Through this entire process, we are investing in the Kingdom, and we must never lose sight of that goal.  And we must also maintain a spirit of contentment with what God provides for us in each season.  All in all, freedom from debt is possible, even in the current economy.  We should pursue it and financial wisdom in general as we should pursue everything else: for the purpose of building the Kingdom.

One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
-Luke 16:10-13, ESV

Recently, we looked at the need for Christians to step out in faith to give sacrificially when their churches embark on projects to build the Kingdom.  This is above and beyond the tithe, which we have previously seen is still commanded.  But in the current economy, even the tithe may seem out of reach.  As abysmal inflation causes stagnant wages to fall short of meeting even the bare necessities, how can someone barely making ends meet ever be able to tithe, much less give above and beyond that?  This post takes a practical look at personal finances to offer a biblical path to go from drowning in the financial storms of life to standing firm, able to endure them while being generous.
Finances in Scripture
As always, we must begin with Scripture, which has much to say about personal finances.  First, money is a tool, so we cannot allow ourselves to be dominated by it, whether we are seeking it or lacking it.  The rich young ruler’s possessions had become his obsession, so he was unwilling to part with them when they became a hindrance to following Christ.  This temptation is great, so Jesus said it is extremely difficult for the rich to enter the Kingdom.  Many fail the test of wealth, therefore we must reject prosperity theology that makes Jesus the means and wealth the end.  But we must also reject poverty theology that despises wealth.  Remember, it is not money itself but the love of money that is the root of all sorts of evil (1 Timothy 6:10).  We are to neither desire overabundance nor destitution but adequate provision.  We must pray with Agur: “Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God” (Proverbs 30:8-9).  In Jesus’s teaching on money, He emphasizes stewardship.  We are to be faithful with whatever He gives us, using and controlling it, not letting it control us.  Many people in our day are controlled by money through debt: “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender” (Proverbs 22:7).  And since we are exhorted not to be dominated by anything (1 Corinthians 6:12) and to seek freedom from slavery (1 Corinthians 7:21), we should avoid debt entirely or free ourselves from it as quickly as possible.  Debt prevents us from caring for ourselves and our families as we ought, supporting the local church and building the Kingdom as we ought, and preparing an inheritance for our children as we ought.  These are the primary objectives of our money, so we must align our budgets to reflect that.
Freedom from debt is certainly easier said than done. Our society has so successfully marketed debt as a necessity that many Americans are drowning in debt, seeing no way to live without it: car loans, credit cards, short-term financing, the highway robbery known as payday loans, and student debt.  So many Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck that a minor disturbance—even high inflation—can be enough to swamp the boat.  Too many Americans are too busy bailing water out of their sinking financial boat to focus on where the boat is headed, meaning they are unable to prepare for the future or build the Kingdom.  So if you are in this position, it is vital to figure out how to get the boat sitting high enough in the water that you can set a long-term course.  While that may seem impossible, it is doable, even in this economy. Fortunately, there is a very practical, Scripture-based method, which I will summarize.  This is taken from a course that I would highly recommend: Financial Peace University, which is based on 7 “baby steps”.  I will focus on the first three, which are the most important: get some money in the bank, quickly pay off all non-mortgage debt, and establish an emergency fund.
Step 1: Put $1,000 in the Bank and Establish a Budget
Returning to our boat analogy, the first step is to get enough water out so that the next moderate wave will not swamp the boat.  This means putting $1,000 in the bank.  If $1,000 is unattainable, then $500 will suffice.  The point is to have something saved up so that you will not have to go into further debt just because something unexpected comes along.  You may wonder where this $1,000 is coming from, especially if you feel like you are drowning now.  It will come a dollar at a time as you take control of your finances with a budget.
While some may think that a budget is too restrictive and controlling, it is actually a very effective tool to help you control your money.  In my sermon on giving, I applied 2 Corinthians 10:5 to money by saying that we need to take every dollar captive to obey Christ.  That means we need to know where every dollar is going, which can only be done through a budget.  Start by listing all sources of income and how much you expect to bring in from each source during the month.  Along with this, list all payroll taxes and other deductions, then calculate your net income for the month.  Next list all expenditures: giving, saving, housing, utilities, food, transportation, clothing, healthcare, other personal needs, recreation, and debt payments.  For large expenditures that do not happen monthly, divide their cost evenly over every month.
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While the debate about whether to baptize infants or not has raged for five centuries, we can and should seek unity as brothers and sisters in Christ.  Baptism actually unites us by identifying us as part of the visible people of God, so let the world see our unity rather than division as we approach any differences with love, humility, and submission to Scripture.

