12.04.2013

Quiz on infants, baptism and the Church

Test yourself and others. The answers below. You can choose more than one. Good luck and enjoy! 

1. According to God’s Word children of Christians are:
a) small pagans
b) small disciples of Christ
c) spiritually homeless
d) atheists
e) Muslims
f) we-don’t-know-who
g) children are children, we shouldn’t ask such questions, I’m a little nervous when I hear such kind of questions
h) it’s a good question, it comes back to me very often, especially since I have my kids

2. According to the Bible children in the Church are:
a) guests
b) households
c) friends of Jesus’ family
d) intruders
e) our Brothers in Christ
f) for “invitation Jesus to their heart” in future
g) a small problem
h) Sunday School disciples
i) a little bit too loud

3. God in the Scripture calls them:
a) unbelievers
b) unbelievers with huge potential to be Christians
c) believers
d) pagans
e) participants of God’s Kingdom
f) participants of Kingdom of Darkness
g) Saints
h) neutral
i) God’s seed
j) God’s people
k) not God’s people
l) well-wishers of God’s Kingdom
m) His enemies
n) we don’t know, the Bible says nothing about that

4. God communicates with them, strengthens and ensures by:
a) Gospel music
b) Organ music
c) His Word and Sacraments
d) exorcisms
e) holy water
f) loudspeakers
g) God doesn’t communicate with somebody who can’t speak
h) just parents can speak to infants, God understands it doesn’t make sense
i) latin mass

5. According to Jesus’s words:
a) such is the kingdom of God
b) to such maybe will be Kingdom of God
c) whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it
d) whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as an adult will by no means enter it
e) we should make public ritual of dedication once in their life

6. God:
a) waits for conversion of children from Christian families at a Camp or Church evangelism
b) out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants has ordained strength
c) doesn’t understand anything from infants’ mouths
d) thinks kids disturb Him focus
e) treats words and songs of Christian kids as insincere
f) doesn’t treat small kids’ faith seriously
g) treats faith of Christian kids as example for adults
h) lets into His Kingdom only people in “conscious age”

7. In the New Testament we have description:
a) baptism of adults who were never baptized (in the name of Triune God) before 
b) baptism of adults who were baptized before as infants
c) rebaptism
d) baptism only regenerated and saved people
e) baptism of households
f) baptism of a child from Christian family on confession of his faith
g) telling testimony of conversion as a condition of baptism
h) voting of members of the Church before baptism

8. According to Lord Jesus’ words we should make disciples by:
a) leading our interlocutor to “pray of sinner”
b) street evangelism
c) baptism and teaching obedience of Jesus’ commandments
d) teaching obedience of Jesus’ commandments and baptism
e) raising up hand
f) participation in Christian meetings
g) reading theological books

9. Membership in the Church is:
a) permitted from the age of 12
b) permitted from the age of 7
c) just for conscious people
d) just for adult believers and teenagers
e) for adult believers and their household
f) not for infants and disabled people
g) for anybody who wants
h) engrafting to God’s family, body of Christ
i) engrafting to childless God’s family
j) signing up to the club of Jesus’ fans

Answers:

ad. 1.

b) small disciples of Christ - Mt 28:18-20, Lk 18:16, Eph 6:1, Col 3:20, Gal 3:27
h) it’s a good question, it comes back to me very often, especially since I have my kids

ad. 2. 

b) households – Eph 1:1; Eph 6:1  
e) our Brothers in Christ - Col 1:1-2; Col 3:20

ad. 3. 

c) believers - Eph 1:1,
e) participants of God’s Kingdom - Mk 10:14
g) Saints – 1 Cor 7:14  
i) God’s seed - Mal 2:15  
j) God’s people -  Lev 26:13

ad. 4. 

c) His Word and Sacraments – Mt 28:18-20; Acts 16:30-31, Gal 3:27-29;

ad. 5. 

a)
such is the kingdom of God - Mk 10:14
c)
whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it - Lk 18:17, Mk 10:15

ad. 6. 

b)
out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants has ordained strength – Ps 8:2
g) treats faith of Christian kids as example for adults - Lk 18:16-17

ad. 7.

a) baptism of adults who were never baptized before in the name of Triune God - Acts 8:12; Acts 8:38
e) baptism of households - Acts 16:15

ad. 8.

c) baptism and teaching obedience of Jesus’ commandments - Mt 28:19-20

ad.9. 

e) for adult believers and their household - Gen 17:7, Acts 2:38-39; Eph 6:1-4
h) engrafting to God’s family, body of Christ – 1 Cor 12:13; Gal 3:27-29; Eph 6:1-4

Pawel Bartosik

Open letter to popular Polish weekly magazine

At the beginning of September one of the most popular conservative weekly magazines in Poland published an article about homeschooling as an alternative for educational revolution in Polish public schools. We have debate about sexual education, promotion of gender ideology in Polish school, books and that article encouraged to thinking about homeschooling as a serious alternative for public education.

There was just one sentence which I didn’t like. The author, who is a Catholic activist, wrote that the biggest group in Poland that educate their children at home because of their  faith and worldview are “fundamentalist protestant cults”. So you can see why a lot Catholics in Poland think that we are cults.


In reaction to that, I wrote an Open Letter to that Magazine and the author of the article, I expressed my gratitude for seeing positive aspect of that education but as a pastor and a parent I had to correct that mistake. I was surprised when magazine published my letter which wasn’t short and the author wrote a public apology under that letter.

Homeschooling in Bartosiks family

We homeschool Zuzia (the 4th grade) Janek (the 2nd) and Maja (the 0 class). The challenge is getting bigger and bigger not only because of the difficulty of working on three different levels, but also planning their time for developing their gifts and talents. Lack of curriculums for homeschoolers as well as schools experimenting on pioneers make homeschooling more time consuming and a bit stressful for Jola. We have no Christian School in Gdansk and formally our children are students of Christian Primary School in Poznan. It’s 200 miles away and they have to pass exams in the School in order to move to the next level. In January Zuzia is going to take three of five exams that she is obliged to take this school year.

Although it is a challenge for us we can see good fruits of it: knowledge and character of our kids and in our character. Besides teaching our children at home Jola gives English lessons 2 afternoons a week after my work. The news of the month is that we’ve got a dog! Children were very consistent asking us for it for years (about 4 years!) so we gave up. Nala sleeps in the hall and everybody at home has a duty to walk her out at least once a day. It seems we are going to get fit :)