tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4385083746048472996.post6348552870712948913..comments2024-03-22T17:35:43.879-04:00Comments on Growing Christian Resources: Comparing Old and New Testament Salvationmahlonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16398857921080520475noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4385083746048472996.post-54062788315536311852013-09-12T22:58:34.607-04:002013-09-12T22:58:34.607-04:00Thank you Gary for responding. As I read over wha...Thank you Gary for responding. As I read over what I wrote, I realized that I could had done a better job in how I worded the piece. I'm not sure where you saw me implying that Abraham and his descendants were saved by circumcision, unless its due to the ambiguity that does seem to exist where I'm writing about circumcision of the heart and the rite of circumcision itself. If that is the cause of confusion, I apologize. My whole point in the piece was to show how circumcision of the heart was a Old Testament version of the far greater and more glorious work of the New Birth that is granted in the New Covenant. Please re-read the footnotes. I probably should had placed that material in the main body of the piece. Anyhow, I would be anxious to hear your take on Sola Fide and Justification. I would like to check out your blog site to see where you're coming from so I can better understand your theological approach. I've read the Formula of Concord and and am an admirer of Martin Luther and the Reformation, and even have a good friend who is Lutheran. I am always willing to learn and be sharpened in the scriptures and hope we can interact more. Thanks for the response and God bless!mahlonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16398857921080520475noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4385083746048472996.post-19547219038090641402013-09-12T20:15:10.392-04:002013-09-12T20:15:10.392-04:00Hebrew children in the Old Testament were born int...Hebrew children in the Old Testament were born into God's covenant, both male and female. Circumcision was the sign of this covenant for boys, but the sign was not what saved them. Faith saved them. Rejecting the sign, circumcision, for boys, either by the parents or later as an adult himself, was a sign of a lack of true faith, and therefore the child was "cut off" from God's promises as clearly stated in Genesis chapter 17:<br /><br /> "Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”<br /><br />What was the purpose of this covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? God tells us in the beginning of this chapter of Genesis:<br /><br />"And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you." <br /><br /> This covenant wasn't just to establish a Jewish national identity or a promise of the inheritance of the land of Caanan, as some evangelicals want you to believe. In this covenant, God promises to be their God. Does God say here that he will be their God only if they make a "decision for God" when they are old enough to have the intelligence and maturity to decide for themselves? No! They are born into the covenant!<br /><br /> If Jewish children grew up trusting in God and lived by faith, they then received eternal life when they died. If when they grew up, they rejected God, turned their back on God, and lived a life of willful sin, when they died, they suffered eternal damnation. Salvation was theirs to LOSE. There is no record anywhere in the Bible that Jewish children were required to make a one time "decision for God" upon reaching an "Age of Accountability" in order to be saved.<br /><br /> Therefore Jewish infants who died, even before circumcision, were saved.<br /> <br /> The same is true today. Christian children are born into the covenant. They are saved by faith. It is not the act of baptism that saves, it is faith. The refusal to be baptized is a sign of a lack of true faith and may result in the child being "cut off" from God's promise of eternal life, to suffer eternal damnation, as happened with the unfaithful Hebrew in the OT.<br /><br /> Christ said, "He that believes and is baptized will be saved, but he that does not believe will be damned."<br /><br />It is not the lack of baptism that damns, it is the lack of faith that damns. <br /><br />Gary<br />Luther, Baptists, and Evangelicals <br />An orthodox Lutheran blogGaryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02519721717265344702noreply@blogger.com