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”Acts 2:37-39, ESV
Who should be baptized?  This question has sparked intense debate amongst Reformed Christians ever since the early days of the Reformation.  As someone who has attended baptistic churches until I recently joined a pedobaptist church (where infants are baptized).  In order to become a deacon I needed to be able to accept the Westminster Confession of Faith which meant accepting the pedobaptist position.  I entered that study believing that the Presbyterian version of pedobaptism—referred to as covenant baptism—was valid and biblical while believer’s baptism was preferrable.  I came out of that study with a reversed position: believer’s baptism is a valid and biblical position but covenant baptism better aligns with what the whole of Scripture teaches.  My purpose in this post is not to convince Baptists to begin baptizing their infants but to explain simply what covenant baptism is, why it is biblical, and how we can maintain unity in the Body of Christ regarding this topic.
What Covenant Baptism Is and Isn’t
First, it is important to define the actual question we are addressing.  The question is not whether to baptize believers or infants, since Scripture is very clear that we are to baptize believers.  Every example of baptism we see in Scripture is of new converts, so a church must baptize them and require of them a profession of faith in order to be biblical.  The question is not whether to baptize infants or believers but whether or not to baptize the infants of believers.  Scripture gives no clear examples of infants being baptized or being excluded from baptism, so there is room for genuine Christians to differ on this and still practice baptism biblically.  To paraphrase Romans 14, the church that baptizes infants does so in honor of the Lord and the church that refrains does so in honor of the Lord.  Let not the one who baptizes infants look down on the one who refrains, and let not the one who refrains cast judgment on the one who baptizes infants, for God has welcomed both!  So contrary to the perception of some Baptists, pedobaptists do not reject the baptism of converts following a profession of faith.
Another major difficulty Baptists have with pedobaptists is the assumption that baptism is considered part of salvation or a guarantee of salvation.  They would be correct in this regarding the Catholic and Lutheran pedobaptist views (baptismal regeneration), but not covenant baptism.  It is absolutely vital to differentiate between the two.  Covenant baptism of infants is not part of salvation and is not seen as a guarantee of salvation.  Instead, covenant baptism refers to the view that both believers and their children should receive baptism as the new covenant sign of entrance into the visible people of God.  It largely mirrors circumcision as the sign of entrance into the visible church and is therefore separate from actual regeneration.  Churches that faithfully practice covenant baptism make this distinction very clear in their baptism liturgies.  In these ways, covenant baptism answers two of the biggest Baptist objections to pedobaptism.
Why Covenant Baptism is Biblical
But is covenant baptism biblical?  Baptists often fail to see pedobaptism as biblical because pedobaptists often do a poor job of proving it from Scripture.  They often point to examples of entire households being baptized—of Cornelius (Acts 10:48), Lydia (Acts 16:14), the Philippian jailer (Acts 15:33), Crispus (Acts 18:8), and Stephanas (1 Corinthians 1:16)—which would include any infants.  But this argument is unsatisfying since the text does not mention infants in any of these households.  Pedobaptists then point to passages about the inclusion of children, such as Jesus calling little children to Himself and saying that the Kingdom belongs to them (Matthew 19:14, Mark 10:14, Luke 18:16) or Peter at Pentecost saying the promise “is for you and your children” (Acts 2:39).  They also point out the similarities between baptism and circumcision, but Baptists often have difficulty seeing a strong enough connection to justify pedobaptism.  All of these individual bricks are therefore easy for the Baptist to topple, giving the appearance that pedobaptists are grasping at straws for anything in the Bible to support their position. This is because pedobaptists have failed to establish the foundation on which all of these bricks rest to form a biblically-sound structure.
That foundation is covenant theology, which we have examined in recent posts.  We saw that all of the covenants are corporate in nature and included children.  We then saw the nature of shared responsibility and how that relates to the generational nature of the covenants and the role of representation.  Last time we saw how those the Bible calls worthless were members of the covenant people of Israel but were ultimately unregenerate.  From all of this, we see that families—as the central focus of God’s work—have always entered into the covenants, with parents (specifically fathers) representing their children, so they were all considered to be part of the people of God.  Some of them were faithful while others were not.  For the faithful, the covenant sign signified their inclusion in the invisible church, being united with Christ and therefore guaranteed to inherit the blessings of the covenant.  For the unfaithful, the covenant sign signified that they were not part of the invisible church, being separate from Christ and therefore guaranteed to inherit the curses of the covenant.  This was the context into which the New Covenant came, so it should come as no surprise that we see similar language in the New Testament.  From the earliest days of the Church, the covenant was for those who placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ and their children (Acts 2:39).  In both Testaments, we see households joined the people of God.  Throughout the Old Testament we see the visible people of God containing those who are faithful and those who fall away: righteous Seth vs. unrighteous Cain, Shem vs. Canaan, Isaac vs. Ishmael, Jacob vs. Esau, etc.  During the exodus, we see the whole nation entering into the covenant, but many fell away:
For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.1 Corinthians 10:1-5, ESV
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