Why don’t we just cut and paste the New Testament here? Or every word Jesus said?
I love to study and learn the Scriptures, but it gets old when it becomes a mere matter of throwing verses at each other.
OP, what is your concern about Baptism? Do you think it is an empty ritual? Do you think it was not given to us as the normal means of washing away our sins? Do you think that the Church does not recognize those who by no fault of their own, died without Baptism, yet believed in their hearts? Do you not believe it was a command from Jesus to do so?
Catechism of the Catholic Church
1258 The Church has always held the firm conviction that those who suffer death for the sake of the faith without having received Baptism are baptized by their death for and with Christ. This Baptism of blood, like the desire for Baptism, brings about the fruits of Baptism without being a sacrament. (2473)
1259 For catechumens who die before their Baptism, their explicit desire to receive it, together with repentance for their sins, and charity, assures them the salvation that they were not able to receive through the sacrament. (1249)
1260 “Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partakers, in a way known to God, of the Paschal mystery.”63 Every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired Baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity. (848)
