Children of The Covenant

When we plead God's covenant with Abraham (Genesis 17) as the Scriptural foundation for baptizing the infants of belivers under the Gospel, we proceed upon these four principles. No credobaptist has ever mounted a case against these four points. .

1. 
   
   God's covenant with Abraham is the same in substance as the covenant we are under as believers (Luke 1:54-74; Matthew 21:41,43; Romans 11:16,17; Galatians 3:8, 14, 16; Ephesians 2:13; Hebrews 6:13-18).
2. 
   
   In Abraham's covenant, infant were included with their parents and received the sign and seal of the covenant (Genesis 17:9).
3. 
   
   The promises to Abraham and his seed descends  in substance to believers and their seed (Acts 2:38,39). The covenant sign has been changed in the New Testament to baptism (Colossians 2:11,12).
4. 
   
   None of the promises and privileges granted to Abraham and his seed were ever repealed or revoked (Acts 2:38,39). 

The only way to evade the force of this argument is to deny that God's covenant with Abraham was a covenant of grace. Few theologians have ever tried this because it involves so many contradictions to reason and Scripture. Others fall back on the tired old "believe and be baptized" cop-out, wherein they insist that this is the order of events that must occur. One must believe first, then be baptized. The same could be said, however of Abraham - "believe and be circumcised," which indeed is what happened (Romans 4:9-12). This did not, however, keep him from applying the sign to his children, and indeed, this was actually commanded by God