Christianity before baptism?

[DarkLight]

How does God’s grace operate in those who profess (protestant) Christianity, but are not yet baptized? I know in Catholicism baptism is essentially the defining characteristic of a Catholic. Yet I know for certain I was a Christian and experienced God’s grace before I was ever baptized.

 

[Vico]

How does God’s grace operate in those who profess (protestant) Christianity, but are not yet baptized? I know in Catholicism baptism is essentially the defining characteristic of a Catholic. Yet I know for certain I was a Christian and experienced God’s grace before I was ever baptized.

St. Cyprian (bishop of Carthage, died 258 A.D.):“Let them know…that the catechumens are not deprived of Baptism, since they are baptized with the most glorious and supreme Baptism of blood,” and also “No doubt men can be baptized without water, in the Holy Ghost, as you observe that these were baptized, before they were baptized with water…since they received the grace of the New Covenant before the bath, which they reached later.”
– The Sacraments by Pohle and Preuss, Book 1

 

[Ad_Orientem]

It is possible to experience God, even to exercise charismatic gifts, without being a member of the Church or in a state of grace. That said, the CCC (no. 1257) states: “God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.”