Mediaeval
baptizatus sum
You are correct. I believe that all are redeemed children of God, for "all are His offspring," as the apostle Paul quotes approvingly from the heathen poet (Acts 17). Our Lord speaks of God being the Father even of those who are evil and taught Judas himself to address God as his Father (Matt. 6 & 7).
Maurice did not limit God's Fatherhood to the baptized. He wrote, "By baptism we claim the position which Christ has claimed for all mankind." The universal Fatherhood of God was one of Maurice's emphases:
"It seemed to me that except I could address all kinds of people as children of God and members of Christ, I could not address them at all. Their sin, it seemed to me, must mean a departure from that state; it must be their true state, that which Christ had claimed for them. I thought I had no Gospel for the sufferers in Guy's hospital, if it was not that."
"The bond which unites me to the Dissenter and the Secularist is the conviction that God is their Father as well as mine, in a Son of man, who is their​ ​Lord and mine. I cannot refuse to tell my children this."
Indeed I make "a distinction between people who are followers of Jesus and those who aren't." As Maurice explained, "What, then, do I assert? Is there no difference between the believer and the unbeliever? Yes, the greatest difference. But the difference is not about the fact, but precisely in the belief of the fact."
Where there is no distinction is in the facts of the Gospel. The facts are the same for all in the audience: God is our Father, Christ is our Savior in whom our sins are forgiven. Unless a man can believe this good news outright for himself, he will have no stable basis for assurance. He will always be searching for some grounds outside of the Gospel to give him sufficient warrant to believe the Gospel is true for him. I speak as a former Calvinist and a current sympathizer with those CF members who write of their struggles with assurance.
Maurice did not limit God's Fatherhood to the baptized. He wrote, "By baptism we claim the position which Christ has claimed for all mankind." The universal Fatherhood of God was one of Maurice's emphases:
"It seemed to me that except I could address all kinds of people as children of God and members of Christ, I could not address them at all. Their sin, it seemed to me, must mean a departure from that state; it must be their true state, that which Christ had claimed for them. I thought I had no Gospel for the sufferers in Guy's hospital, if it was not that."
"The bond which unites me to the Dissenter and the Secularist is the conviction that God is their Father as well as mine, in a Son of man, who is their​ ​Lord and mine. I cannot refuse to tell my children this."
Indeed I make "a distinction between people who are followers of Jesus and those who aren't." As Maurice explained, "What, then, do I assert? Is there no difference between the believer and the unbeliever? Yes, the greatest difference. But the difference is not about the fact, but precisely in the belief of the fact."
Where there is no distinction is in the facts of the Gospel. The facts are the same for all in the audience: God is our Father, Christ is our Savior in whom our sins are forgiven. Unless a man can believe this good news outright for himself, he will have no stable basis for assurance. He will always be searching for some grounds outside of the Gospel to give him sufficient warrant to believe the Gospel is true for him. I speak as a former Calvinist and a current sympathizer with those CF members who write of their struggles with assurance.
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