Is Baptism Necessary for Salvation?

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Is Baptism necessary for salvation?
Most definitely. Read anything by the Early Church Fathers and they all agree. Also Scripture backs up this truth as well. Baptism not being essential for salvation didn’t show its face until after the Reformation.
 
There are SOOO many Protestant websites that go into backbreaking detail about why baptism in not necessary for salvation, and how the Catholic Church is wrong. Could anyone give me a Catholic website (or a few) that explain why the Catholic position is right and the Protestant position is wrong?
Perhaps instead of a Catholic website, it might be beneficial to read a text on Sacramental theology, specifically about baptism, that discusses what the sign and symbols of baptism are, and how we participate in the paschal mystery of Christ and become one with him through the ritual of the Sacrament.
Apologetics are fine, (which is apparently the style of the answer I gave to this question a little over 4 years ago), but for a fuller understanding, I think that a study of what the Sacrament is and does would suffice better.

Bausch has a text called, A New Look at the Sacraments, Twenty-Third Publications, 1986, Chap 3
While I have issues with Bausch in some areas, I think that this particular text gives a very good explanation of the Sacrament of Baptism and the development of the Catholic Tradition through Scripture.
 
i agree that we need to study the paschal mystery for witin it lies the most powerful truths of baptism. thanks all for your comments and cautions and i will read more on the subject:thumbsup:
 
As a sacrament of initiation and as Jesus says unless a man be born again of the water and the holy spirit he cannot enter the kingdom

remember also that John the baptist said that his baptism was nothing compared to the baptism that will come through the spirit.👍
Water Baptism must later lead to Spiritual Baptism … or else one is only sealed and not fully graced.

Man performs the water baptism … Christ initiates [graces] those who desire to be his followers.
 
Water Baptism must later lead to Spiritual Baptism … or else one is only sealed and not fully graced.

Man performs the water baptism … Christ initiates [graces] those who desire to be his followers.
Sorry, but that is a Pentecostal teaching and not a New Testament one. The normative way is for the Holy Spirit to fill and indwell the person at their baptism.Though there were accounts of other instances, throughout the life of the church there has been no other teaching, and the lives of the saints affirm that.

As one friend of mine stated. “Sure I’ve been filled with the Holy Spirit! Many times! I leak…” And that is the more scriptural belief.
 
In a word, YES.
That assumes that one understands what it is that the mystery of Baptism enters us into. Baptism is necessary for salvation BECAUSE no one can be saved apart from entering into and participating in the paschal mystery of Christ.
👍
 
Sorry, but that is a Pentecostal teaching and not a New Testament one. The normative way is for the Holy Spirit to fill and indwell the person at their baptism.]

Well … Christ clearly taught both water baptism & spiritual baptism.

Even his own apostles experienced a significant lagtime between their baptisms and their receipt of H.S. [Confirmation]. You think their experience was not normative ?

And, in cases of infant baptism …Isn’t there a good (Normative) reason for later Confirmation … in conveying spiritual graces ?
 
What was the difference between John’s baptism and Jesus’ baptism?

Why did Jesus tell Nicodemus that he must be baptized before Jesus himself had died?
 
What was the difference between John’s baptism and Jesus’ baptism?
John’s baptism was for repentance. Jesus’ baptism is a participation into his suffering, death, and resurrection. When Jesus was baptized by John, the imagery pre-figured what happened on the cross. He was baptized into his death, when he rose out of the water, he received the promise of the glory of the Spirit, announced by the Father.
Why did Jesus tell Nicodemus that he must be baptized before Jesus himself had died?
Because of what sacramentalness means. Jesus’s death became a present reality for all times everywhere. When we celebrate a sacrament, it makes present Christ’s saving work, even before the historical fact occured in time. To God all is present.
 
Yes but how did Nicodemus know ‘what to do’ or how to get baptized through Jesus if the sacrament itself wasn’t started until Pentecost? Or am I getting my history distorted here?

In other words, why would Jesus tell Nicodemus to do something if that something wouldn’t be around and nobody would know about it for another few years?
 
Yes but how did Nicodemus know ‘what to do’ or how to get baptized through Jesus if the sacrament itself wasn’t started until Pentecost? Or am I getting my history distorted here?

In other words, why would Jesus tell Nicodemus to do something if that something wouldn’t be around and nobody would know about it for another few years?
All early disciples of Christ were baptized … before Pentecost officially started the Church.
 
All early disciples of Christ were baptized … before Pentecost officially started the Church.
So when was Baptism necessary for salvation? After Pentacost or after John 3:5 or what?
 
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