In John 3, Jesus is speaking with the Pharisee, Nicodemus:
John 3:2-5
He came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you are doing unless God is with him.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.
”Nicodemus said to him, “How can a person once grown old be BORN AGAIN? Surely he cannot reenter his mother’s womb and be born again, can he?” Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of WATER and Spirit.
I’ve had countless Protestants tell me that Jesus is speaking here is the amniotic fluid that we are ALL surrounded by in our mother’s wombs. This is the most ridiculous explanation I’ve ever heard because that’s NOT what they were talking about. Nicodemus explicitly asked Jesus how a person can be Born AGAIN.
Through amniotic fluid is the way we are initially born into the world – NOT into CHRIST. We are born into Christ through WATER and Spirit. This is why Peter, comparing the waters of the Flood and the Ark, states that Noah and his family were saved THROUGH WATER – just as “BAPTISM NOW SAVES YOU” (2 Pet. 3:21).
As for the Thief on the cross – he was baptized with the Baptism of desire. He never got the chance to be baptized – but he came to faith at the end. God can and DOES make exceptions. That’s how BABIES and aborted children can be saved who never came to faith in Christ.
Baptism is NECESSARY for salvation (Mark 16:16).
Greetings Bread of Life, and blessings in Christ.
I don't believe we've talked, and I know I have not publicly debated on this topic before, but let me discuss this with you.
Here is what I believe: The context of the entire passage in John 3:1-15 is that Jesus was "born from above," and only he who is born from above could have been in Heaven to descend from Heaven to earth to begin with (in answer to Nicodemus's lead off statement).
But is water baptism necessary to salvation or merely incidental in this context? The entire focus of the teaching was on being
born from above, ie. born of the Spirit. The reason water baptism is mentioned in this context is because the original pattern was to be baptized in water and then immediately baptized in the Holy Spirit upon rising up out of the water, just as Jesus did. In cases where one was baptized in the Holy Spirit before being baptized in water, water baptism became merely a formality; a formalism representing something that had already taken place: The birth of the believer into newness of life in the Spirit.
So in this sense it is not truly necessary for salvation, is it? Why stress that a formality and a formalism is necessary unto salvation when it was really only an outward ceremony to be practiced as a means to an end?
The Didache
Concerning baptism, baptise thus: Having first rehearsed all these things, "baptise, in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost," in running water; But if thou hast no running water, baptise in other water, and if thou canst not in cold, then in warm. But if thou hast neither, pour water three times on the head "in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost." (Paragraph VII).
This quote from the Didache seems to all the more support my case. The symbolism was of being resurrected from the dead unto newness of life in Spirit, which made immersion the only type of baptism that properly represented what was taking place. And yet they allowed for other methods. If it were not little more than an outward formalism, why would they have not stressed that it be observed properly, and unwaveringly?
What you are preaching is the opposite of what Scripture says:
The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Mary
Greetings in Christ, Mary.
Not that I am simply being nit-picky, but in this case it is important enough that it needs to be drawn attention to: You are quoting the first half of 1 Peter 3:21 but short-cutting the rest of the verse which argues that it was actually not water baptism that saves (i.e. "the putting away of the filth of the flesh"), but the answer of a good conscience towards God, which comes through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is the true sign that we have been accepted by God, and therefore once again the real issue at hand: Being born from above by the Holy Spirit.
I look forward to both your responses,
and blessings in Christ.
Hidden In Him