The Missouri Presbytery Report says of Covenant children that, “we understand that by their baptism, they are renouncing the devil, the world, and their own sinful flesh…” What? Surely this is wrong!
Well, if it is wrong, then BCO 56-4.g needs to be amended. Of course, this could be interpreted in more than one way, but that is the whole point. If one wishes to drive out some ways of interpreting the phrase one needs to remove it.
But again, how can we raise our children to say the Lord’s prayer, and thus address God as their Father, if they are reckoned as under the dominion of the devil, the world, and their own sinful flesh? Does Paul not command the Romans (chapter 6) to reckon their flesh dead and to live according to the Spirit, reckoning themselves alive to God? Doesn’t he remind them of the significance of their baptism to get them to do this? Isn’t the Book of Church Order preserving something important from the Bible?
Mark,
I’m not sure how to read this post but the language you write that “we understand that by their baptism, they are renouncing the devil, the world, and their own sinful flesh…” is nothing other than the baptismal rite of the Book of Common Prayer. This is one of the questions given to the parents and godparents at the baptism. It reads, “Dost thou, therefore, in the name of this Child, renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and the sinful desires of the flesh, so that thou wilt not follow, nor be led by them?”
I assume that you are writing the opening words while tongue is in cheek, but it’s nothing other than what the Church has done and said for 2,000 years. No need to be surprised by that language. Your last point on Romans 6 is the reference for the theological rational of the baptismal rite in the BCP. I don’t think the divines of Westminster believed any differently here.