The Thirty-Nine Articles: A Faith for Today: Articles 25 & 27: The Sacraments: Baptism

A double battle
The battle for a biblical view of the sacraments had to be fought on two main fronts. In the 16th century, when the Thirty-nine Articles were written, this was seen very clearly. The battle was intense. It cost many lives. But it was absolutely necessary. One of the major errors put salvation itself at risk by denying the great biblical truth of salvation by grace through faith. The other impoverished the Christian life by denying the sacraments as an effective means of grace. The
Articles reflect that double battle.

But this is not just a matter of history. One of the tragedies of today is that the battle is still going on. Even though the moderate Reformers in the mid 1500s gave right biblical teaching and by their arguments clearly defeated both main errors, their victory has not been fully understood or accepted, so the heresies continue to be taught and to do great damage even in the so-called Protestant or Reformed churches like our own. The battle continues and is every bit as critical as when men had to die for the truth. The Articles help us to see the biblical teaching and warn us against the two main errors.

In this chapter we see how the biblical teaching on sacraments was laid out against its opponents, and how that works out in the case of baptism. Article 25 begins by tackling the extreme Protestant heresy on sacraments, then describes what sacraments are and a brief final paragraph demolishes the Roman view of them. To read more, click here.