Salvation outside of baptism

[santaro75]

I have a question for christians that believe that baptism is symbolic and not necessary for salvation.

How does this doctrine of symbolic baptism address infants and those unable to comprehend the Gospel like mentally challenged people. Will they still be accountable for the sin of Adam?

 

[pseudoanselm]

Good question. I don’t think they will be held accountable if their parents intentionally neglect to baptize them.

Also, I don’t believe baptism is merely symbolic. A sacrament is a sign that effects what it signifies. So, water is a just symbol of cleansing. But, when you are baptized in water, your soul is truly cleansed of original sin. The Holy Spirit accomplished that via the water.

That being said, I can not believe that God would refuse grace to someone just because of some malapropos circumstance that would prevent them from baptism.

The sacraments are God’s chosen vehicles for distributing grace. But, because the sacraments are historically limited, finite, and not universally accessable, God must have alternate ways of distributing grace.

 

[Mystophilus]

santaro75:

Will they still be accountable for the sin of Adam?

Why would one individual be held accountable for the sin of another? How could such a thing ever be just?

 

[Thomas_More_1]

The “sin of Adam” is an expression, of course, for Original Sin.

We are not held accountable for his personal sin, rather we belong to a human race that is not worthy of the glories of Heaven.

God has a method to make us worthy, that in His love he gave to us. We call it baptism.

The OP’s question is about those instances when people cannot be cleansed of original sin the way that God gave His Church, as the normative route to enter the Church of God. What has he provided for them?

The Church’s answer is, “we don’t know. Outside of baptism, we entrust these souls to the mercy of God’s plan.”

It simply hasn’t been revealed, but it’s a worthy topic for speculation.