Intro: On Wednesday March 12, we began at the Mission a 6 week Bible Class, The 6 Building Blocks, a review of each of the 6 Chief Parts of The Small Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther. Below is the outline of the fourth session.-Pr. Schroeder
Merciful Father, through Holy Baptism You called us to be Your own possession. Grant that our lives may evidence the working of Your Holy Spirit in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, according to the image of Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior.
From The Lutheran Service Book: Holy Baptism, page 268ff, Luther’s “Flood Prayer”:
Almighty and eternal God, according to Your strict judgment You condemned the unbelieving world through the flood, yet according to Your great mercy You preserved believing Noah and his family, eight souls in all. You drowned hard-hearted Pharaoh and all his host in the Red Sea, yet led Your people Israel through the water on dry ground, prefiguring this washing of Your Holy Baptism. Through the Baptism in the Jordan of Your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, You sanctified and instituted all waters to be a blessed flood, and a lavish washing away of sin.
We pray that You would behold name according to Your boundless mercy and bless him with true faith by the Holy Spirit that through this saving flood all sin in him which has been inherited from Adam and which he himself has committed since would be drowned and die. Grant that he be kept safe and secure in the holy ark of the Christian Church, being separated from the multitude of unbelievers and serving Your name at all times with a fervent spirit and a joyful hope, so that, with all believers in Your promise, he would be declared worthy of eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
1) Pray the Fourth Chief Part
i) Emphasis of Sections:
(a) Institution of the Sacrament of Holy Baptism God’s Name: See St. Matthew 28: 19; Numbers 6: 22-27
(b) Relation to Second Commandment, 1st Article of the Creed, and 1st Petition of the Lord’s Prayer
(c) Actual Water
2) Types of Sacraments in General: see Numbers 21:8-10
(a) Old Testament Type of Holy Baptism: see 2 Kings 5: 1-15 “At first, Naaman was furious, thinking that God should use a more spiritual means of cleansing. Yet God willed to attach His Word to the ordinary water of the Jordan.”
(b) Time-conditioned Sacraments
(c) Definition of Sacrament: Christ’s command, Christ’s promise, a visible element (water, wine, bread),
(d) Summation of Bible regarding water and the Word: Luther’s Flood Prayer, see above
3) Question: Can infants and children be baptized?
(a) See St. Matthew 28: 19: “all nations” include infants and children, otherwise our Lord would have said, baptize all adults; see St. Mark 10: 13-16: even adults who are baptized are baptized as children See Acts 2: 39; Acts 16: 15, 33
(b) Denial of Baptism is denial three key Christian Doctrines:
- Doctrine of Original Sin, “If you don’t believe in the doctrine of original sin, then have children” Tree and fruit, so-called “age of accountablility”
- See: Psalm 51: 5; Romans 5: 12, 18-19; Ephesians 2: 3 & 5
- Doctrine of Faith: See Ephesians 2: 8-9; St. Luke 1: 41-44
- Doctrine of God’s Work confused as man’s work. Who asked to be born? Birth is something that is given, just as the New Birth, Baptism: See St. John 3: 5-6; 1 Peter 1: 3, Titus 3: 5-8; Galatians 3: 25-27 One Baptism continued from this life to the next, Romans 6: 3-11, see 3rd Article of the Creed, the resurrection of the body. See last paragraph of Luther’s explanation
Close with The Lord’s Prayer
There’s an unfortunate typo in your reference to Luther’s Flood Prayer. It should be “drowned hard-hearted Pharaoh” and not “drowned heart-hearted Pharaoh”. Lutheran Service Book page 268 uses “hard-hearted Pharaoh”. Don’t feel too bad. Various sources on the internet use “heart-hearted”. I have a print hanging at my work desk and just noticed it says “heart-hearted”.
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Thank-you, Erik for pointing this out! I have corrected the article.
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