Acts 2
[37] Now when they had heard these things, they had compunction in their heart, and said to Peter, and to the rest of the apostles: What shall we do, men and brethren?
[38] But Peter said to them: Do penance, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins: and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
[39] For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all that are far off, whomsoever the Lord our God shall call. [40] And with very many other words did he testify and exhort them, saying: Save yourselves from this perverse generation.
[41] They therefore that received his word, were baptized; and there were added in that day about three thousand souls.
That is Peter speaking at the inauguration of the Catholic Church at Pentecost in circa 33 AD
Next, you refer to the second book of st. Peter , written about 30 years later - circa 60 AD
Here St. Peter affirms—with additional support from St. Paul—the peril of reading Scripture apart from the divinely appointed teaching authority of the apostles and their successors. And that is why St. Paul can refer to the Church as “the pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).
Seeing then that all these things are to be dissolved, what manner of people ought you to be in holy conversation and godliness?
[12] Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of the Lord, by which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with the burning heat?
[13] But we look for new heavens and a new earth according to his promises, in which justice dwelleth. [14] Wherefore, dearly beloved, waiting for these things, be diligent that you may be found before him unspotted and blameless in peace.
[15] And account the longsuffering of our Lord, salvation; as also our most dear brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, hath written to you:
[16] As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction.
[17] You therefore, brethren, knowing these things before, take heed, lest being led aside by the error of the unwise, you fall from your own steadfastness. [18] But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and unto the day of eternity. Amen.
Note that be diligent that you may be found before him unspotted and blameless in peace. - the sacraments
2 Peter tells people to stick to the Apostolic faith as passed down by the apostles - and seen today in the Catholic, Orthodox, Oriental and Assyrian churches and to a large extent in the Lutheran
sola fide and sola Scriptura -- that isn't the topic here. Stay on topic - we can refer to that in a separate thread (and have)
in Matthew 17:14-18, we are told how Jesus cast out a demon from a young boy because of an appeal by the boy's father:
"When they came to the crowd, a man approached, knelt down before Him, and said, 'Lord, have pity on my son for he is a lunatic and suffers severly...."
And Jesus heals the boy because of the father's faith. Now, obviously, it was not possible for this boy to have faith in Jesus on his own. He was psychologically and spiritually disturbed (whether naturally or supernaturally); yet Jesus used the father's faith to make him whole again. So, if such a thing is possible with demonic possession, why should Baptism be any different?
Many retarded and/or insane people do not have the ability to reason so as to "accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior" (as the Evangelicals say ;-) Yet, didn't Jesus come to save them as well? Don't they need to be Baptized into Christ? (Rom 6:3; Gal 3:27)
Well, if so, then why should we assume that the ability to reason is necessary for Baptism? Why can't babies be Baptized before they reach the age of reason?
Well, an Evangelical might tell you that it's because the ability to reason is necessary before one can sin. And, indeed, that is very true. We Catholics have an old expression:
"If there's no knowledge, then there's no responsibility. If there's no responsibility, then there's no sin."
So, our Evangelical brothers and sisters try to apply this to Baptism. In the case of an infant or a retarded person, they will say that these lack the ability to reason, and therefore they are free of guilt. And, again, that is very true. However, think about what it implies. :-) What this implies is that infants and retarded people do not need a Savior! Which, to us Catholics, is completely ridiculous. :-)
We know from Scripture itself that Christ came to save everybody, including infants and retarded people. He is their Savior just as much as He is the Savior of rational, healthy adults.
So, the real issue with those who deny infant Baptism is that they deny the reality of what we call original sin, something which non-Catholics usually confuse with "original guilt" (which Catholics DO NOT believe in). For example, we do not hold that a child is born guilty of sin. That is not the Catholic position at all. Rather, we believe that the child is personally innocent; however, because of the sin of Adam and Eve, the child is born with a "macula" (in Latin, a "dark spot") -- a lack of the light of God's grace in the soul (something the Virgin Mary did not lack, and so she is the Im-maculate Conception).
This lack of God's light (grace) is why we have an inclination toward sin; and all people (whether they have the ability to reason or not) suffer from it. Yet, in Baptism, we receive the Holy Spirit, and become adopted sons and daughters of God. The light of God's grace dwells in our souls, and so we have the ability to overcome our sinful inclinations and live as the children of God we are called to be.
And this is why we believe that Baptism is a Sacrament. It is not something which we do to ourselves, but it's something that is done to us by God through the ministry of His Church. We merely accept it; or someone else accepts it for us.
And you know this fact how?
Your blatant satanic LIE does not make it true: the SPIRITUAL CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST not the Catholic ORG began on that day when Peter preached. Conflating your ORG with the actual Body of Christ is but one of the big lies at the heart of your ‘other religion’, which is not Christianity.
Your religion of catholciism is focused upon the soul, the behavior mechanism, not the spirit. IF you actually wanted to understand this you need look no further than the mythos of purgatory.