RevWrites- Dec 6

Confirmation was on Thursday night. Seventeen young people publically testified to their faith in Christ and his sacrifice for them. Mostly they confirmed for themselves promises made on their behalf at their baptism.

Of course, Confirmation isn’t in the Bible. It’s one of those ceremonies that people have developed to help in our relationship with God.

Traditionally Confirmation is a service where young adults take on for themselves the promises made at the baptism. It comes from a time when most children of Christians were baptised as infants. At infant baptism parents and God-parents make promises on behalf of infants. As a minister I am able to baptise an infant because I hear them make promises through others.

Infant baptism also reflect the deeply developed covenant theology of the Bible. God works through covenants with people. These covenants, like the ones to Adam and Abraham, catch up other people, like their descendants, under the terms of the covenant.

The children of Christian parents are “covered” by the covenant God has established with the parents. Of course, children can grow up and renounce that covenant, just as their parents can renounce that covenant at any time. But until they are old enough to make serious decisions for themselves, children of Christian parents enjoy the status of children of God because of the faith of their parents.

Some of our young people were baptised as adults and immediately confirmed. This is somewhat unnecessary as they’ve made the same promises already as adults. But this “hiccup” in our man-made systems simply show that times have changed. Nowadays, many people are not baptised as infants and our system hasn’t changed along with this. So we need to change our systems in this area too.

Nevertheless, Confirmation is a great opportunity for a couple of reasons. First, it gives us a chance to discuss with people the basis of their faith in Christ. This helps them clarify their understanding of key Biblical ideas.

Secondly, it’s a great opportunity for people to publically declare their confidence in Christ.

I remember when I decided to follow Christ as a teenager. The very next Sunday my minister had me up in front of the entire church confessing my new-found and very babyish faith. It was very scary. But my minister knew what was good for me.

One problem was that I didn’t have any “official” reason to invite others along for that occasion. They had to wait until my Confirmation a few weeks later. Our confirmees all had a great opportunity last Thursday night. Please remember to pray for them and any non-Christian friends/family they brought along.

Neil