Where did you get this idea? The Ante-Nicene Fathers as well as the Didache....speak quite specifically of real water, like the stuff we drink.
Obvious even from Augustine's writings baptism wasn't well thought out. For example, Augustine talks about baptizing an unbeliever who laid feverously, near death. He was also unclear as to where unbaptized infant go when they die. (Are you prepare to agree with Augustine they go to hell if they're not baptized?) It is clear that as late as the 4th century, the Church was trying to determine the meaning of baptism. Meanwhile, while all the theologians were contemplating the meaning, all of us Baptists were down by the river dunking those we could get out hands on. ;O)
Probably because he couldn’t read Greek.
Hmmmm....maybe that was to his credit. :O)
Hope you won't mind if I add a comment: why not? What harm could come out of it? perhaps the HS would move the unbeliever in the hour of his death to repent and accept God and be forgiven. It was the last spiritual resussitation God offered to him and +Augustine was right in doing what he did.
He was also unclear as to where unbaptized infant go when they die. (Are you prepare to agree with Augustine they go to hell if they're not baptized?)
+Augustine constructed the "original sin" error and passed it on to the entire western Church, from whence sprang many other conceptual errors in escathology and mariology.
Wew Orthodox never had that burden. We never belieevd that merciful God would simply create people to destroy them or to punish innocent children for not being baptized by sending them to hell! They have no deeds to be judged on, so they are innocent. Anything they inherited from our anestral parents' disobedience is mortality, and not their sin.
In the East, Holy Baptism is described as a sacrament of adoption. The Church becomes your spiritual home, where one is helped in his spiritual growth through the (litugical) life of the Church, pastioral care and spiritual (god)parents.
But those of the Protestant/Baptist sola fide persuasion believe that, in order to be saved, one must believe. Thus, unbaptized children, by necessity, must go to hell because they cannot believe.
” Obvious even from Augustine’s writings baptism wasn’t well thought out.”
“Concerning baptism, baptize in this manner: Having said all these things beforehand, baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit in living water [that is, in running water, as in a river]. If there is no living water, baptize in other water; and, if you are not able to use cold water, use warm. If you have neither, pour water three times upon the head in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” The Didache (70AD)
Now the Didache was written nearly 300 years before +Augustine was born. Seems to me that it is a pretty good example of what the practice and belief was of the early Church. It was originally written, if I recall correctly, in Aramaic though it may have been in Greek. It is from Antioch and in 70 AD the memory of +Peter being the head of the Church there would have been very fresh. +Augustine’s confusion about baptism is not attributable to any confusion among theologians of the time. It is attributable to +Augustine’s limited knowledge of what was going on and had gone on in the the great centers of Christianity in the Eastern Mediterranean.
“(Are you prepare to agree with Augustine they go to hell if they’re not baptized?)”
No. That pernicious concept arises, as do others, from +Augustine’s concept of Original Sin.
“Meanwhile, while all the theologians were contemplating the meaning, all of us Baptists were down by the river dunking those we could get out hands on. ;O)”
See, you learned the practice from Orthodox Syrians!
“Probably because he couldn’t read Greek.
Hmmmm....maybe that was to his credit. :O)”
I suspect that there are those who argue exactly that...and with a straight face too! :)