TESTIMONY OF FORMER
PEDOBAPTIST WHO WAS "REGENERATED"
AS AN INFANT IN 1929 BUT WAS BORN AGAIN IN
1952 [04/27/04]
NOTE:
We hope and believe that in the case of
many Pedobaptists their "hearts are sounder than their heads," as was once said
about Martin Luther. We do believe there is a great distinction between
theoretical (mental) error and the actual state of the heart. Mistakes of the
head do not necessarily mean that the heart is in as bad a shape as the head
might imply. Thus, we have confidence that many, many Pedobaptists are truly
saved, even though they mistakenly think that one is "regenerated" somehow in
infancy.
There is not much difference between the Pedobaptist communions
-- whether Catholic, Episcopalian, Lutheran, or Presbyterian -- in regard to the
alleged regeneration of infant children; they differ only in regard to their
theoretical concepts about exactly how this supposed regeneration is enacted. By
the grace of God, however, many of them are evidently later brought into an
experiential knowledge of Christ and the Gospel and pass from death to life,
even if they never completely recover from the mental error about infant
regeneration.
The following is the testimony of an aging brother who has
gone thru the experience of allegedly being "regenerated" in infancy, and then
was actually born again later on.
>>
Brother:
What
strange things constitute religion as devised by men. The heresy of infant
"baptism" has far-reaching effects, both here and in eternity. You would
think that common sense, illustrated by experience, (to say nothing of
Scripture!), would be sufficient to teach men the perniciousness of such
error.
I was reared in a godless home, never knowing my parents or
siblings to attend church. HOWEVER, when I was two weeks old my parents,
along with "god parents" carried me into an Episcopal Church in Cincinnati (our
home town), where a "priest' administered "baptism" to me! Strange, for I
do not remember it at all! My "baptismal" record indicates
that I became a child of God, was regenerated, had my sins remitted,
and received the Holy Ghost! All with a few drops of
water!
Needless to say, none of it "took," for I quickly confirmed the
Scripture, "The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon
as they be born, speaking lies"(Ps 58:3) It was not until 23 years later
that God took over, and all that supposedly happened in 1929 DID HAPPEN in 1952,
THANK GOD! And all that without benefit of a "priest," for the great High
Priest from heaven elected and called me with a "holy calling" which cannot be
revoked! Think of that!
However sad and tragic as all this is, it
serves to further demonstrate the blindness which possesses the unregenerate
man, for, indeed unless one is born "from above" he cannot "see" or enter the
kingdom of heaven.
Sola gratia,
A. J. A. (Ohio)
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