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The Baptism of Disciples Alone: A Covenantal Argument for Credobaptism Versus Paedobaptism by Fred A. Malone is one of the best books I have read on Believer’s Baptism. Malone does an excellent job putting together all the exegetical arguments against Paedobaptism while arguing from a Covental perspective. In Malone’s eyes, the consistent covenant-theologian will affirm Credobaptism, not Paedobaptism.
Credo is Latin for “creed,” it is a statement of the beliefs or aims that guide someone’s actions. Credobaptism, therefore, is the view that only those who confess Christ are eligible for baptism. This is the understanding that being a disciple of Jesus must precede baptism. This is at odds with the Paedobaptist position, (Paedo is the British spelling of the prefix that means “children”), which affirms that children of believing parents should be baptized.
What makes the New Covenant better than the Old Covenant is that Jesus is the mediator (Heb. 7:22; 8:6). If Jesus is the mediator on behalf of all who are in the New Covenant of His blood and in union with Himself, then it is only those who should receive the sign of the New Covenant. Being a mediator of a covenant means He intercedes for those under that covenant and according to the author of Hebrews, these are the only ones who will be saved.
Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
– Hebrews 7:25
This is the covenant Jeremiah was speaking of. In this new and better covenant, the Covenant of Jesus’ blood, all who are members of it will personally know God savingly, “from the least of them to the greatest of them.”
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
– Jeremiah 31:33-34
It is therefore only consistent to give the covenantal sign of baptism to those who belong to the New Covenant. The church is certainly mixed, having true believers and false believers in its midst. This will be the case until Jesus comes and sorts the wheat and the weeds (Matt. 13:24-30). But this does not mean that unbelievers, those who do not exercise faith in Christ (like, infants), are in the New Covenant community. As the Apostle John notes; “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19).
This is a great book and will be a helpful resource for all wanting a better understanding of Baptist theology. If you are coming out of a Paedobaptist background this book will serve you well.