Questions About Baptism in the Heidelberg Catechism – Part 2

INTRODUCTION

This is the second in a series of five post evaluating the statements on baptism in the Heidelberg Catechism (HC) and probing the logic and coherence of those statements and their scriptural support as cited in the HC reference notes. Some statements appear inconsistent with other statements in the HC, or they cite scriptures out of context, or they lack scriptural support, or they appear problematic on other grounds. These posts do not address paedobaptist vs credobaptist arguments, but look only at the internal consistency and coherence of the arguments made in the HC. Questions as to what a sacrament is or how it functions are not addressed.

A slightly modified version of all five posts combined into one paper is available at the following link: The (In)Coherence of the Heidelberg Catechism on Baptism_bv

The teaching on baptism in the HC are contained in Question and Answer 69 through 74, in Lord’s Days 26 and 27. Each post in this series will cover one or more Question and Answer (Q&A) sets. The text of the HC Question and Answer is quoted and discussed, and the HC’s scripture citations are also quoted, using the NASB. Citations are expanded at times to provide context. The text of the HC quoted here are taken from the current Canadian Reformed Church online version.

The critiques on this blog of statements and claims in the Belgic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism are NOT directed primarily at the original authors of those documents. I believe that the original authors did their best to summarize the main Christian doctrines, based on their concerns and priorities, the extent of their knowledge, and the theological assumptions and paradigms of their time and place. What I am critiquing is the apparent failure of today’s Reformed community to review, update, revise and reform these documents to reflect the current state of knowledge in the various fields of Biblical studies (see also the ABOUT ASKING QUESTIONS page).

Question and Answer 70

70.         Question. What does it mean to be washed with Christ’s blood and Spirit?

Answer. To be washed with Christ’s blood means to receive forgiveness of sins from God, through grace, because of Christ’s blood, poured out for us in his sacrifice on the cross.1 To be washed with his Spirit means to be renewed by the Holy Spirit and sanctified to be members of Christ, so that more and more we become dead to sin and lead a holy and blameless life.2

1 Ezek 36:25; Zech 13:1; Eph 1:7; Heb 12:24; 1 Pet 1:2; Rev 1:5; Rev 7:14. 2 Jn 3:5-8; Rom 6:4; 1 Cor 6:11; Col 2:11-12.

Note 1 Scripture Citations

The first citation (Ezekiel 36:25) is a single verse in a much longer passage about God’s promise to regather the House of Israel from the nations to which they had been dispersed, to bring them into the New Covenant and forgive their sins, and to restore them as a nation to the their land. A  significant segment of the overall passage is quoted below to provide the context for the cited verse.

Ezekiel 36:25 (36:16 – 28): “ 16 Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, 17 “Son of man, when the house of Israel was living in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds; their way before Me was like the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity.18 Therefore I poured out My wrath on them for the blood which they had shed on the land, because they had defiled it with their idols. 19 Also I scattered them among the nations and they were dispersed throughout the lands. According to their ways and their deeds I judged them. 20 When they came to the nations where they went, they profaned My holy name, because it was said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord; yet they have come out of His land.’ 21 But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they went. 22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. 23 I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord,” declares the Lord God, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight.

    • 24 For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land.
    • 25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
    • 26 Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
    •  27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
    • 28 You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers;
    • so you will be My people, and I will be your God.”

It is very evident that this passage is part of a promise made by God to the physical House of Israel – a promise that expresses His covenant faithfulness to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants, and which is reiterated throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. This passage and the embedded cited text does not explicitly refer to the gentiles nor the blood of Jesus. To apply the cited text to being “washed with Christ’s blood” is to take this text out of context. Furthermore, its citation by the HC in this way implies a deeply supersesssionist misappropriation of the promises of God to Israel and their transfer to the Gentile Church.

If such a transfer to “the Church” is defended, then how and when was “the Church” guilty of the charge in verses 17-20: “…. when the house of Israel was living in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds; their way before Me was like the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity.18 Therefore I poured out My wrath on them for the blood which they had shed on the land, because they had defiled it with their idols. 19 Also I scattered them among the nations and they were dispersed throughout the lands. According to their ways and their deeds I judged them. 20 When they came to the nations where they went, they profaned My holy name, because it was said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord; yet they have come out of His land.’” ?

Zechariah 13:1:  “In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity.”

The problem with the citation from Zechariah 13 is the same as the previous citation from Ezekiel discussed above. Zechariah 13:1 describes events concerning the “House of David” and the “inhabitants of Jerusalem”. This text – like the previous one – is taken out of context by the HC and is mis-appropriated and mis-applied via a supersesssionist theological scheme. 

The four citations from the NT: Eph 1:7, Heb 12:24, 1 Pet 1:2, Rev 1:5, and Rev. 7:14 all appear appropriate to their intended purpose. These citations alone would have been quite adequate to support the first half of HC Answer 70. By citing the Hebrew prophets out of context, the HC raises questions about how it understands and interprets scripture.

Note 2 Scripture Citations

John 3:5-8: “ 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit. 9 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?”

Romans 6:4: “ 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. “

1 Corinthians 6:11: “ Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”

Col 2:11-12: “ 11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; 12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. “

In the John 3 citation Jesus speaks of the need to be “born of water and the Spirit” or to be “born again” (or: “born from above”). Since Jesus expected Nicodemus to understand what he was saying, Jesus’s source for his words must be the Hebrew Scriptures. A likely source is Ezekiel 36:25-27:

    • 25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
    • 26 Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
    • 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.  

In the above text, “sprinkled water” effects a cleansing from sin while the Spirit effects a radical change of the heart enabling obedience; both aspects are sovereign actions of God. Together they constitute what Jesus describes as being “born again”. As discussed above under the “Note 1 Scripture Citations” this is embedded in a much longer passage describing the New Covenant promised to the House of Israel. The meaning of the HC’s phrase “to be renewed by the Holy Spirit”, based on their citation of John 3:5-8, presumably corresponds to what Jesus calls being “born again”.    

The cited texts from Romans, 1 Corinthians, and Colossians each speak in somewhat different ways about the new birth that Jesus taught in John 3, as noted above. Colossians 2:11-12 in particular describes the new birth as the “circumcision of Christ” which is “a circumcision made without hands” effecting “the removal of the body of the flesh”, which evidently is the same as the “circumcision of the heart” spoken of by Moses in Deuteronomy 30:6 “Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live”, and which is reflected in the descriptions of the promised New Covenant for the House of Israel in Jeremiah (31:33-34) and Ezekiel (36:24-28).

It is remarkable that while so many of the scriptures cited in the HC deal in one way or another with the New Covenant, the HC in Lord’s Day 26 and 27, while mentioning it once in Answer 74, does not discuss it.