So you have a Pentecostal (a Protestant who emphasizes the Holy Spirit) come up to your door and when you tell her you’re Catholic, she tells you that you need to accept Jesus into your heart in order to be saved. You explain to her that you do that every time you receive Holy Communion, but she says that this cannot save you and that you must say the “Sinner’s Prayer” or otherwise “accept Jesus into your heart” by saying some other prayer in order to be saved.
So you ask her to show you where in the Bible it says so.
She quotes the scripture John 3:3.
[BIBLEDRB]John 3:3[/BIBLEDRB]
So how does one become “born again?” It does not say. Only this:
[BIBLEDRB]John 3:4-6[/BIBLEDRB]
Okay, water and the Holy Spirit. How does that work?
[BIBLEDRB]Acts 2:38-39[/BIBLEDRB]
To recieve the Holy Spirit one must be
baptized and repent. Note that we are told that this promise is for children also.
What about total immersion? Is it necessary? No.
[BIBLEDRB]Ezekiel 36:25[/BIBLEDRB]
Most modern translations have “sprinkle” for “pour” so there you go.
Now you say they explain
“you cannot be saved unless you become born again. And by meaning born again they mean baptized in holy spirit as Jesus was”
So far no problem… we are baptized in water
and the Holy Spirit when we recieve the Sacrament of Baptism. And God can certainly baptize with the Holy Spirit alone (i.e. give grace of salvation) in the event that someone dies without having had the chance to be baptized. But as you can see the biblical practice is to baptize children and to do so either by immersion or pouring. But look at the next part they claim…
and one MUST ask Jesus into their heart in order to have salvation.
This is VERY problematic. If you MUST personally ask Jesus into your heart or else you go to hell, well then so much for the unborn, the mentally infirm, the mute, etc. I’m sorry, but that attitude is not biblical because:
[BIBLEDRB]1 Timothy 2:3-4[/BIBLEDRB]
Now if Jesus wants everyone to be saved, He is not going to fail in His desire to save someone simply because they didn’t have a chance to say or do the right things. Who are we to say that He can’t save that baby because his mother made a mistake that kept him from being born? No matter how excited the Pentecostals seem about the day “they accepted Jesus into their heart,” you must look beneath the surface; Jesus would NEVER condone this kind of exclusionary theology that says you MUST say their “sinner’s prayer” or else you go to hell.
[BIBLEDRB]Luke 18:16[/BIBLEDRB]
Moreover, this “baptism by the sinner’s prayer” (which they call “Holy Spirit baptism”) totally omits the fact that John 3:5 also refers to being baptized in water. You hear ridiculous claims in response like that the “water” is amniotic fluid (what?) or is just a metaphor for the Bible/Word of God (which again leads to a false conclusion that those who are illiterate, juvenile or mentally infirm cannot be saved). But the Bible clearly shows in many verses (especially Acts 8:36-38) that the baptism which Jesus commanded the Apostles to perform was with… you know… water, H2O, dihydrogen monoxide, oxidane, hydrogen hydroxide… you get the idea.
There is no way to avoid this problem by claiming that there are exemptions to the “sinner’s prayer” requirement for the unborn, mentally infirm, mute, etc. Such a claim leads to a ridiculous conclusion. Psalm 51 says we are all born into original sin; why then would someone suddenly become “unsaved” when they reach a certain age and need to say the “sinner’s prayer” or whatnot? Usually the Pentecostals claim that once someone is saved they are always saved (yet another error, see Hebrews 10:26); yet if someone is saved if they die before, say, age 7, but then need to say the sinner’s prayer on their 7th birthday OR ELSE, then… that’s just a complete contradiction.
Ultimately we are saved by the grace of God ALONE. Humans cannot do anything to merit salvation. (Not even say the sinner’s prayer.) Salvation doesn’t hinge on any particular action that a person takes or doesn’t take; however, salvation can be rejected by rejecting what is commanded by God–
to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins.
But remember, pouring of water by itself isn’t what saves; it is the grace that God gives through the Sacrament of Baptism that saves, and God can certainly pour out that grace in other ways such that someone can die without baptism through no fault of their own and still be saved.
