just a thought (uh, oh)

Yay! I finished my two overdue essays. This warrants some quality time with my blog.
I know I'm probably going to get burned for this, but Asher Dreise and I have been lightly conversing on the topics of the Holy Spirit and baptism---highly radioactive territory, I am well aware. But this is just something to chew.
Does the Bible ever mention anything about sprinking water on the heads of believers (let alone babies)? New Testament baptisms involved immersing the faithful in a body of water; under and up again, so as to mimic the waters of the womb from whence we are first come into the world. Have babies not just come from the womb? I fully awknowledge the Doctrine of Original Sin, but does a re-birth not imply a knowing decision to be reborn as a new creature in Christ? Does the Spirit not first convict us of our sin so that we might repent and then be reborn? Spirit directs, we are the ones who must chose to follow.
Babies are not conscious of their inherent sin. They cannot keep God's commandments and know nothing of voluntary love. "If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever---the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you" (John 14:15-17). And, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him" (John 14:23). As well, do newborns have the capacity to believe, the faculty and gift of faith? ("But the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those wo heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest..." [Hebrews 4:2]) First faith and love, then cleansing and indwelling (which, in turn, breeds further faith and love). People baptized as babies will often live years in sin, without repenting, without understanding and walking "in newness of life". But, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised form the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man [preconversion life] was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin" (Romans 6:1-6). If we receive the Holy Spirit from baptism at birth and then live a life of sin, what then? Hebrews addresses this dilemma as follows: "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame(!) For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned" (Hebrews 6:4-8).
It must be noted that the passage prior to this in Hebrews had something to say about the debate surrounding baptism. We'd all (yes including me) do well to remember it ;o). "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on the perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment" (Hebrews 5:12-6:2).