In an appendix to one of his tracts, Calvin (1509-1564) argued that the children of believers were included among the elect:
I do not derogate
from the efficacy of Baptism: I do not obscure the legitimate use of it; I only
do not allow the salvation of the soul to be so tied to the sign as to make the
Divine promise insufficient. The Children of believers, before they were
begotten, were adopted by the Lord when he said, “I will be your God, and the
God of your seed.” (Gen. xvii. 7.) That in this promise the Baptism of Infants
is included is absolutely certain. (John Calvin, "Appendix to the Tract on
The True Method of Reforming the Church: In which Calvin Refutes the Censure of
an Anonymous Printer on the Sanctification of Infants and Baptism by Women,” in
Tracts, Volume 3 [trans. Henry Beveridge; Edinburgh: Calvin Translation
Society, 1851], 347)
Such is difficult to reconcile with
Reformed theology, as it would appear that there is a spiritual benefit to the
status of one’s parents vis-à-vis one’s election (from the eternal past)—it would
appear to make one’s election contingent, not unconditional, in some important
ways.
For more on the historic Reformed belief
in “elect infants” and baptism being, in some sense, salvific for such infants,
see:
Cornelius
Burges (1589-1665) on Baptismal Regeneration of Elect Infants in Reformed
Confessions
For a discussion of why Calvinism itself
is a false gospel (cf. Gal 1:6-9), see:
An
Examination and Critique of the Theological Presuppositions Underlying Reformed
Theology
