rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "From Someone in WELS":
There are also other little odd variants of UOJ which emanate from the Reformed camp, naturally. One that I heard was some nonsense called "salvific knowledge". Some Babtists use it as just another reason to withhold the Sacrament of Holy Baptism from infants. Their reasoning is that since infants are not developed intellectually, therefore they cannot know that they are saved, even if they are baptized. The Means of Grace are given short shrift, as comprehension is made a factor in salvation. It is akin to the false doctrine of the age of accountability. If it all sounds confusing, you are correct. It is.
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GJ - When the daughter of a Baptist asked me about babies being able to believe, I asked her:
"Have you witnessed me baptizing babies?"
"Yes."
"What often happens when I hold the baby for the baptism itself?"
"He cries."
"Why?"
"He doesn't trust you."
"And when I hand him back to his mother? What happens then?"
"He stops crying."
"Why?"
"He trusts his mother."
"So you are saying that tiny babies know enough to trust their mothers and not trust a stranger, but they are unable to trust God?"
"I see."
Luther said to some adults who claimed that babies could not reason, "You can reason and you still don't believe."
Comprehension is an interesting concept with babies. They are born with a PhD in psychology, as proven by the expert way they handle their parents. This capacity is lost just in time to raise children, unfortunately.
I have known a number of late-talking children. Tis funny how everyone wants children to behave according to norms. Late-talking babies are usually boys, often math and computer geniuses. Thomas Sowell's son was one, so he wrote two books about the phenomenon. One late-talking boy unleashed a torrent of words once he began to talk, making his mother laugh. She was all worked up about norms before that. One late-talking girl was clearly able to talk but always resisting while showing a definite streak of mischief. She did very unusual tricks on the computer as a tiny child, once erasing a program while two of us were at computer but busy talking. I looked down the hall as the files disappeared and said, "Did you do that?" She doubled over laughing.
Baptists deny the astonishing capacity of babies to know, understand, comprehend, and believe, not just the same as adults, but better in many ways. Most troubling is how "conservative" Lutheran leaders have jumped in the sack with the Baptists - Rick Warren, C. Peter Wagner, Ed Stetzer, Andy Stanley.
Babies do not believe, these leaders of Lutheran lupines claim, but Jesus said, "Unless you believe as a child, you shall not enter the Kingdom of God."
