The Knox Presbyterian Church, Thedford, Ontario, Canada, by its name honors John Knox (1505-1572), who started the Presbyterian Church in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1556. The church bulletin for Sunday, September 6, 1998, announces:

"Baptism," says the bulletin, "is a sign and seal of our union with Christ and with his church." These words agree with the Scriptures: "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Galations 3:27). The church is Christ’s "body" (Ephesians 1:22-23; Colosians 1:24), and we all are "baptized into one body" (1 Corinthians 12:13), of which there is "but one" (1 Corinthians 12:20; Ephesians 4:4).

The bulletin then says that through baptism "we share in the death and resurrection of Christ." These words agree with the Scriptures:

But the Knox Presbyterian Church does not "share in the death and resurrection of Christ" because they do not picture Christ’s burial not his resurrection in their so-called baptism.

The bulletin says that in "Baptism, water is administered," a statement that does not agree with the Scriptures:

The first instance of baptism being "administered" by sprinkling was in 251 A.D., when a sick man, Novatian, afraid that he would die unbaptized, had himself sprinkled "in Apprehension of death" (Neander’s CHURCH HISTORY, I, 325).

In 753 A.D. Pope Stephen III legislated that "in cases of necessity" pouring water on the head "was acceptable" (EDINBURGH CYCLOPEDIA, III, 245-246). The practice came to be called clinical or hospital baptism (baptismus clinicorun).

In 1311 A.D. a council of bishops meeting at Ravenna in Italy voted that either sprinkling or immersion was acceptable for everyone (George A. Klingman, CHURCH HISTORY FOR BUSY PEOPLE). The practice of sprinkling then took over universally (except in the Greek Catholic Church), and has spread into most of the Protestant denominations, including the Presbyterian.

Of baptism, the bulletin says that "The water signifies the washing away of sin," which statement agrees with the words of Ananias to Paul, "be baptized, and wash away thy sins" (Acts 22:16), but Paul was not a one year old baby. Paul had sins (the "chief" of "sinners," he said, 1 Timothy 1:15) to be washed away by the "blood" of Jesus (Revelation 1:5) when he was baptized, but a one year old baby has no sins.

It is a false doctrine that sin is handed down from Adam:

We all suffer the consequences of Adam’s sin, "as in Adam we all die" (! Corinthians 15:22) physically, but sin is personal, and "every one of us shall give account of himself to God" (Romans 14:12). All have "sinned" representatively, not actually, in Adam (Romans 5:12), as Levi "paid tithes" to Melchizedek when "he was yet in the loins of his father" (Hebrews 7:9), but actually he paid no tithes.

David, deeply penitent because of his sin with Bathsheba, was exaggerating when he wrote, "Behold I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceiver me" (Psalm 51:5), just as he was exaggerating when he wrote that he was a "worm and no man" (Psalm 22:6), and that he had trusted in God while on his "mother’s breasts" (Psalm 22:9), and that he was surrounded by "bulls" (Psalm 22:12), and that his bones were "out of joint" (Psalm 22:14).

God is not "love" (1 John 4:8, 16) if he puts Adam’s sin on an embryo none months before his birth, at the time of conception. Jesus was speaking of "little children" when said that "of such is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 19:14).

The bulletin calls baptism a "sacrament" (an "oath," Webster), which the Bible does not. However, one can say that a penitent believer, giving himself to Jesus in baptism, is swearing he will henceforth live only for Jesus. But to say that a one year old baby is swearing an oath to God when water is sprinkled on his head is quite strange and unbelievable.

The bulletin says that baptism "requires commitment." Yes, it requires 100% commitment, for Jesus said, "whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33). But if baptism "requires commitment," how can a one year baby be baptized?

The bulletin says that those "baptized in infancy are called in later years to make personal profession of Christ," but the Bible nowhere tells of baptism "in infancy."

The bulletin says that "What is born may die. What is grafted may wither." Yes, the Bible shows that people born again of "water and the Spirit" (John 3:5) can make "shipwreck" of "the faith" (1 Timothy 1:19) and die spiritually (1 Timothy 5:6). Yes the Bible shows that

That the bulletin teaches "What is born may die" and "What is grafted may wither," agrees with the Bible teaching that Christians can apostatize and make their "last state" worse "with them than the first" (2 Peter 2:20). But the statement coming from a Presbyterian Church is very surprising. The Know Presbyterian Church will have to surrender their honor to John Know, for he followed John Calvin (1509-1564) in teaching that it is impossible for one of God’s elect to fall away.

However, since the Knox Presbyterian Church teaches the possibility of apostasy, they are following the Bible teaching that for some withered Christians it is impossible to "renew them again to repentance" (Hebrews 6:6), that some have drawn "back to perdition" (Hebrews 10:39), and that some "sin unto death," for whom prayer does no good (1 John 5:16).

The bulletin "assures us that we belong to God." Indeed so, says Peter, "you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, a people for God’s own possession" (1 Peter 2:9), as long as Christians live righteously (Titus 2:11-12) and are "faithful unto death" (Revelation 2:10).

But if Christians do not live righteously and are not "faithful unto death," if they "turn back from the sacred command," then it happens to them "according to the true proverb, ‘A dog returns to his own vomit,’ and a sow tat has bathed herself to a wallowing in the mud" (2 Peter 2:21-22).

The bulletin closes by the heart-touching acclamation that "our greatest comfort is that we belong to our faithful Saviour Jesus Christ." But, sadly, some he will disown, saying, "I know you not" (Luke 13:25). However, if Christians are "faithful unto death," they "shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels" (Malachi 3:17). Then they will "meet the Lord in the air; and so" they will "ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18).