Why Equate Protestantism with "Born Again" Fundamentalism?

[Stephen168]

He is full of brilliant arguments

I don’t need to defend it. It’s absence speaks for itself.

Gee, that’s mighty white of you.

 

[someotherguy]

He is full of brilliant arguments

Actually, it is just common sense to know that something that does not exist cannot be cited.

 

[mozart-250]

I think you’ve banged your head a little too much. It looks like it’s given you brain damage. I never said that baptise doesn’t mean baptise. I said that baptism is a response to salvation, not a means to it.

Actually I am not going to argue this point.

For now.

And that is only on the basis of my experience and the experience of many others that I know (remember that Wesley taught that one of the lens through which you interpret Scripture is how God has worked in my life).

You see I was converted to Christ early in November in a definite, remembrable event. That was the date my life was changed. That was the date the Holy Spirit came into my life. These are non-negotiables to me.

I was baptized the following May in a cold Maine stream.

To be totally honest, the baptism was an afterthought in my experience. I just wanted it done with. It was just one of those things that I did that I was told to do that really made no sense other than God in his Word tells you to be Baptized.

Yet when I read the Bible, baptism is hardly an afterthought in the book of Acts. Read the book, every time you read of a conversion to Christ, you read of a Baptism. And they were immediate. No waiting 6 months or a year until it warms up or one is scheduled in church.

I would bet if you ask the Phillipian jailer, the Ethiopian Eunuch, and those converted by Peter’s first sermon whether Baptism was “part of the Gospel” they would answer a resounding yes. Read their stories again. I bet you that to these folks, baptism is an integral part of their conversion stories.

Sometimes I wonder whether I was robbed in my Christian experience because baptism was an afterthought.

Finally there is an entire body of Scriptures brought forth by Edwin and others have brought forth that indicate that God definitely does something in Baptism. You just can’t dismiss Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16 and other passages brought forth here without addressing what the plain text of these Scriptures say with an explanation that (1) addresses the text of these Scriptures and (2) makes sense.

You have not done this.

As you can see, I have several open issues in my mind concerning baptism. I figure that’s ok since I’m not the smartest bloke on the block. I also figure I’d rather be honest and confess that I have not pieced everything together yet, than to pridefully proclaim that I have all the answers on a given subject, while at the same time dismissing a whole body of Scripture lightly that disagrees with what I believe.

To be honest, I think you are too lightly dismissing Scripture that does not fit in with your preconceptions.

 

[someotherguy]

To be honest, I think you are too lightly dismissing Scripture that does not fit in with your preconceptions.

You act as if this is the first time I’ve ever considered these scriptures and the first time I’ve ever fought this battle. I’ve been doing it for twenty years, ever since I walked away from Roman Catholicism.