Fundamental logical error. Just because God has prescribed something as "necessary" for us, it does not follow that he is bound by that rule -- unless He wishes to be. He's the boss; he gets to call the shots.
Or, as St. Thomas Aquinas pithily put it, "God is not bound by the sacraments".
“Fundamental logical error. Just because God has prescribed something as “necessary” for us, it does not follow that he is bound by that rule — unless He wishes to be. He’s the boss; he gets to call the shots.”
The “fundamental logical error” is the assumption that the examples of the Thief and Cornelius are exceptions to a Roman Catholic rule instead of the norm. After all, the “rule” that you are basing it on is never actually spelled out in the scripture at all. It’s simply Roman theology based on the assumption that water baptism has power to give the Holy Spirit taking it to such an extreme that “belief” is removed from the equation altogether and the focus placed on the work, instead of the Jewish view that rather saw Baptism as a sign of new birth and a declaration to follow the teachings of whomever you are being baptized “in the name” of. It also exists in contradiction to Christ’s and the Apostles’ teachings on salvation by the grace of God, which is every described as sovereign favor on an undeserving sinner, and a spiritual regeneration that is superior to the flesh.