St. Justin Martyr:
“...Then they are led by us to a place where there is water; and there they are reborn in the same kind of rebirth in which we ourselves were reborn: in the name of God, the Lord and Father of all, and of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they receive the washing with water. For Christ said, ‘Unless you be reborn, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven’ [Jn 3:3]... The reason for doing this, we have learned from the Apostles... and in order to obtain in the water the remission of past sins...” (First Apology [148-155 AD])
Justin kept the Catholic Faith received FROM THE APOSTLES and taught baptismal regeneration.
Fallible as we are, so was Justin, and he clearly says so here, if this is a verbatim translation, his thought was flawed and unscriptural, contradicting the Holy Ghost, for what Jesus said to Nicodemus was, precisely from the Koine:
>> Jesus answered and He said unto him,
>> "Amen, amen I am saying unto thee,
>> 'Unless anyone be born* from above**,
>> he is not able to behold The Kingdom of
>> The God' " (Jn. 3:3)
* begotten, ** or again cf. Gal. 4:9
Furthermore, look at v. 5:
>> Jesus answered, "Amen, amen,
>> I am saying unto thee,
>> 'Unless anyone be born by* means of
>> water^ and of Spirit**, He is not
>> able to enter into The Kingdom
>> of The God. ...
^ cf. Eph. 5:26 (washing of water by the Word/hremati),
* ablative of means, ** anarthrous
Going on to V. 6:
>> The| one~ having been born* by** means
>> of the flesh is continually*** flesh
>> and the| one~ having been born by* means
>> of The Spirit is continuously*** spirit.' ...
| neuter, ~ child, * begotten,
** ablative of means, *** present tense
-----
Now to make a point, the only mention of The Kingdom of Heaven is made in Matthew, never anywhere else in the Bible. The Kingdom of Heaven was that which was announced to the Jews under the Law, and was available only as long as John was alive. If the king, Herod, had bowed to Christ and offered up his authority to The Messiach Jesus, The Kingdom of Heaven, on earth, and visible, could have been instituted in place of this world system. But Herod, representing the Jews, beheaded the Messiah's plenipotentiary, John Baptist, and the offer was withdrawn. That was not the same as The Kingdom of The God, which is invisible, and not of this world system, but is in the midst of those qualified by new birth. From thenceforth Jesus preached only the Kingdom of The God. And that is what he taught Nicodemus (and Nicodemus believed).
So Justin was just plain flat-out doctrinally wrong in that statement--and in the same breath voiced another doctrine which is insupportable by Scripture, whatever anyone says beyond what the Holy Ghost has given. Remember, none of the Twelve (and one of them was a devil) were saved at the time they were all baptized into discipleship. And none of the other eleven were mentioned as having been baptized anywhere else. Why? Because salvation was not conferred by the determinate action of any human.
But it is crystal clear that water baptism of the professed believer was ordained by Christ as applying to disciples made by the Apostles, not merely to converts; nor did John nor Christ nor the Apostles baptize to impart salvation. The purpose was to publicly signify a persistent faith in the Person and Work of The Christ, unto death. By faith, my sins were remitted at the Cross, not by the public rite of inductance into discipleship. That real occasion of invisible commitment was again rehearsed in a public figurative-literal rite of immersion thus displaying in a figure of that which is recounted in Romans 6:3,5 in the likeness of His death, a Biblical metaphor of what happened at the cross for all, and accepted by trusting in His Faith.
BTW, when was John the Beloved (or Peter, or any of the 11 apostles regenerated? Not twice, I hope.