Steve,
Iām glad you started this Thread. I just finished going through all the posts on
Thread: Protestants: Sinnerās Prayer-What must it say and does it assure Salvation?
In Post #57, I gave a response to you, crazzeto, Padrej, and FrJohnB, regarding profession of faith in relation to the
Sacraments.
Partial Quote from that post, which applies to this Thread:
Growing up in Baptist Churches, I never heard the word āSacrament.ā In the Baptist Church, Baptism and the Lordās Supper are purely symbolic.
Now that I am able to find evidence in Scripture (& early Church tradition) for infant Baptism, and for graces imparted during Baptism and the Eucharist; I canāt quite understand why Baptists claim āregenerationā does not occur in Baptism.
I havenāt actually found an instance in the New Testament, in which one prayed for salvation and received regeneration. Are there any such passages?
The N.T. does point to graces imparted in Baptism:
1 Peter 3: 18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when Godās patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21
Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
The Southern Baptist Convention says that Baptism is āsymbolic unto the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.ā Yet, Luke Chapter 3, says that the Baptism of Christ is one of the Holy Spirit and of fire. This is not a picture of a purely symbolic act. Work is clearly being done in the Sacrament of Baptism.
Luke 3: 15 As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16 John answered them all, saying, "I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
In Romans Chapter 6, the description of Baptism is, again, dynamic.
**Romans 6: ** 3 Do you not know that
all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
**5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. **
7
For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
I am still quite amazed by the description of Baptism as the ācircumcision made without hands.ā The passage, in Colossians Chapter 2, lends understanding regarding the Baptism of infants. As circumcision was performed on the 8th day, so also, was Baptism performed on the 8th dayāCircumcision being under the Old Covenant, and Baptism under the New Covenant.
Colossians 2: 8See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
9For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11
In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Canāt understand why Baptists, and some other Protestant Churches, take the graces imparted in Baptism, and connect them to a prayer (Sinnerās Prayer)ādonāt see how this is justified.
Similar problem with the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist; but donāt have the energy for that discussion, now.
On the Southern Baptist Convention website (
sbc.net/bfm/bfm2000.asp#vii), the Scriptures given to support Baptism and the Lordās Supper are as follows:
Matthew 3:13-17; 26:26-30; 28:19-20;
Mark 1:9-11; 14:22-26;
Luke 3:21-22; 22:19-20;
John 3:23; Acts 2:41-42; 8:35-39; 16:30-33; 20:7;
Romans 6:3-5; 1
Corinthians 10:16,21; 11:23-29;
Colossians 2:12.
Notice: SBC-Regarding Baptism:
Colossians 2:8-11 is omitted.
1 Peter 3:18-22 is omitted.
Luke 3:15-16 is omitted.
Romans 6:6-11 is omitted.
Notice: SBC-Regarding the Lordās Supper:
John Chapter 6 is omitted.
Great Thread, Steve,
Anna
