This is where you and I will never come to terms - The Strongs Exhaustive Concordance and Dictionary, that I use for my study and seems to be held in good regard in the Christian Community, defines Repent as it is used in Acts 2:38 - as "to think differently, reconsider" an infant cannot think differently, and and infant has nothing to reconsider.
Strong's is held in good regard by the credobaptist community because it is skewed toward the credobaptist position. "Metanoia" simply means to turn around or turn from one path to another. An infant may not have the mental capacity to change their way of thinking, but God is certainly capable of granting them the gift of turning from the natural path to eternal death to the path of everlasting life. This is really not so strange, is it? It is the same gift God gives to adults. Unless God grants repentance, that is, contrition and faith in Christ, not even an adult can be converted from old man to new, from death to life, from unbeliever to believer.
Repentance is initially given us by God, yet you are correct in believing that we continually live in repentance as Christians. We must daily turn from unbelief, sin and false gods and back toward faith in the sufficiency of Christ's works and merits alone for our salvation. The good works God does through us are the fruit of his gift of repentance. God plants the seed of repentance, as it were, which grows, develops, matures and eventually produces fruit. In the same way, an infant granted new birth in Holy Baptism receives all the gifts God has to give in their nascent form, and as the child grows and develops, the faith and repentance granted them by God grows and develops as well.
Isn't it a fallacious conclusion to believe in something you can provide no evidence for? In the court of law they will throw a case out for "lack of evidence."
Thankfully, a biblical understanding of baptism has been sufficient evidence for believers to bring their children to God for baptism since the beginning of the Church.
I find it so strange that you quote concupiscence here. And that may just be my personal experience. Concupiscence I suppose could just be lust, but then just say human lust - In all my time in both the church and academia concupiscence is always in reference to an extreme sexual lust - surely that is not what are little babies are repenting from!
Concupiscence.
The word concupiscentia is used in the
Lat. text of
AC II in the definition of
original sin.* Ger. text: “voll böser Lust und Neigung.” Following
Augustine* of Hippo,
Bonaventura,* Hugh* of St. Victor, and others, Ap II says that concupiscence seeks and loves carnal things (not only sinful lusts of the body but also carnal wisdom and righteousness), ignores and despises God, lacks fear and trust in Him, hates His judgment and flees it, is angry at Him, despairs of His mercy, and trusts in temporal things (
Ro 7:7,
23;
1 Co 2:14); it rejects the claim that concupiscence is a penalty and not a sin.
W. Elert, Morphologie des Luthertums, I (Munich, 1931; 1952 print.), 25–31,
tr. W. A. Hansen, The Structure of Lutheranism, I (St. Louis, 1962), 28–35.
Where in scripture do you ever see someone "repented" by God - God grants repentance to those who seek it, he is not thrusting repentance on anyone.
I see it in every case.
Romans 3 (Quoting Psalm 14)
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
Psalm 127
Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
What was the "prick" they felt in their heart in Acts 2:37? After Peter explained to them their error they were "pricked" was it not the realization of their "sinful state" before they repented or were baptized, or received the Holy Ghost? Why would anyone get baptized - seek out cleansing - if they could not first recognize that they were sinful - dirty?
It was God acting through the proclamation of his word to grant them repentance. Unless God gives them to Jesus, they will never come to him (John 6:37). I have quoted several scriptures in previous posts that clearly, unequivocally state that natural man is hostile to God, he cannot even understand spiritual things because God has not yet opened his mind to believe. Man's will is naturally turned away from God. In granting repentance, God acts to turn his will away from death and toward new life in Christ.
"It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this" So I would suppose you are going to tell me that this infant, who doesn't know his own name - believes that if he has his parents carry him into the church and a strange man splashes some water on him he has now received forgiveness of sins, he is rescued from death and the devil, and that he now has eternal salvation! And again that is where you and I will never agree. Luther already stated baptism is effective to all who believe this, yet I cannot see how a knowledgeable adult can assume that level of belief of an infant!
We have given several scriptural references that clearly state that infants can have faith. Even the prenatal faith granted to John the Baptizer was clearly demonstrated.
The infant believes at a level commensurate with his ability, as do people of every age. There is really no difference. The infant, the child, the adolescent, the young adult, the mature adult, the aged adult - they all have different capacities and abilities to be aware of their sinfulness and grieve over them, as well as to believe, to trust, to rely on the grace and mercy of Christ alone for their salvation.
The infant can be demonstrated to trust. Infants trust their parents, especially their mothers, to nourish and protect them. If left alone they will cry out for comfort from a trusted parent. What is faith in Christ other than trust?
<< in regards to moving on.
