Ian in Greensboro, North Carolina asks this,

Pastor John, is I've explored reformed theology over the past couple of years.

I've learned quite a bit about the practices of infant baptism and believers baptism

and why genuine Christians differ theologically here.

While I'm an advocate of believers baptism,

one accusation I've found troubling is that because we baptism

don't consider our unconverted children as official participants in the

new covenant, we are therefore treating them like pagan children excluded from

the covenant community. As a Baptist, how do you respond to this charge and

further how should yet unsaved children of believers be viewed by the church?

Before I say something positive about the way we should view our children,

we meaning we baptists, let's make sure that we realize that both

baptists and reformed pido-baptists, and I'm not talking here about those who

believe in baptismal regeneration, but just those who are reformed pido-baptists

or others who don't believe in baptismal new birth, we all have the same

basic problem in how to think about our children and the difference lies in

terminology. Now they may not like it when I say this, but say it anyway. In order

for reformed pido-baptists, baptized babies, to say that children are members of

the covenant community, they must define covenant community so as not to

necessarily mean only the elect, called, regenerate, heaven-bound saints. They

have to define covenant community so as to allow for the possibility in that

covenant community members who are not elect, not born again. Now it's just as

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