Can Christians Breed Christians? or, Does God Have Grandchildren?

If two Christian people who have bred children can not call their children “Christian” this, by necessity, means that they are to think of their children and call their children “Satan Spawn.” If two Christians can’t breed Christians and if there is no such thing as neutrality then two Christians who breed children breed Satan Spawn.

And yet the Scripture states that the promise of the covenant is for you and for your children. The Scripture has all those household baptisms and in household baptisms if there were children in the household they would have been baptized.

Now, what of the problem that some of these Christian children will forsake the covenant promises? Well, for them we would say that they were “Christian” in name only. Still, as Hebrews teaches they had a relation to the covenant and so were God’s people inasmuch as they stood in the outward administration of the covenant. Just as not all of Israel was of Israel, so not all called Christian were of Christ. They may not have had the essence of the covenant (Christ) but they were in the outward administration of the covenant and so were thought of and properly called “Christian.”

Two Christian people can only breed Christians.

Baptists hate this because they insist that we should not think that God unilaterally saves babies. Baptists think that Babies should not be raised being told that they are “Christians,” because they were Baptized according to God’s promise and command. Instead Baptists tell their children that they one day can be Christian if they just make a decision for Christ, completely disregarding that Christ has already made a decision for the Babies who were bred by Christian parents as seen by placing those Christian babies in a Christian home with Christian parents. All of this bespeaks of the atomistic individuality and lack of covenantal awareness that plagues Baptists.

On this subject, John Calvin observed,

“Baptism, viewed in regard to us, is a passive work: we bring nothing to it but faith; and all that belongs to it is laid up in Christ.” But, our Baptist friends might ask,  “how can a child bring faith to baptism? Calvin answer, “Those who were baptized when mere infants, God regenerates in childhood or adolescence, occasionally even in old age,” as the seed of faith is planted in the heart of the covenant child. “Infants are renewed by the Spirit of God according to the capacity of their age, till that power which was concealed within them grows by degrees, and becomes fully manifest at the proper time,” Calvin wrote. None of the reformers believed that this was an optional sacrament any more than was circumcision in the Old Testament. Calvin stated, “Whoever, having neglected baptism, feigns himself to be contented with the bare promise, tramples as much as in him lies, upon the blood of Christ, or at least does not suffer it to flow for the washing of his own children. Therefore just punishment follows the contempt of the sign, in the privation of grace because the covenant of God is violated” (Institutes, Book 4, chapters 15 & 16).

Must our babies be born again?

Certainly… but why should we think that being born again isn’t routinely ratified in the waters of Holy Baptism? Why shouldn’t we give our babies the judgment of charity and call them “Christian,” as opposed to the Baptist insistence that the judgment should be that the children of two Christians are “Satan spawn,” until they can be convinced to “ask Jesus into their hearts?”

The inherent problem here is that Baptists look at Baptism as their work, their commitment, their promise and in order for Baptism to have efficacy or meaning their children must choose Baptism for themselves. However, in the Biblical view Baptism is not primarily about our commitment, our promises, or our decision. Baptism is God’s work. He is the one who is active in Baptism. He is doing all the doing. Sure, parents make promises when they bring their children to be baptized but those promises are only in light of God’s greater promises to be our God and take us as His people. Because Christians believe that God is faithful to a thousand generations we do believe that God has grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren, etc.. We do believe that a Christian Daddy and Mommy can breed Christians. We believe to believe otherwise is to call God’s covenant faithfulness into question.

Yes, Christian parents of Christian babies are to teach the children they have a sin nature. We are to teach them that in Adam’s fall we fell all. We teach them that the only cure for our sin nature is Christ. We teach them that they must grow up putting to death the old man. However, unlike Baptists, we teach them that in Word and Sacrament they are reminded and assured that Christ’s death and all His gifts are for them. We and our children, have an assurance that is objective to us in Word and Sacrament. We are not finding our assurance in our own remembered faith commitment. We are finding our assurance in our God and the God of our parents in Word and Sacrament.

So, for young parents, you can breed Christians and you can believe the promise is to you and to your children. You can believe God is so faithful to your generations that He is indeed a grandfather many times over. You can believe this because throughout both Old and New Testaments, God delights in calling himself the father of future generations (see Ex 20:6, 31:13; Dt 7:9; Ps 22:30, 31:11, 45:17, 89:1, 90:1, 100:5, 105:8, 119:90, 145:13; Is 51:8; Lk 1:48; Phil 3:5, 21; Col 1:26).  Clearly, God has Christians breeding Christians and is comfortable in being a Grandfather.