Water Baptism

[Odë:hgöd]

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I find it very difficult to buy into the posit that folks will be lost when they hear and
believe the gospel in locations where a proper water baptism is nigh unto
impossible; for example Nazi concentration camps like Auschwitz and Dachau, and
the Russian gulags prior to Nikita Khrushchev's administration.

Water baptism's resolute proponents have put the Holy Spirit in a bit of a dilemma.
The thing is: according to Eph 1:13 and Eph 4:30, when sinners hear and believe
the gospel, the Spirit seals them unto the day of redemption, which is the day when
Christ's family circle receive new bodies and the blessing of perpetual youth. What's
to become of all the believers whom the Spirit sealed but thru no fault of their own
leave this life without water baptism?

When you think about it; a mandatory water baptism asserts that the success of all
the trouble that Jesus and his Father went thru pertaining to mankind's redemption
hinges on a two-minute ritual.
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[Odë:hgöd]

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"Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus
Christ for the forgiveness of your sins." (Acts 2:38)

I suspect Peter's formula is obsolete because Jesus gave Paul a different message.
He said:

● Rom 10:8-12 . .The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that
is: the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth,
"Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you
will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is
with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

There's no baptism in Paul's formula; in point of fact he scarcely baptized anybody.
If baptism were so all fired important, he would've baptized believers all across the
Roman world wherever he preached the gospel.
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[David Lamb]

.
I find it very difficult to buy into the posit that folks will be lost when they hear and
believe the gospel in locations where a proper water baptism is nigh unto
impossible; for example Nazi concentration camps like Auschwitz and Dachau, and
the Russian gulags prior to Nikita Khrushchev's administration.

Water baptism's resolute proponents have put the Holy Spirit in a bit of a dilemma.
The thing is: according to Eph 1:13 and Eph 4:30, when sinners hear and believe
the gospel, the Spirit seals them unto the day of redemption, which is the day when
Christ's family circle receive new bodies and the blessing of perpetual youth. What's
to become of all the believers whom the Spirit sealed but thru no fault of their own
leave this life without water baptism?

When you think about it; a mandatory water baptism asserts that the success of all
the trouble that Jesus and his Father went thru pertaining to mankind's redemption
hinges on a two-minute ritual.
_

I agree. Baptism is a sign that one has been saved. It is not necessary in order to be saved. We have only to think of the thief on the cross, to whom Jesus said, Today you will be with me in paradise." Like the people in Auschwitz and Dachau, he had no opportunity for baptism.

 

[Odë:hgöd]

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There is more than one mode of baptism in Christianity.

The ritual baptism performed with water by ordained ministers is superficial and
merely identifies people as card-carrying Christians, whereas the supernatural
baptism performed by God's spirit penetrates to the soul and makes folks joint
principals with Christ in his crucifixion and his resurrection.

I suspect there are numbers of card-carrying Christians at large who go their entire
lives without ever knowing there's a distinct difference between those two modes of
baptism and that they aren't necessarily simultaneous.
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