NowTHINK!AboutIt

6 Reasons To Question Infant Baptism

May 7, 2015 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

This Is Intended
To Promote Thinking
Not Fighting

A friend recently posted a question on Facebook about infant baptism.

It seemed like he was genuinely asking, not saying, or baiting. He addressed his question to “scholar” types.

The essence of the question was:

When the Bible mentions baptizing an entire family (household) when the head of the house is baptized, does this imply infant baptism?

It’s a good question. The Book of Acts does record two incidents when one person – the head of a household – believed and was baptized. Lydia was one and the other was the superintendent of the city jail.

The interesting thing is, in both cases, all the family members were baptized at the same time.

It doesn’t specifically say each family member confessed or believed but the idea that faith comes before baptism is so well established in Scripture it doesn’t need to be repeated ad nauseam.

Both incidents occurred in Philippi and you find the details in Acts 16.

The question naturally arises:

Does this imply infant baptism?

The short answer is “no it doesn’t” but that isn’t much of an argument. There are many churches that baptize infants – I was sprinkled as an infant in a Presbyterian Church – so the question can’t be easily dismissed. It is an established practice.

Here are my reasons for thinking infants were not involved: [Read more…] about 6 Reasons To Question Infant Baptism

x.vindicosuite.com Is An Unwanted Redirect (Intrusion)

May 6, 2015 by EnnisP 5 Comments

A Quick Search
Revealed The Solution

I recently noticed some unusual click-thrus on my site, and being the curious person I am, I investigated further.

The clicks were actually a redirect, which means people were attempting to navigate to one page but instead being taken to a completely unexpected page, a page that had nothing to do with anything on my site: x.vindicosuite.com.

The last time I checked, that URL delivered a blank page.

[do_widget id=media_image-4]

I did a search and found several posts explaining what was happening. It involved Sitemeter, a visitor tracking service for websites. Any site that had their code installed was vulnerable to the redirect.

The bad news is, even though Sitemeter was notified well over a year ago, they’ve done nothing about it.

I only discovered the problem in May 2015 so there is no telling how many visitors this glitch has run off. Frustrating! [Read more…] about x.vindicosuite.com Is An Unwanted Redirect (Intrusion)

3 Strategies For Christian Outreach

May 4, 2015 by EnnisP 1 Comment

Gospel Leaflets Don’t Correspond
To Growling Stomachs

Strategy is often treated with ambivalence by Christians.

It isn’t difficult to understand. Strategy simply refers to the plans we make for reaching specific goals. A good strategy keeps you focused and efficient. We all understand that. It’s a good idea.

The rub comes because we worry that planning on a human level may be at odds with planning on a divine level, and we don’t want to interfere.

So I let’s take a look at the concept of strategy and answer a few questions:

Should we be strategic?
Is being strategic the same as being biblical?
Is being strategic spiritual or is it just mechanical?
Is human strategy by nature in conflict with divine strategy?

The short answer is make a plan and work it as well as you can without forcing it. Circumstances have a way of guiding us through the process.

But the answer needs more detail and to find it we need look no further than the Apostle Paul. [Read more…] about 3 Strategies For Christian Outreach

10 Nonconventional Ideas About Faith

April 14, 2015 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

You Can’t
Stereotype Faith

In Luke 18 Jesus shared an interesting story about a widow.

The widow had been cheated and was attempting to get justice through the legal system, but things weren’t working out so well. Her appeals were being ignored by a judge whom Jesus referred to as unjust.

We aren’t given any more details. We don’t know who cheated her or how severe the offense was, but as it turns out that information isn’t important.

The point was, as a widow, she had about as much clout as a dead tree. Widows were on society’s bottom wrung, and the judge, who didn’t care about God or people, wasn’t interested in her problem. She was an inconvenience, a gnat to be swatted away.

But she never gave up. She knew the law and she knew her cause was just, so she did the only thing she could. She hounded the judge repeatedly.

And it worked.

He finally realized that processing her legal matter, though inconvenient, was far less bothersome than repeatedly listening to her complaint.

In spite of being marginalized by the system, she found a way to assert her cause.

And Jesus used her as an example. He shared her experience to teach the disciples persistence in prayer. But that explanation leaves us a bit curious. The parable never mentions this woman praying.

In the end of the parable Jesus referred to her as an example of faith and He wondered aloud if that kind of faith would still exist when He returns.

Since prayer and persistence and actions can all be expressions of faith, and that was at least a strong sub point of the parable, we can make several observations about faith. Several of these of these points don’t square with convention.

For example: [Read more…] about 10 Nonconventional Ideas About Faith

Book Review: Out Of My Mind By W. J. de Kock

March 23, 2015 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

A Genuine Re-Minding
Produces Genuine Re-Lifing

The language de Kock uses is different (regenerative theology) but the meaning is very similar to what we’ve come to know as spiritual formation.

But for de Kock it is more than a theoretical discussion. It’s personal. He lived regeneratively and shares his experience in Out of My Mind.

In this great read, life and theology come together. It combines biographical material – de Kock’s experience of transformation – with theology and history. The theology is modernist with an Apartheid flavor and the history focuses on the recent transformation of the South African society.

De Kock’s transformation is tied to and parallels that of South Africa, and the book gives a brief account of both.

One of my favorite words in the book is re-minding. It is beautiful but different way of saying repentance and de Kock’s case illustrates what that really means.

Because the book contained theology, it was a little dry in places but overall an insightful read.

The book is available in both hard cover and Kindle.

THINK!AboutIt