The
False Teaching
Is Baptism
essential to
salvation? The Catholic view:
Theologians distinguish a twofold necessity,
which they call a necessity of means (medii) and a necessity of
precept (præcepti), The first (medii) indicates a
thing to be so necessary that, if lacking (though inculpably),
salvation can not be
attained, The second (præcepti) is had when a thing is
indeed
so necessary that it may not be omitted voluntarily without sin; yet,
ignorance
of the precept or inability to fulfill it, excuses one from its
observance.
Baptism is held to be necessary both necessitate medii and præcepti.
This doctrine is founded on the words of Christ. In John, iii,3,5
He declares: Unless a man be begotten again of water and the Holy
Ghost,
he can not enter into the kingdom of God. Christ makes no exception to this law and it is
therefore general in its application, embracing both adults and infants.
This view is false! It is also a false
reading of John 3:3-8
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Exposing
the Error
First, the
rendering of the lines from John 3:3,5 is faulty. It should read begotten from above rather than born again. Then
there follows the gross misreading that begotten of
water means water baptism! What does Jesus mean if not baptism?
Here is
the context:
[4-6]
Nicode'mus said to him, "How can a man be begotten when he is old? Can he
enter a second time into his mother's womb and be begotten?" Jesus
answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless
one is begotten of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of
God. That which is begotten of the flesh is flesh, and that which is begotten of the
Spirit is spirit. Nicodemus asked about two births -- first from the
womb, then (when one is old) again from the womb? Jesus corrects
him on
the second one only. One must be twice begotten, first from the womb (of
water)
and the second, anew of the Spirit. Then he confirms the two, the first
of the flesh, the
second of the Spirit. To inject baptism
here is out of context and it cannot be read so except by one
predisposed to identify begotten of water
with baptism. There
is no instance when Jesus calls baptism a begetting or a birth!
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Declaring
the Truth
Jesus commented only once on water baptism -
when he was baptized by John: Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John,
to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, "I need
to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" But Jesus answered him, Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to
fulfil all righteousness. (Mat.3:13-15)
This means
that water baptism resembles what fulfills all righteousness,
but is not that. What fulfills all righteousness is one's own willing
death, burial, and resurrection, which he called a baptism, saying, I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am
constrained until it is accomplished! (Luke12:500 It
must be willing, conforming to the Great
Principle.
Jesus was baptized
twice, once in water and once in the earth. Both were examples but only
the last was salvific, and that only when we each take up a cross and
follow him.
He said not that it is fitting for me, but rather for us,.to fulfill all righteousness. He confirms this in
saying to Peter, with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be
baptized;(Mark 1039), More
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