Sunday, June 29, 2008

Quote Unquote - F.F. Bruce

The late Professor Bruce, noted classical scholar, biblical critic and exegete, at the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester wrote of his own church in Sheffield:

A number of the older members had received 'household baptism' in their infancy, whereas the dominant practice by our time had become baptism on personal confession of faith. But the two understandings of the proper subjects of baptism coexisted peacefully; there was no attempt of coercion of conscience on one side or the other.
So it ought to be.

When the elders declined on health grounds, to add believers baptism to the experience of a very frail old lady who had previously experienced household baptism;

I am sure they were right in principle; I have never been an Anabaptist.

What illustrious company to keep!

1 comment:

That Hideous Man said...

Bruce, F.F. "In Retrospect: Remembrance of Things Past". (Glasgow: Pickering & Inglis, 1980) p147-8.