Crumbs from the Table

For most people, "godparents" is all about dressing up for a special wedding-like occasion (i.e. the christening), and the honour of having a special place in the life of a friend's child. Godparents are often relatives or family friends who send you an extra Christmas card and/or a birthday present.  For some Christians who hold to infant baptism, godparents have a more serious role, answering the questions at baptism on behalf of the infant being baptised (see below), and pledging to be involved in their Christian upbringing. In other infant baptism traditions, for example, Presbyterianism, it is the parents who take on this role, the infant being granted baptism based on an understanding of the covenant whereby believer's children are also part of the covenant on account of the faith of their parents.  So what do Baptists, and others who hold to a believer's baptism position, make of "godparents"? (Believer's baptism means baptism based on the per...

Ulrich Zwingli (d. 1531), like his contemporary Martin Luther (d. 1546), was a courageous reformer of the church, to whom Protestant Christians owe a debt of gratitude. He began his reform at Zurich in 1519 by preaching through the gospel of Matthew, reviving the practice of Chrysostom of consecutive Bible exposition. Zwingli simplified the worship of the church, purging it of unbiblical elements, and limiting it to what God had expressly commanded. In his theology, Zwingli exalted God's sovereign will in providence and salvation, and affirmed the chasmic difference between Creator and created. Zurich became a hub from where the Reformation spread out to other cities such as Berne, Strasburg and Geneva.   On one point, however, Zwingli was deficient, namely in respect of baptism and the Lord's Supper.   Zwingli's paradigm for understanding the sacraments was the Latin word sacramentum , equivalent to the German word "Eid". This referred to a soldier's oath of ...