Odds and Ends

No word on the missing 'Burb yet (thanks for asking, Annette). The insurance company said they'd wait 30 days before considering it a write-off. We've been trying to remember what we left in the thing. Not much, thankfully. Josh realized on Tuesday morning that his math book was in the Suburban. That's inconvienent, but not a tragedy in his world.

Speaking of tragedy, Juanita and I have been talking about the fact that it is not a big deal to lose our Suburban. We appreciate the concern that people have expressed to us, but this is not in the same league as a serious illness, injury or even a house fire. It's a little bother in the grand scheme of things.

Jumping to another topic, I recently did a brief post on baptism. Two commenters unknown to me asked good questions. Ntutak asked about our church recognizing a different mode for believer's baptism. This is a tough one for me personally. I don't represent Terry Stauffer as pastor, but Edson Baptist Church. Of course I represent Jesus Christ and His Word, but in that I am not any differernt from other Christians. As a representative of Edson Baptist, I have to stand by our statement of faith, which says immersion is baptism.

Laura asked about infant baptism. Are Christians who have only been baptized as infants living in disobedience? The short answer to this is, "No," but they couldn't be members of a Baptist church (barring innovative exceptions in some churches). That's not the end of the world, contrary to the opinion of some Baptists - including Baptists that she has apparently encountered (maybe that's what you get for living in Louisville).

I will make an exception to that disobedience answer, however. If a person has been baptized as an infant and is convinced theologically that this is the biblical position, then they should seek out fellowship in a Gospel-teaching paedobaptist local church. If an infant-baptized person is convinced that baptism of disciples alone is the biblical pattern, then they ought to go ahead and be baptized. If they are a Baptist by conviction and unbaptized, then they obviously are living in disobedience to Christ. This should be obvious, but I hope it answers the question.

As an addendum to this subject, let me recommend one of the best conversations that I've heard on cooperation among Christians. In this program, the Together for the Gospel friends - particularly Dr. Mohler - distinguish between different kinds of Christian cooperation. The MP3 is available for free at the 9 Marks website. The link is here. You can stream or download it.

There is an important tension to be maintained between a healthy, disciplined local church and a celebration of Christian unity across traditions. It is not always easy to know where that line lies.

I'm still having a hard time getting blogging time in. I did most of this post back on Tuesday, now here it is Saturday and I'm just getting it done. Life just gets in the way.

The distraction certainly isn't hockey. My Oilers are in the tank. Josh is quite philosophical about the Ryan Smyth trade. He likes the fact that they have 3 first round draft picks coming up (one from the Smyth trade), and Ryan O'Marra is nothing to sneeze at (15th in the 1st round in 2005). Robert Nilsson (the other Smyth component) and Rob Schremp have been going great guns with the Wilkes-Barre Penguins. The future should be interesting. They're playing Calgary tonight. Josh is rooting for them to get a goal. Just one goal. He's fully expecting them to lose tonight. Can't say I blame him.