20 July, 2005

Bethany...Sad, Sad, Bethany.

Caption:
Don't let that fraud baptize me! I was supposed to go to a CHRISTIAN FAMILY!

Its sad to say, but Bethany Christian Services has given in to the pressures of a post-modern ecumanical church. Lord Jesus come quickly!


A controversial adoption policy has been changed at Bethany Christian Services.
24 Hour News 8 reported last week about the organization's Mississippi branch refusing to allow a Catholic couple to adopt a child. A spokesman for the home office in Grand Rapids said he would not say that what the Mississippi office did was wrong.
Now the board of directors of that branch has voted unanimously to include Catholic families in all adoption programs.
In addition, the national board has agreed to do the same.

16 comments:

Eva Lemmon..? said...

Nuts!

Eva Lemmon..? said...

Nuts!

Anonymous said...

How unfortunate.

Anonymous said...

Would you say that a child adopted from a single mother is better off with a stable catholic family with two parents, or a crack house? Or being raised by a day care center while it's single mother works 40/7?

I think there are worse things than having unwanted babies get adopted by a Roman Catholic family.

~Angie

Anonymous said...

I see little difference between a papist household and a crack house. Neither is centered on Christ and neither direct a child to service of our Lord.

Eva Lemmon..? said...

The poor kid will end up swearing a bule streak in the name of evangelism!
Not only that but some creepy priest will always be hovering about saying "my child.."

Anonymous said...

Nope, sorry, can't agree. I'm a commited member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, though raised in a Roman Catholic home. I was adpoted at three months by a loving family who provided stability and security, which was far more than my biological mother could ever have given.

Such comments obviously spring from a lack of experience with the wider world.

~Angie

NPE said...

oh angela my presbyterian sister. my wife, also presbyterian, also raised by Roman Catholics, also adpoted....
I do have some as you say, "experience".

The differences are of carnal and earthly things..(yet good in a common grace sense), but spiritually both are without Christ.

Anonymous said...

if catholics are without Christ, why does your church consider a catholic baptism legitmate?

Anonymous said...

I don't know Nate, does the ARP accept papal baptism. It seems to me that protestant churches shouldn't accept anything from the papacy and should in fact require converted papists to be baptised. The elders should probably examine them and require a profession of faith, though they might do that by default with anyone who is new.

NPE said...

I hope that this is a beginning: Baptism is not be readministered. Here are two historical sources:


Calvin's Institutes 4.15.16

Ignorant or even contemptuous as those who baptised us were of God and all piety, they did not baptize us into the fellowship of either their ignorance or sacrilege, but into faith in Jesus Christ, because it was not their own name but God's that they invoked, and they baptized us into no other name. But if it was the baptism of God, it surely had, enclosed in itself, the promise of forgiveness of sins, mortification of the flesh, spiritual vivification, and the participation of Christ. Thus it was no hindrance to the Jew to be circumcised by impure and apostate priests; nor was the sign therefore void so that it had to be repeated, but it was a sufficient means by which to return TO THE REAL SOURCE.



Westminster Confession on Baptism:

I. Baptism is a sacrament of the new testament, ordained by Jesus Christ,[1] not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible church;[2] but also, to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace,[3] of his ingrafting into Christ,[4] of regeneration,[5] of remission of sins,[6] and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in newness of life.[7] Which sacrament is, by Christ's own appointment, to be continued in his church until the end of the world.[8]

1. Matt. 28:19
2. I Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27-28
3. Rom. 4:11; Col. 2:11-12
4. Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:5
5. John 3:5; Titus 3:5
6. Mark 1:4; Acts 2:38; 22:16
7. Rom. 6:3-4
8. Matt. 28:19-20

II. The outward element to be used in this sacrament is water, wherewith the party is to be baptized, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, by a minister of the gospel, lawfully called thereunto.[9]

9. Acts 8:36, 38; 10:47; Matt. 28:19

III. Dipping of the person into the water is not necessary; but baptism is rightly administered by pouring, or sprinkling water upon the person.[10]

10. Heb. 9:10, 13, 19, 21; Mark 7:2-4; Luke 11:38

IV. Not only those that do actually profess faith in and obedience unto Christ,[11] but also the infants of one, or both, believing parents, are to be baptized.[12]

11. Acts 2:41; 8:12-13; 16:14-15
12. Gen. 17:7-14; Gal. 3:9, 14; Col. 2:11-12; Acts 2:38-39; Rom. 4:11-12; Matt. 19:13; 28:19; Mark 10:13-16; Luke 18:15-17; I Cor. 7:14

V. Although it be a great sin to contemn or neglect this ordinance,[13] yet grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed unto it, as that no person can be regenerated, or saved, without it;[14] or, that all that are baptized are undoubtedly regenerated.[15]

13. Gen. 17:14; Matt. 28:19; Acts 2:38; see Luke 7:30
14. Rom. 4:11; Acts 10:2, 4, 22, 31, 45, 47
15. Acts 8:13, 23

VI. The efficacy of baptism is not tied to that moment of time wherein it is administered;[16] yet, notwithstanding, by the right use of this ordinance, the grace promised is not only offered, but really exhibited, and conferred, by the Holy Ghost, to such (whether of age or infants) as that grace belongeth unto, according to the counsel of God's own will, in his appointed time.[17]

16. John 3:5, 8
17. Rom. 6:3-6; Gal. 3:27; I Peter 3:21; Acts 2:38, 41

VII. The sacrament of baptism is but once to be administered unto any person.[18]

18. Rom. 6:3-11

Eva Lemmon..? said...

Angie, I have known Catholic kids.
Most of them swore a blue streak.
But there are always exceptions, and I am happy for your wonderful upbringing in a stable home.

Anonymous said...

Fair enough. I suppose we could get into all sorts of little arguments over this one. It seems to me that if the Westminster Confession doesn't call on former papists to be re-baptised it's good enough for me, at least so long as the papists aren't baptising in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit and John Ratzzinger.

Anonymous said...

You mean Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI).

Anonymous said...

Yeah, him. John Ratzinger is Norm on Cheers now that I think about it.

Anonymous said...

wrong again notliberal ratzinger is cliff...
go blue