Maybe you see this the same way: I think the bible tells us that while some members will prove false, we must treat the body as saved, including the action of treating members individually as saved. Since we include our children, we must assume them to be faithful and raise them in THAT light, and not in the light of expectation that they will be reprobate.

If you look around any church, there are many baptized people. Some baptized people will fall away from the church. God knows this; he is sovereign in election. But we don’t know within history how the story of the church will be played out.

However, we don’t use the knowledge of some apostacy to treat the baptized as a group of lost people. Their baptism is enough to treat them as a group as saved. And we also talk to any individual church member as a member we expect to see in the resurrection.

A baptized child is not someone we can say, any more than the pastor, that they have no chance of leaving. But when we baptize them, we ARE saying we BELIEVE them to be saved.

Are we not to let our children sing with us as we sing Psalm 71, or Ps 22?

“Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.
5For you, O Lord, are my hope,
my trust, O LORD, from my youth.
6Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;
you are he who took me from my mother’s womb.
My praise is continually of you.”

“Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.
10On you was I cast from my birth,
and FROM MY MOTHER’S WOMB YOU HAVE BEEN MY GOD.”

Through all of history covenant people have expected that their children own the kingdom (as Your passage in Lk 18.15-17 says).

We are commanded to tell covenant children “diligently” that Yhwh is “OUR God”, Yhwh alone (Dt 6.4). We are require to tell our children that they must love THEIR God with all their hearts (Dt 6.5) (see Dt 6.4-7)

Paul tells us our children are clean and holy (1 Cor 7.14), and Peter says that the promise FOUND IN BAPTISM is for us and our children (Ac 2.38-29).

Paul tells that AS OUR EXAMPLE, ALL ISRAEL WAS BAPTIZED in the sea, and ALL ISRAEL ATE AND DRANK CHRIST SPIRITUALLY AS FOOD AND DRINK (1 Cor 10.1-6). Paul says the Old Testament children drank from Christ.

1 Cor 10.17 tells us that all the body is bread, and all the body eat the bread.

1 Cor 12.13 tells us that the body is known by baptism and is known again by meal participation in drinking the spirit.

Ps 128 tells that the righteous man’s children grow up as a covenantal vine around his TABLE:
“3Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
around your table.
4Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
who fears the LORD.”

Keep up the blessings that your are handing down.

Happy Advent,
Luke Welch

I have written at some extent propounding paedocommunion here:
http://saintluke.wordpress.com/category/all-ate-the-same-spiritual-food-paedocommunion/

I have made videos about infant faith here:
http://winepressfilms.com/the-kingdom-belongs-to-such-as-these/paedofaith/

Oh, and I love the picture of the chicken in your kitchen. ha ha…

I wonder if he was expecting a nice interview about his promotion, or if he was expecting the focus on how supposedly bad guns are.

and:
http://www.doodlestextiles.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT&Store_Code=DD

They are run by the same people but I think the ebay store might be slightly cheaper. This is where I got my cloth diapers and nylon covers originally and where I planned to start looking for wrap style covers this time around. I am going to try the snappi first but C is voting for the wraps b/c to him they seem like they’d be easier to get on and off (like the disposables). He doesn’t do a ton of diapering but does help so he wants it to where he can do it easily.

Chad

And I put school off too! I think it’s a syndrome of some sort! (smile)

Sharon

Cumin Chicken with Apples -serve over egg noodles instead of rice since Jerry is a pill