"Deliver Us From Such Regeneration!"

In a sermon entitled "Baptismal Regeneration", the great Charles Spurgeon delivered one of his more stirring messages, rebuking the Church of England for holding to the stated dogma. One of his criticisms was that the teaching did not gel with the observed characters produced from the mechanical ordinance. As he himself stated:

"But it strikes me that a more forcible argument is that the dogma is not supported by facts. Are all persons who are baptized children of God? Well, let us look at the divine family. Let us mark their resemblance to their glorious Parent! Am I untruthful if I say that thousands of those who were baptized in their infancy are now in our gaols? You can ascertain the fact if you please, by application to prison authorities. Do you believe that these men, many of whom have been living by plunder, felony, burglary, or forgery, are regenerate? If so, the Lord deliver us from such regeneration. Are these villains members of Christ? If so, Christ has sadly altered since the day when he was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. Has he really taken baptized drunkards and harlots to be members of his body? Do you not revolt at the supposition? It is a well-known fact that baptized persons have been hanged. Surely it can hardly be right to hang the inheritors of the kingdom of heaven! Our sheriffs have much to answer for when they officiate at the execution of the children of God, and suspend the members of Christ on the gallows! What a detestable farce is that which is transacted at the open grave, when "a dear brother" who has died drunk is buried in a "sure and certain hope of the resurrection of eternal life," and the prayer that "when we shall depart this life we may rest in Christ, as our hope is that this our brother doth." Here is a regenerate brother, who having defiled the village by constant uncleanness and bestial drunkenness, died without a sign of repentance, and yet the professed minister of God solemnly accords him funeral rites which are denied to unbaptized innocents, and puts the reprobate into the earth in "sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life." If old Rome in her worst days ever perpetrated a grosser piece of imposture than this, I do not read things aright; if it does not require a Luther to cry down this hypocrisy as much as Popery ever did, then I do not even know that twice two make four."

I can relate to the observation made by the eminent preacher. Though it certainly does not teach that sinners are regenerated in baptism, there is much within Spurgeon's message that applies just as well to those today who are advocating the doctrine of conditional time salvation. Just as Spurgeon observed that the "regeneration" which the church of England was condoning produced men which could not possibly be called "members of Christ", so in like manner does the "regeneration" of time salvation generate similar such characters. Yea, in this dogma, perhaps even worse characters are created, as many unbelievers, Christ-rejectors, and even antichrists are thought to be part of the quickened family of God. The average Christian rightly revolts at such an idea, but for those who espouse this heresy, it will be said of these "members of Christ" that they are simply part of that vast host of God's elect who were regenerated but were never converted to Jesus!

A point seen by the gifted preacher was what the dogma presupposed about regeneration. If drunkards, harlots, prisoners, etc. were presently new creatures in Christ, then obviously the new birth did nothing to curb or remove these wicked habits. Yet Spurgeon most certainly knew that regeneration changes the sinner. However, if those who were supposedly regenerated at the font remained as they were, then wherein lied the change? There obviously wasn't one! Therefore, according to Spurgeon, there was no regeneration at the font, as the fruits did not corroborate such a claim. Spurgeon then offers up his plea upon imagining for a moment that this were the kind of regeneration instituted by God. If these are the fruits of the saving experience, then “Lord deliver us from such regeneration".

If the gifted minister were with us today, he would criticize conditional time salvation for doing the exact same thing as the dogma of baptismal regeneration did in his own. He would look at the “divine family” and see, along with us here on the Old Baptist blog and the general Christian populace, that unbelievers and Christ-haters are not “members of Christ”. He would cry that such did not blend with the holy character of Christ, and that true biblical regeneration does not produce such characters as this system says. If it did, then we have no doubt in our minds that he would make another plea that God would grant us another deliverance seeing that the first one did not really deliver us after all.

As for our part, we would join with him in doing so. If after my regeneration I remain an unbeliever and continue in my sinful ways, being one of those hypothetical “unconverted regenerates”, then…

“Lord deliver us from such regeneration!”