Book Review: We & Our Children – The Reformed Doctrine of Infant Baptism

Author: Herman Hanko, Publisher: Reformed Free Publishing Association, Length: 123 pages

This is basically a reply to the Reformed Baptist David Kingdon’s book Children of Abraham which, despite conceeding 90% of the argument, nevertheless rejects infant baptism. Although they profess to believe in the unity of the covenant of grace, Rev. Hanko exposes the implicit Dispensationalism that remains in even the most Reformed Baptist approach to the place of the children of believers within the covenant. Furthermore, he shows how the Reformed Baptist dichotomy between the place of covenant children in the church in the Old and New Testaments is too radical to be reconciled with the Scriptural and Reformed belief in one covenant of grace in all ages.

While the contentions of Arminian and Dispensationalist Baptists can be easily dismissed, the arguments of Reformed Baptists require a bit more thought. Rev. Hanko, nevertheless, successfully refutes these with the most clear reasoning. As with all works by ministers from the Protestant Reformed Church, the author denies common grace and the well meant offer of the gospel; however, thankfully he also rejects another Hyper-Calvinist view, namely, the presupposed regeneration of covenant children. While not the best book on infant baptism, We & Our Children is a helpful resource for demonstrating the inconsistency of Reformed Baptist logic.

Rating: 7/10

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