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To: Steelfish; Talisker; Salvation
Your answer proves my point. Baptism is not a branding. It’s a ritual that washes away original sin. Those whom John the Baptist baptized were free to renounce the commandments either as adults or as adolescents. You and I know there are many Catholics and Protestants who turn out to be agnostics and atheists. Indeed this is true for Jews as well as other faiths too.

Maybe you need to let others in your faith tradition here know that. Especially those who insist that "once a Catholic, always a Catholic".

I, however, disagree with the RC notion that infant baptism "washes away original sin". The ordinance of water baptism for a Christ-follower was already a familiar ritual that the Jews had called a "mikvah" - a ceremonial washing. What Jesus instituted was a once-for-all baptism that signified the new birth one experiences upon coming to Christ in faith, receiving the gift of God which is eternal life in Christ and the baptism of the indwelling Holy Spirit. John the Baptist said that he baptized with water, but when Christ came, He would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Luke 3:16).

It is the individual's genuine profession of faith rather than the baptism ritual, however, that results in the person being born again into the family of God. THIS kind of baptism actually is the kind that results in ALL one's sins being washed away, because we were washed, we were sanctified, we were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (I Cor. 6:11). We have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ (Romans 5:9) and we have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ (I Peter 1:2). Unless there is genuine faith, all the water baptism rituals in the world won't wash away a single sin.

103 posted on 02/07/2015 7:32:39 PM PST by boatbums (God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him.)
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To: boatbums

**I, however, disagree with the RC notion that infant baptism “washes away original sin”. **

Therefore, do you disagree with John 3:5?

John 3
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.


104 posted on 02/07/2015 9:02:13 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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