What is the spiritual condition of infants? According to the Augustinian-Calvinist view, all people inherit from the first Adam both a sinful nature and his guilt. The result is that all infants are subject to the judgment of God against their nature before they knowingly commit any sinful actions. But is this the clear teaching of Scripture? In The Spiritual Condition of Infants, Adam Harwood examines ten relevant biblical texts and the writings of sixteen theologians in order to clarify the spiritual condition of infants. Although no passage explicitly states the spiritual condition of infants, each text makes contributions by addressing the doctrines of man, sin, the church, and salvation. If this biblical-historical analysis exposes the traditional Augustinian-Calvinist view to be inadequate, then is it possible to construct an alternate view of the spiritual condition of infants? Such a view should remain faithful to the biblical emphasis on humankind's connection to Adam and his sin but also recognize the guilt and condemnation of an individual only in the manner and time that God does in Scripture. That is the aim of this book.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1874 edition. Excerpt: ...And it is of the same prac: tical importance, as a symbolic rite, in the one case as in the other. But this "rite," to he of any practical importance to the child, must be explained to him, and its significance shown, together with the advantages of Church-membership, into which the "rite" inducts him. The Church of God has ever been one; and as infant Church-membership existed under the old dispensation, and has never been abolished under the new, it must still exist. And as infants were admitted to membership in the Jewish Church by the "rite of circumcision," so they are admitted into the Church of the New Testament by the "rite of Christian baptism." "Baptism" takes the place of the former "seal;" and as that seal was applied to the children of Abraham, baptism, as the New Testament seal, is applied to our infant children. Baptized children are members of Christ's Church; not because " tradition" has so regarded them; not because the theory of the Church has pronounced them such; but because Christ has constituted them such by his commandment, and because the apostles recognized them as such. The difference between the Jewish child and the heathen child only respected their relative privileges in reference to the instrumental means of enlightenment. The Jewish child was in the Church, and had a right to religious culture, while the heathen child was out in the darkness of ignorance, and without the "light of revealed truth." They were both equally dear to God, and equally the subjects of redemption by the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Precisely so is the difference between the "baptized" and the wibaptized child: the...

a young Southern Baptist scholar challenges an historic Reformed doctrine

With the input of a group of child-care professionals, Judith Allen Shelly describes the spiritual development of children, explains how to recognize and meet their needs, and suggests responses to the hard questions children often ask when they are sick.