheless,
the parents of a child being baptised should themselves be believers and the person administering baptism should themselves be believers in order that the expression of unity (one baptism) should be related directly to the "one Lord, and one faith" in Ephesians 4.
The issue, (as Bavinck notes in Reformed Theology, and "the Future of Reformed Churches") is whether a church is evangelically focussed or not. The issue is commitment by the session and church to the one Lord and one Faith.

Ephesians 4:1-6 NASB95 - Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

How many baptisms are permissible?
Is Roman Catholic baptism valid?
Many Presbyterians and Reformed think so.
I think the issue is "one baptism" in Ephesians 4. I think a better exegesis would indicate that Judaism practiced many baptisms for each person ("washings" of Hebrews 6). Given the number of mikvahs for adult baptism around the Temple Mount site for washings of attenders at the Temple, baptism into Jesus is a final baptism concluding the normal annual ceremonial baptisms of repentance with the one baptism of repentance and faith in Christ Jesus.
Hence "one baptism" in Ephesians 4 is a unifying thing around the gospel, rather than a separate sacramental thing apart from the gospel.
Thence the only valid baptisms are those affirming personal commitments to the gospel and they affirm the unity we have in the gospel itself.